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PaperclipPerfector
5d ago
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Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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Accessibility might be a topic onto itself, as opera is a 400-year-old art form. Diving in:
Musically, some eras and composers tend to feature catchier melodies and simpler stories: Classical (late 1700s/early 1800s) and Verismo (late 1800s/early 1900s) are good bets; Mozart, Puccini, Donizetti, Verdi, Rossini, Bizet, etc. These are still the big box office draws for opera companies, and that's not coincidence.
Almost every opera company in America, for non-English language operas at minimum if not all productions, is going to project English-translation supertitles above the stage. The technology is within the financial means of even college fine arts programs, and regional & summer festival companies all have them. Here is an example of the supertitle screen hung above stage.
Fathom Events does live broadcasts of America's largest and only reparatory company, the Met, to movie theaters around the country, and uses subtitles. This is an easy, affordable option to see top talent perform, and if not in person, to do so on a big screen with a commercial-grade sound system. Roll up in shorts and a t-shirt, house a bucket of popcorn and a large soda, and the bathroom lines at intermission will be short. The Met also has its own online streaming service, Met Opera on Demand, and there is also Medici.tv for a collection of European companies. Both offer live broadcasts and large archives of operas. The Met's upcoming broadcasts of The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville would be good first operas, if you wanted to hit up a movie theater or try out a free 7-day trial of Met Opera on Demand at home.
It is best to have some idea of the major plot points before going to see an opera, so you can focus on the music, singing and acting. Use the supertitles or subtitles as mile markers (I still do). Lean on the supertitles or subtitles during the recitative/singspiel/dialogue that advances the plot, and have loaded in your memory the gist of great arias and duets so that you can focus in on the performances.
There are tons of free resources to get up to speed on any opera you're seeing. The easiest is often the website of whatever opera company you're going to see. In spite of accusations of snobbishness, opera companies want you to like opera! They want you to feel comfortable and informed, and to keep coming back and buying tickets. Here is the Met's page for their upcoming production of the Barber of Seville. It's a nice overview of the history of the opera, the context in which it was composed, points out the musical highlights, and offers a link to a concise synopsis of the plot. Reviewing this, alone, should give you enough info, in combination with the supertitles or subtitles, to follow along and enjoy the opera. And, again, with the companies themselves, here’s a five minute video by the ROH offering a primer on the Magic Flute posted to YouTube ahead of one of its productions.
It ended it 2016, but Houston Public Media's archive of the Opera Cheat Sheet podcast is a great resource. Find the 20 minute episode for whatever opera you're seeing and get a concise summary and background from two afficionados.
And if you want to nerd out a bit more and read some history, critical essays and the full libretto for an opera you're going to see without hunting down those pieces individually, the English National Opera Guides, a series of 50-some short books, each on a famous opera, has been a go-to for me for years.
And as a Conservative, it can be a bit woke and identitarian in places for my taste, but there is still a lot of value in the Met's Aria Code podcast, which takes deep dives into famous arias. If you can line up the relevant episode with an opera you're seeing, it's worth a listen.
The above is what I would start with to get my feet wet. Then, if the bug bites you, you can dig in to denser works. Part of the nerdy fun, for me, is reading up on the historical context in which operas were composed, and diving into the themes of denser works, etc.
Edit: Oh! And! Opera companies have a financial interest in getting young people interested in opera. If there's an opera company near you, they likely offer discounted tickets for young professionals. And, in the opera world, young professional could mean people under the age of 30, 35, 40 or even 45 years of age.
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