Good Opera

[Edmond]

Has anyone seen the Opera "Die Fledermaus" or "The Bat" by Johnn Strauss Jr, don't you think it's a great opera? do anyone think that The Bat is the funniest Opera ever?

[imthefoolonthehill]

Good Opera? no such thing ;-)

[amuse]

not true! i've only seen "La Traviata" and "Faust" but they were both excellent and made me cry. i felt so exalted.

[Koa]

In my city there's a famous opera festival every summer...
I never bothered to go there cos I'm not interested... But from outside you can hear pretty well, and I often walk around there in summer nights.

[IWilKikU]

Opera is beautiful, but its a pain not understanding what people are saying. I like videos of Operas with subtitles, but it doesn't sound as good on recording.

[den]

I loved Madame Butterfly, truly a pure bitter-sweet story with not a lot of obfuscation of sets and props. I've seen two productions of La Boheme.

That's a great idea Kik to get an opera on video with subtitles! I think that's usually the biggest complaint, not understanding what is being `said'.

[ravana]

I always envy opera's singers. To be able to sing in that way is still my dream.
I've seen "Aida" and "Karmen" They are wonderfull. But I agree with IWilKikU. It's pity not understanding what people are saying.

There are also our national operas. They are mixed with "Mugam" (folklore music). I'm mad of them. You can't picture what it's like. The favorite one is "Leyli and Majnun" which was composed by Uzeyir Hajibayov in 1912. By the way his operetta "Arshin mal alan" (movie) was famous all over the world in 1945. have you heard about it?

[Koa]

Well I think it needs subtitles anyway, cos even when they're 'singing' in a language you know, the opera-way to sing makes words unintelligible.

[amuse]

very, true, koa.
oh! i heard some opera in italian a couple weeks ago; they said "por sopreso" or something similar! and i was so happy that i knew a teensy bit of spanish. :D real helpful, hunh.

i think the librettos (it was decades ago :D) that i looked at before going had english on one side, italian on the other. and yes, the subtitles helped, because none of us obviously memorized anything. but we did know what was going on. can you get hold of some, kik?
btw, they have books like those librettos - i picked up kafka, one side in german, the other in english. pretty cool. i gave it away. 5th and 6th grade did nothing to prepare me for that! but still, helpful if one has a base.

[Koa]

Books with 2 languages are quite common here, especially for students, but not only... But I keep switching from one language to the other, and lose the plot :D

I think most operas are in Italian...maybe...*ignorant* but if I hear them I can't understand a word. Call me limited, but I hate that way of singing.

(btw 'libretto' means small book in Italian... the word for book is 'libro', is that the same in Spanish? End of the lesson for today.)