Throughout my life I have watched a few different operas and they all have something in common. They are all predictable and as Friedrich says in Little Women in response to the question of what will happen, "the inevitable." Operas often tell a classic story of love gone wrong or forbidden love along with a vast amount of miscommunications and dramatic irony. Take La Traviata and Moulin Rouge (not actually an opera, but a play set to music) for example. True, Moulin Rouge is partially based on La Traviata (it is hard not to see the parallels) as well as a few others, but other operas have very similar stories (Otello could have easily been another example).
Now we all know that it is not usually the story that makes us go to or enjoy the opera, but it is the music (often sung in a language we do not understand anyway) that draws us in, for only the best can be in an opera. All of the arias and songs that the vocalists get to show off during are absolutely spectacular. The musicality and the blending of voices is not something that is heard from an amateur performer. In the clip from Little Women the two characters (Jo and Friedrich) are watching an opera as he translates the lyrics for her. In the opera the music heard from the couple singing on stage is absolutely beautiful and full of feeling and emotion (opera was meant as a way to express emotion in its highest forms) and takes the listener into their fabulous world, the purpose of the performance fulfilled.
La Traviata: 1:14:15-1:22:05
Moulin Rouge
Little Women: 0:41-3:03
the inevitable, the predictable, the same every time
Now we all know that it is not usually the story that makes us go to or enjoy the opera, but it is the music (often sung in a language we do not understand anyway) that draws us in, for only the best can be in an opera. All of the arias and songs that the vocalists get to show off during are absolutely spectacular. The musicality and the blending of voices is not something that is heard from an amateur performer. In the clip from Little Women the two characters (Jo and Friedrich) are watching an opera as he translates the lyrics for her. In the opera the music heard from the couple singing on stage is absolutely beautiful and full of feeling and emotion (opera was meant as a way to express emotion in its highest forms) and takes the listener into their fabulous world, the purpose of the performance fulfilled.
La Traviata: 1:14:15-1:22:05
Moulin Rouge
Little Women: 0:41-3:03
the inevitable, the predictable, the same every time
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