How It Started

I admit that I was originally quite skeptical when it came to opera. Like many, I had a fixed stereotype in my head of a horned woman shrieking so piercingly that all the glass in the area shattered instantly. (Thank you, Herr Wagner.)

There were a lot of reasons that kept me from challenging that stereotype. I love musical theater, but most of that is in English. I don't speak Italian or German, so why would I listen to music in it? Plus, I thought (here comes another stereotype), opera plots range from the ridiculously simple to the downright contrived. I admit Broadway has its share of that stuff, but my taste in musicals runs towards those whose plots are not merely vehicles for songs: Jane Eyre, Sweeney Todd, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and the like.

With this nice mental block set up, it's a wonder I ever went near an opera recording. The change was not really a sudden thing, but more of a gradual transition. Actually, I liked my first opera aria without even knowing it! I went through an Anthony Warlow period, and his stirring rendition of "Stand Up and Fight" (from Carmen Jones) never failed to leave me tapping my toes. I didn't learn until later that the song is an English version of Bizet's "Toreador," with the original music and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.

On a different front, I slowly became intrigued by the existence of foreign-language cast albums. First came the German version of Jekyll and Hyde (the earlier Bremen cast - at the time, the Vienna recording didn't exist yet). Looking up that album's star, Ethan Freeman, led me to the musical Elisabeth, which hasn't yet been translated into English and to which I became addicted. Cast recordings of Das Phantom der Oper and the Vienna Les Misérables soon followed. Suddenly I was listening to music in German.

Slowly, the idea began to dawn on me that foreign languages, far from being boring, were FUN. One of the strikes against opera had vanished, and in its place was a reason to give it a try. Still, I held out a bit longer. I'm a slave to my own whims - I won't pick up a book 10,000 people have reccomended if I don't think I'll like it.

Two more experiences tipped the balance. One of these was a snippet of opera played by a classmate who chose to do her history project on 19th century music. I don't remember what it was, or even any of the melody, but I remember that it was a duet between two men and that to my surprised I liked it. No shrill notes, no breaking glass, just beautiful singing. This didn't make much of an impression on me at the time, but it came back to me later as another reason to try opera.

The second and strongest motivation was the movie Amadeus, which I love. All of the opera scenes in that movie are well-done and the music caught my attention. (How could it not? It's Mozart!) In particular, I was drawn to the final scene of Don Giovanni, a large part of which (from the statue's entrance to Giovanni's descent into Hell) is shown in the movie. Finally I made my mind to try it out, and checked out the local library's only copy of Don Giovanni - a somewhat obscure recording conducted by Sigiswald Kuijken.

I was hooked.

I sat listening for the three hours of the opera, completely mesmerized. I have since heard better recordings of the work, but I'll always have a soft spot for that one, my first, because it came together like magic for me that night. After that, I couldn't get enough opera after that. Le Nozze di Figaro soon followed. After that, Fidelio and Rigoletto, Die Zauberflöte, and a few perusals of Carmen. I'd list more but I'd bore you. I'm working on Così fan tutte, Die Fledermaus, and Les Contes d'Hofmann at the moment.

I don't like everything I've come across. I wasn't able to get all the way through La Bohème, although I'm sure I'll return to it eventually. I've tried Wagner a few times but kept falling asleep. The same with Der Rosenkavalier, which I think is beautiful music but it doesn't seem to go anywhere.

I've made several attempts to evangelize my family, but with little success. Opera on DVD - even the lively Zauberflöte conducted by Levine - puts my mother to sleep. In that particular case, she didn't even make it to "O zittre nicht." My sister normally appears, pokes fun at the characters, invents her own words to the recitative, and leaves again. She recently proposed a theory that Papageno is secretly a homosexual. On the plus side, she has developed an attachment to Figaro. Only Figaro, not the opera surrounding him. Just him and "Non più andrai," which she listened to about 10 times in a row. The only DVD of that opera she likes is the one conducted by Paolo Olmi because "the Figaro is cool."

I guess it's a start.