Does Opera matter?

[Pianorak]

Sounds intriguing?

Inside Opera: Why Does It Matter?

Discover the hidden world of opera, find out how it works and debate whether it’s still relevant today.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/inside-opera?utm_source=newsletter_segment&utm_medium=futurelearn_organic_email&utm_campaign=fl_october_2017&utm_term=02_10_2017_first_name_10_fascinating_courses_for_you

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Useful fuel to add to the discussion can be found on yesterday's broadcast of (I kid thee not) The Listening Service:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b096smmh

I advise using the five minutes or so wasted on the TS/Lore Lixenberg "spontaneous" Opera towards the end to make a cup of tea; otherwise greatly worth hearing.

[Stanfordian]

Does Opera matter!

Yes, it does to me very much. It's a big part of my life; increasingly so!

[Pianorak]

Useful fuel to add to the discussion can be found on yesterday's broadcast of (I kid thee not) The Listening Service:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b096smmh

I advise using the five minutes or so wasted on the TS/Lore Lixenberg "spontaneous" Opera towards the end to make a cup of tea; otherwise greatly worth hearing.

Thanks for that, Ferney - Lore Lixenberg? Wouldn't have missed that for the world. Cuppa can wait.

[Richard Barrett]

Yes, it does to me very much.

Indeed my immediate response to the thread title was "to whom"? As a listener I would say that it matters to me very much too; as a creative musician, hardly at all - it's an area where new work is relatively rare and where new work that doesn't parasitise older work is almost absent. While many directors are doing amazing things with staging (I recall the Rake's Progress directed by Simon McBurney that I saw in the summer), they seem content to do so with preexistent repertoire, which is a shame. (Or is it?)

[Conchis]

I enjoyed Thomas Ades The Tempest opera (which is now over ten years old) but Ades badly needed a competent librettist and one doesn't seem to have been made available to him.

[makropulos]

Does Opera matter!

Yes, it does to me very much. It's a big part of my life; increasingly so!

Totally agree with you! It has always mattered hugely to me ever since I first got the opera bug in my teens at school.

[Barbirollians]

Yes

[Lat-Literal]

Sounds intriguing?

Inside Opera: Why Does It Matter?

Discover the hidden world of opera, find out how it works and debate whether it’s still relevant today.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/...ourses_for_you

How does this work? I would be grateful to have advice.

I see that Future Learn is wholly owned by the Open University.

The course looks very interesting to me - but how much is free?

If I register, will there be payments of which I am unaware?

As for a knee-jerk reaction to the question, one of the first things I heard in the trailer was that the emotions are very extreme. That of itself wholly suits the everyone-is-in-a-soap-opera-now zeitgeist, across the news and culturally in the round. I am inclined to think back to indie gigs in the eighties where as one stood in a flea pit to listen to certain bands, any expression of emotion from dancing to communal singing was regarded as the epitome of bad taste (although not by me and I often veered towards the places where it wasn't).

So the cultural emphasis even there, albeit with exceptions, was on understatement - post-hippy, post-punk, we were there by being "not there" and that was cool. In contrast to the Last Night of the Proms then often viewed as the Proms themselves with too flag waving by half until when? I don't know. Glastonbury, once televised, reclaimed flags and tears and arms being flung around people ("daarling!" - shriek) and very much else. Plus - and I say this both with criticism and without any criticism - anything that makes money in this era has a future. The need to find sources of revenue in a post-industrial age, whatever any appearance of being "yesterday", should have been spotted a couple of decades earlier but it is now with us and full on. After all, we can't afford to have "here today, gone tomorrow" fashion unless it is on a cycle. The music that will survive, though, is the obvious. Sadly, twelve of the best operas will probably be more than enough for most people and everything else will continue to be pushed into the sidelines. It is all about a winning formula.

[Pianorak]

It is completely free, although recently they introduced an upgrade option costing £29 which means access to the course as long as it is available on FutureLearn. Details: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/...pera/1/upgrade HTH

[Lat-Literal]

It is completely free, although recently they introduced an upgrade option costing £29 which means access to the course as long as it is available on FutureLearn. Details: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/...pera/1/upgrade HTH

Thank you very much.

I think the other thing that came up in the trailer was that women in opera often don't fare well.

While there is a serious point for discussion there, the media thrives on that sort of controversy.

It can be hyped up via populism until any meaning in that sense has been wholly wrung out of it.

Which, of course, it never is. Ditto race relations. So, yes, plenty of scope I would have thought.

[doversoul1]

Useful fuel to add to the discussion can be found on yesterday's broadcast of (I kid thee not) The Listening Service:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b096smmh

I advise using the five minutes or so wasted on the TS/Lore Lixenberg "spontaneous" Opera towards the end to make a cup of tea; otherwise greatly worth hearing.

Thank you for this. I wouldn’t say it was exactly informative but I thought it was a very interesting way of looking and talking about opera although it did sound somewhat preaching to the converted. To me, it is the music that matters most. The late Alan Curtis said Handel wrote dramatic music to which I am now thoroughly addicted.

[LHC]

If you are interested in opera, the recently opened exhibition at the V&A may be of interest:

https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/opera

I went last week and thought it was excellent. Some fascinating exhibits, and the whole exhibition is brilliantly conceived and executed. It is an immersive experience with superb sound quality from the B&W headphones supplied for your visit. As the Guardian reviewer stated:

It’s a remarkable achievement that ultimately has the potential to change the way you think. Opera lovers will find their perceptions alternately challenged and renewed by what they find. Newcomers may well be startled, convinced and converted by its narrative of social relevance, immediacy and essential humanity. I cannot recommend it too highly.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/27/opera-passion-power-and-politics-victoria-and-albert-museum-review

[Conchis]

It is hard to defend opera to people who feel they have made up their minds about it.

There is nothing to prevent it being a 'peoples' art' - you don't have to pay Covent Garden prices.

Yet people maintain it's only about people singing in 'foreign' languages in strangulated voices.

I tell non-fans that if they read the libretto, they might come to a better understanding; but that requires effort and 'making an effort' is unfashionable.

[gurnemanz]

It is hard to defend opera to people who feel they have made up their minds about it.

There is nothing to prevent it being a 'peoples' art' - you don't have to pay Covent Garden prices.

You obviously can pay a fortune for ROH tickets. We go half a dozen or more times a year and usually sit near the front of the Amphitheatre paying about £50. Further back they cost £40 or £30. This might not be affordable to all but is comparable with Premier League or West End theatre prices or major artist rock gigs (we paid £81 for Dylan at Bournemouth earlier this year)