Help for an opera neophyte?
 

OK, so I know this is a travel board and not a music one - but I couldn't come up with who else to ask.

We're headed to Prague this fall and I want to see an opera while there. So far my opera experience consists of La Boheme and Andre' Bocelli on CD. Rather limited would be a bit of an understatement. Below is a list of the coices I have available while we'll be in Prague. Any suggestions on what would be the best bet for an opera neophyte? Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

JENUFA by Janáèek

DON GIOVANNI & LE NOZZE DI FIGARO by Mozart

RIGOLETTO, UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, LA TRAVIATA & IL TROVATORE all by Verdi

Rigoletto is fantastic, if not a bid sad and dark. Don Giovanni is gread. La Traviata is molto bene. But for me, any opera, especially in a foreign city, is a magnificent experience. I don't think you will go wrong no matter what your choice is~
Have a great time!

I'm no opera expert and know nothing of Jenufa.

But Don Giovanni and Marriage of Figaro are both great fun, easy to follow, very funny, and enjoyable.

Of the others, I don't know the Masked Ball, but all are great mainly for the music. La Traviata is guaranteed to be "pretty", "Il Travotore" is guaranteed to stir you with the music (the Anvil chorus in particular), and Rigoletto is heart warming.

If it is just one -- I'd take one of the Mozart ones -- so perfect for Prague -- also much shorter in case you don't quite "get" it.

You want to do something really fun? See one of the Verdi operas, but go to the National Marionette Theatre to see Don Giovanni performed by marionettes and conducted by a puppet of a rather drunken Mozart. It's even more fun than the opera would be by humans!

Patrick I love your idea about the Marionettes. I plan to do that the next time I get the chance! It sounds like a blast!

The first opera I ever went to was La Traviata and I was hooked!!
My favorite is La Boheme and if you enjoyed it you will also like la Traviata.

I have become a lover of opera and especially Italin opera - they do it best (in my opinion)

Enjoy!!

Omigod, what a choice to have to make!
1st choice: Mozart
2nd : Verdi
Have a great time and I agree, it hardly matters which you choose, it will be fabulous!

I think the easiest for a non-opera buff to enjoy would be La Traviata. Perhaps the most fun and colorful would be Le Nozze de Figaro.

Most of those listed are pretty approachable and you should enjoy whichever you choose!

Also, try to find the libretto's of the operas and read about them. Then if the stories touch your heart - at least you'll have a better idea of what the opera is about.

For me? I'd to the marionettes. I'm not keen on opera, lord I tried tho...

Wow. What a wonderful dilema! I've seen Jenufa, and it is quite dark and in my opinion the music isn't quite as "accessible" to a newbie as the Boheme you loved (I love it too).

Because you will be in Prague, I'd certainly go for Mozart. Don Giovanni and Figaro are favorite & enduring classics for a good reason & you really can't go wrong.

That said, I adore Verdi ,and the ones you mention are from his great years. His operas will also be a bit closer to your Boheme in terms of style and pace. Trovatore's tunes just keep coming and coming, you'll be humming as you leave. Etc.

If the singers are up to their assignments, you should be fine with any choice. Have fun!

When I can't decide what opera to see, I go to the library and check out the music first. You won't have any trouble finding CDs there. And it is a good idea to find out the story line, too!

You have an imposing menu of choices.
But with any opera, the secret to enjoyment is to be prepared. Know the plot!!

If the book is still in print, or available in any form - used, abused, or stained - The Complete Stories of the Great Operas by Milton Cross is the old standby. It has a great description of the plots and the first few words of the major arias for most popular operas.

In my college days, it was my opera Bible. I still have it, torn cover, and all.

Of the group you name, La Traviata is my favorite, but it is very much prima donna dependent. The soprano tackling the role of Violetta has to be good, very good because it is a demending role that requires everything of a Verdi singer. She must be able to do colaratura parts, lyric parts, and dramatic parts. She must be able to hit some high notes with gusto and authority at the end of Act I. She must sing dramatically and also softly in Act II, and in the last act, she must be able to project all the pathos of a person who is dying.

The Mozart operas you name, particularly Figaro, is light, but there is a lot of recitative in Italian (or other language) that is essential to the plot.
Hence without knowing the intricate ins and outs of Figaro, it is easy to get lost in the details. The libretto is full of puns, biting irony, and sarcasm. Actually, the theme is not all that light hearted.

Figaro, servant to the Count Almaviva, is marrying a chamber maid named Susanna.
Count Almaviva, the lord of the castle, has waived within his court the barbaric custom of the right of first night with the bride when a couple marries, but he is still scheming to seduce Susanna.
Being faithful to his wife, the Countess, is not a consideration at all.

Don Giovanni is essentially the story of a serial rapist. Mozart wrote some sparkling music to cover a grisly plot.
I think the opera is epitomized by the line "Rape the daughter and skewer the father." In the end the Don gets his comeuppance.

Rigoletto is a disaster story. It ends with Rigoletto killing his own daughter by mistake. Not a happy theme.

Il Trovatore is one of hatred, blood and torture and burning people alive. But the music is excellent. It was the first opera I ever bought, years ago, with Bjoerling, Warren, Milanov, and Barbieri. And, I still have it!! Scratchy, but playable.

I don't know Jufa by Janacek, but Janacek was sort of a lone wolf in the music field. His music was ahead of its time.

What you choose is of course a highly personal decision.

My dad, who was highly educated but had a tin ear, liked la Traviata, particularly Act I. On the other hand, he thought almost all other operas were junk, even Aida, and he could not really figure out why I listened to them.

So if his opinion helps you out any, so be it.

What ever you do, don't show up unprepared. Without knowing the plot well, you will not be able to follow the action of any opera and you will be left wondering what all the yelling is about.

I can epitomize that with an anecdote.
A friend of mine is very much into music. Her husband could care less, but in a city like New York she is reluctant to go by herself at night. So she drug him to a performance of some opera called Tosca. About halfway through, her husband wanted to know who that fat greaseball was who was doing all the loud yelling.

His wife was ready to brain him, and I think she could have found help readily.
The "yeller" was Luciano Pavarotti.

By the way, there are some really good singers in Eastern Europe. We just heard a performance of Aida by Opera Europa. It was really good. The bass who sang Ramfis, the high priest, was the best I have ever heard, anywhere, including performances at the Met.
The other major cast members were up to par as well, all of them.

Let me sum it up by saying, all are quality operas. You will get a strong cast in Prague. Go prepared, and get ready to be introduced to a great art form. If you get hooked like I did at age 19, you will have a great source of new enjoyment.

I can't add much to what's gone before, except to elaborate a bit on Jenufa. It's at least as appropriate for Prague as Mozart is, since it's in Czech and the music is influenced by Moravian folk music. So if you want a thoroughly Czech experience, that's the one. However, I agree that Mozart or Verdi are better for a neophyte. Un Ballo in Maschera is historical-political (assassination of the king of Sweden), so probably less of a universally appealing story than something like Traviata or Rigoletto. BTW, this thread must be the first time I've heard Rigoletto called "heartwarming."

Hee. Hee. Put that on the list of "did I really say that?"

Can't believe that's what I wrote. I sure thought I said "heartbreaking".

I'd just like to point out, that "Il Trovatore" is the opera featured in the Marx Brother's movie "A NIght at the Opera". So, if you are a Marx brothers fan you might recognize the music :-)

I listen to a lot of classical music, but opera isn't my thing. That said, I've seen Don Giovanni, Trovatore and Traviata in performance. I've seen one act of Jenufa (an amateur performance). I've listened to Figaro on recording. I've listened to Rigoletto excerpts. Know nothing of Ballo.

Jenufa would be interesting for the Czech connection, but it's a challenging opera for a novice, I think.

I'll suggest something different. Investigate which performance has the best singers and/or conductor. I think that it'd make the performance more memorable for you even though you may not be able to tell. All of these are pretty well-known operas (with the exception of Jenufa, perhaps, but even this one has been increasingly performed -- certainly in NYC and possibly Ballo). If I remember right, Verdi revised the score for Ballo a couple of times, so I think that it's less popular than the other big Verdi operas. It's my perception, but I could be wrong.

As I say, try to make an educated guess as to which opera might be the best for you performance-wise.

I agree with the recommendation for Milton Cross's book of opera summaries. Your library should have it (if they haven't sold it off in a yard sale!). But, if they don't, you certainly can get synopses of opera plots easily on line these days.

Verdi's music is so evocative...you may remember Puccini wrote notes into Boheme, for example, that mirror the flickering flame in Act 1. Similarly, you just know the notes Verdi wrote at a certain point in Rigoletto are of a storm brewing. I find the music in Jenufa and even MOzart more abstract. Or, I suppose it is more accurate to say, written in a totally different idiom.

I misspoke -- "Ballo" didn't see too many revisions (or hardly saw a revision).

Hm.... I wonder where I got that idea.

http://www.wbopera.org/chorus/Ballo.html

For an opera neophyte I would recommend all of the operas except Jenufa and Ballo.

My personal choice would be Don Giovanni, as I consider it the greatest opera ever written. The Prague connection is that it had its premiere here, with Mozart conducting. He had also conducted Figaro in Prague. Both operas are glorious in music, lyrics and plot.

Rigoletto, Traviata and Trovatore are all what might be called Verdi "warhorses" but they are that for a reason. Great music, both in arias and choruses and great spectacles. You couldn't go wrong with any of them. Don't try to follow the plot of Trovatore, as it's far too complicated (and silly), but just sit back and enjoy.

If you have time for two operas, start with a Verdi and then try one of the Mozarts. They are very different in style, but the music is wonderful.

You will not likely have the advantage of surtitles in English (if at all) or program notes in English, so you would be wise to get a synopsis before you go. Better still, borrow the recordings from your library and sample them. Also, you will want to make sure that the operas are being performed in the original Italian, not Czech, if possible.

You can find the basic story lines for any opera on line. Read the story lines and decide which one interests you. Mozart is fun to listen to...but La Traviata is one of my favorites and I think a good one for someone who has not seen opera. There is a video called Opera Imaginaire ..it is a cartoon synopsis of well known operas and gives you a quick taste of story lines. Might see if you can get it.

I wouldn't choose an opera for its story line, however, it's useful to have a rough idea of what's going on and that's why a synopsis is valuable. As I mentioned earlier, Trovatore is a great opera with a ridiculous plot.

For a first opera I would avoid Il Trovatore (much as I love it), as it's a bit static any of the others should be fine. Jenufa, IMO, doesn't work well for an introduction to opera, and of the two Mozart works I'd opt for Marriage of Figaro.

Once you have chosen the oepra, why not get a copy to listen to before you go? If you don't want to invest in the CD see if your local library has a copy.

Bob Brown has excellent advice (as usual). My choices would be Traviata (if the soprano comes highly recommended), Don Giovanni (ditto the Don) and then Rigoletto (check out Gilda). We are long term Met subscribers and have a "Ballo" this week. Has never really excited me but Deborah Voight is scheduled to sing which makes it all worth while. Most important thing is to read the libretto or a synopsis. Ideally, the theatre would have some form of titles. At the Met in NYC they are in English... don't know what the more musically attuned Europeans do.

I'll add my 2 cents:

I've seen all the operas you listed except Un Ballo.

Of the 6, my favorite is Rigoletto, followed by La Traviata.

Rigoletto is the only opera in your list that I cried at the end of the performance (yes, it is that good!)

You'd probably enjoy any of them (although personally I hate Mozart !!).

But here's a consideration. As you probably know, most opera houses perform opera in the original language with surtitles or supertitles in the language of the country where it's being performed. But prompted by another recent post where someone had seen a Hungarian opera in Budapest with *English* surtitles, I did a little google and found this on the National Opera (again as I'm sure you know, one of the 3 opera houses in Prague) :-

"this season offers a fabulous mix of rare and familiar Czech works including Smetana’s highly patriotic Libuse and The Bartered Bride, Dvorak’s witty comedy Kate and the Devil and his wistful Rusalka, and Janacek’s Excursions of Mr Broucek and Cunning Little Vixen (all performed, incidentally, with English surtitles, in case your Czech is a little rusty)."

See http://www.travelforthearts.co.uk/ht...era_prague.htm, especially "http://www.travelforthearts.co.uk/ht...ague.htm"

You cried?!

This is not the opera I know well. I hate to give the plot away, but well, everyone reads the synopsis anyway. Did the hunchback (Rigoletto?) kill his daughter?

Anyway, opera is always a bit melodramatic and unbelievable for me. In "Traviata," Violetta sings "E Strano" (How strange) a couple of times. In the final act, she sings this, gets up and sings some more and then collapses on stage.

You've to be a pretty strong woman to be able to get up from a dying state to sing. :-)

Sometimes I want to laugh.

turnip--you have received excellent advise regarding your choice from several posters. The key to everthing is to just be sure you do go, and don't let your inexperience or lack of depth in opera prevent a wonderful experience. I had only seen one opera in person when I began my European travels several years ago, but I adore theater and music, so wanted to experience opera in some of the cities where I have traveled. I have not been fortunate enough to see an opera on every trip, but my experience has included "The Barber of Seville" in London(sung in English by the ENO), "Barber" sung in Italian in Rome in a tiny theater, and "Barber" in Paris, sung in Italian with French titles. What a hoot to see 3 such different productions of the same piece! I see that New York City Opera is doing "Barber" this year--perhaps I should see yet another variation. Whichever you choose, enjoy the total experience--the music, the setting, and observing the people who attend. Have fun!

I remember reading on the MET Guild's chat site (standing room) someone's account of a trip to Prague and environs and attending many operas. If you have access to the site, you might want to check it out. It was a multi post travelogue of their trip. If you get on the site and ask someone to tell you how to find that series of posts, someone there will pull it up for you. A friendly bunch. And, you might get some tips on travel to that area at the same time. I think you navigate to "Opera News" or the Guild to get to it.
http://www.metoperafamily.org

Also, there's a book, Imagining Don Giovanni" by Anthony Rudel (son of Viennese conductor Julius Rudel) that you might find interesting before your trip to Prague. Fictionalized tale based on some historical facts that weaves about a supposed meeting between Casanova and Mozart around the time of Don Giovanni. Amazon has the details in their listing.

Have a great trip!

111op: Lots of people cry at operas. And laugh too. That is what opera is for. It is supposed to move our very souls, which it often does. If you find yourself laughing at the most dramatic parts, such as a dying woman using all of her strength to express herself one last time, then opera probably isn't your bag. I am surprised you waste your time with it if that is how you feel. And "E Strano" doesn't mean How Strange. The E has an accent and it means "It is Strange". Nuances and subtleties can make all the difference in the world when trying to understand the human condition.

111op, wanderlust is right. Opera is NOT for you. Please stay away or post where you will be sitting so the rest of us can avoid you.
Nothing wrong with your opinion, but most of us don't expect opera to be believable.

Sort of like someone who thinks a bunch of men throwing and kicking an odd shaped ball on a big field is silly, going to a football game and then sitting there saying "this is so lame."

I enjoy opera, but I have a certain sympathy for 111op's point of view. It is a bit hard - though not impossible, if the performance is well done - to suspend disbelief when a woman supposedly dying of tuberculosis (but generally looking quite robust and well-nourished) has the strength to belt away at the top of her lungs for ten minutes.

I can't help thinking of Oscar Wilde's comment on Dickens' "Old Curiosity Shop": "Only a man with a heart of stone could read the death of Little Nell without laughing."

Well, as W.H. Auden once remarked, "No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible."

Well, I meant to be provocative. Perhaps it's calculated condescension, but I don't think that my post is anywhere as vehement as the responses.

For example, I wrote: "Sometimes I want to laugh." And the plots of opera are a bit ridiculous. My favorite line to ridicule is still "My name is Mimi, but they call me Lucia." My reaction is -- ok, your name is Mimi, then why do they call you Lucia? :-)

It just amazes me that seemingly intelligent people can't seem to take a different point of view. But that's nothing new.

And no, I don't stay away from something I don't appreciate wholly. I think that only closed-minded people do that.

I listen to opera so that I can learn to appreciate it. I wholly admit that it's a blind spot, but what's wrong with it? That doesn't stop me from learning about it or from going to performances. I don't avoid Wagner because it's deemed difficult. I've stood through a complete performance of "Tristan." I'm not quite ready to tackle "The Ring," but that doesn't mean that I can't talk about opera.

But honestly, if I find it a waste of time, I don't think that I would do it. I'm not that masochistic.

And, by the way, the fact that I've not given away my Callas recordings is saying something.

As divided as people are about her singing, her famous recordings are justly famous. I urge everyone with an interest in opera (and if you've an interest in opera, you'll know this) to get her 1953 Tosca, her 1955 (?) Berlin Lucia and one of her Traviatas (I've a live one from 1956).

Though I don't completely like her singing either, I must admit that her singing gives me goose bumps. Such drama and power, and infinitely nuanced.

Her mad scene in Lucia is truly tortured (Lucia has just killed her newly wed husband).

"My favorite line to ridicule is still "My name is Mimi, but they call me Lucia." My reaction is -- ok, your name is Mimi, then why do they call you Lucia?"

111op. You have things backward, and the lyrics do make sense.

"Si, mi chiamo Mimi
Ma il mio nome è Lucia.È

(Yes, they call me Mimi, but my real name's Lucia)

Then later:

"Mi chiamo Mimi.
Il perchè non so."

(They call me Mimi. I don't know why.)

You could find many more lines in opera worthy of ridicule than this one.

Sorry, I did get the same names mixed up. Yes, I know that her aria starts with "Mi chiamano Mimi" (just wasn't thinking straight).

By the way -- it's mi chiamano Mimi -- see

http://www.everynote.com/opera.show/5671.note

(not chiamo Mimi -- but I won't split hairs with you)

But in the same opera, I crack up when I hear "Che chelida manina." I should use this line on someone. Let me warm your hands. Oh, by the way, you can't find your keys? Let me try and find them with you.

You get the idea.

Of course, there're many lines worthy of ridicule, and I guess that's sort of my point.

And why should no one sleep until Turandot knows Calaf's name? And if she doesn't chop off her suitors' heads if they can't solve her riddles, then there'll be no "Turandot." :-)

111op: Sorry, typo on the "chiamano".

Without beating a dead horse, I think we're agreed that many plots and lyrics in opera are ridiculous. For me, however, it's the music that makes it attractive, regardless of the words.

I guess that's the bit I can't appreciate completely -- and I freely admit my blind spot for vocal music.

But apart from the beauty of the music, there're other things to admire -- the technical facility of the singers, for example. I know that I can't hit 9 (?) high Cs in Fille du Regiment or do a heart-wrenching Lucia a la Callas (it's not even my voice range).

But some day I'll try to do a Sempre Libera or Musetta's Waltz in a lower register. :-)

HI Turnip,
I din't read all of the previous posts, so if this was mentioned, please excuse my Repetition.

Don Giovanni is the greatest opera ever written.

See that one

Wow, once again the Fodor's faithful come through in spades. Thanks to all of you for your input. A special thanks to Bob Brown for his insight.

I've decided to take your suggestions and I've checked out the Marriage of Figaro & Il Traviata from my local library. If neither of those tickles my fancy I'll just keep moving down the list.

Thanks again for your help all. Cheers, the turnip