Opera has probably been stereotyped more than any other art form. We teenagers have a bunch of reasons not to try it out.
Juliet Lee, a freshman at Westridge School, has often heard that “it’s only for adults, not for kids.”
Natalie Lans, also a Westridge freshman, added that she had heard that,“all the people that go to the opera are snobby or pretentious, and…that it’s really boring and you fall asleep.”
I used to agree that opera is not relevant to teenagers today, but lately, I have realized how wrong I was. Opera means more now than it ever has.
Plácido Domingo, the singer nicknamed “King of Opera,” said : “There are two types of people who don’t go to the opera. First are the people who can’t afford to. But the others just don’t know about opera.”
He is right, but the economic barrier and knowledge barrier do not actually exist. The people who do not go to the opera are those who think that they cannot afford to or think they know nothing about opera. In truth, you can easily introduce yourself to the opera even if you are broke.
I got started on opera by checking out videotapes from the library. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) also plays all sorts of operas on television. If you can’t catch those, The Metropolitan Opera often broadcasts its productions to movie theaters. Even live opera can be affordable. At LA Opera, last-minute tickets cost only $25 for students. That is as much as a movie ticket plus popcorn and a drink.
You cannot say you know nothing about opera, either. Whether you like it or not, opera is everywhere. When you hear the word “wedding,” what tune comes to mind? That “Here Comes the Bride” melody is part of Richard Wagner’s opera, “Lohengrin,”, in which the marriage is actually an immediate failure. Several musicals, including “Rent,” “Aida,” and “Miss Saigon,”, have roots in opera. And you may not have known its name, but if you hear the aria “La Donna è Mobile,” you will recognize it instantly. Just look it up on YouTube. It is from Verdi’s opera “Rigoletto.”
Now, you are shaking your head and telling yourself that you will be bored at the opera house.
There is a really wide selection of operas and an opera for every taste. Do you like adventure and long epic sagas? Try Wagner’s “Ring”: it is based on the same mythology as J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Are you a history buff? Go for Donizetti’s “Anne Boleyn,”or his other Tudor period operas. Perhaps you are more of a literature person? Many classics have been adapted into operas, from Virgil’s “Aeneid,” to Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” to Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights,” to Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men.” In fact, Verdi’s operas “Rigoletto” and “Ernani,” Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia,” and Ponchielli’s “La Gioconda” are all based on works by Victor Hugo, the same guy who wrote “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Les Misérables.” Most of Shakespeare’s plays, including “The Tempest,” “Othello,” and “Romeo and Juliet,” have also been transformed into operas, some several times. There are even horror operas, such as Benjamin Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw.” Do not forget humor, though—there’s a whole genre of comic operas, called “opera buffa.”
Opera can be exciting, opera can be tear-jerking, opera can be funny—and it can also save your grade. There are three reasons: 1. Many popular operas are in Italian. 2. Italian is a romance language. 3. So are the top three languages taught in US schools: French, Spanish, and Latin. Opera has actually been an immense help to me in Latin class. I quickly memorized the Latin word, rapere, because of “Rigoletto.” In that opera, the Duke sings the line, “Ella mi fu rapita!”, or “she has been snatched from me!” Rapere in Latin means “to snatch,” so remembering that word was no problem. The time that opera really saved me was during a Latin test. A while ago, I did not know whether the Latin verb, venire, meant to come or to go. I did not bother to check, either. Bad idea. One day, venire popped up on my Latin test—in more than three different places. I thought I was done for. Then, I remembered the love duet in Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly.” In it, Pinkerton sang the words “Vieni, vieni!” to his lover. Since that was still Act I, I assumed he was telling her to come, not go. Since that day, the word venire has never confused me.
Opera even helps with English vocabulary. If you came across the word gelid, for example, and did not know what it meant, you could remember the famous aria “Che gelida manina,” or “what a cold little hand.” Sure enough, the definition of gelid is icy. Guessing that only earned me a point in an online quiz game, but what if it was on the SAT instead?
You now know that you might enjoy opera and learn from it. However, there is still that lingering question: why must I go to the opera? What is the difference between opera and more popular entertainment?
Nothing, actually, because opera is all these entertainment mediums put together. That is why it is also something more.
Yes, you could read a book and revel in the beautifully crafted language. You could scroll through pictures on Flickr and admire the composition. You could listen to your iPod and tap your foot to the pulse of the music. You could go see a play and admire the passionate acting. But what if you could enjoy all of those things at once—words, visuals, music, acting? That is opera!
Often, opera is only associated with music, but music is only a part of it. The composer Richard Wagner called opera Gesamtkunstwerk, which means “synthesis of the arts,” “universal artwork,” or “all-encompassing artwork” in German. All of the arts packed into about three hours! What more could one ask for?
Many people say that the most important thing is to keep our minds healthy and happy. So, while we continue feasting on epic page-turners and 3-D movies, why can’t we also indulge ourselves with pure, unsynthesized music, world-class singers, and unforgettable stories?
True, you might have to watch a few operas before you realize just how beautiful opera is. True, maybe you won’t like opera at all when you try it out. But why not go see what it is all about? Opera has been sitting around since 1597, just waiting for you to discover it. Our generation puts so much emphasis on diversity and on opening one’s mind. Think about how hypocritical it would be to blindly criticize opera and let it die in our generation.
What is the harm in taking a chance with it? You imagine all these barriers separating you from the world of opera, but they are only inventions of your mind. The only things holding you back are prejudice and preconceptions. Opera is not just music, or just a story, or just another art form. Opera is a cosmos.
