Our textbook defines opera as “a drama with continuous or nearly continuous music that is staged with scenery, costumes, and action” (p. 307). What’s wrong with this definition? Well, I’ll tell you. The majority of it has nothing to do with music. Drama – not music. Scenery – not music. Costumes – not music. Action – not music. If opera is be-all-end-all of classical music, then why is so much of the focus on those facets other than music? For another definition let’s check allmusic.com: “An opera is a dramatic work in which the dialogue is sung (usually in its entirety) rather than spoken.” Again, dramatic work – not music. Dialogue – not music. Sung – music. So from these two definitions we know that opera is “sung music”. Great. Let’s contrast this with allmusic.com’s definition of rock & roll: “In its purest form, Rock & Roll has three chords, a strong, insistent back beat, and a catchy melody.” Harmony, rhythm, melody – I’m in THRMFT heaven. To summarize, rock & roll is music, opera is drama.
In times of confusion I often like to visit urbandictionary.com to give me the straight skinny. Entry 7 defines opera as “A superior form of entertainment in which most of the characters' lines are sung. Not many young people like opera, because their brains are so clogged by rap and sex that they are unable to appreciate the dignity and beauty of opera.” I found this description rather insulting, but also noticed that it called opera “entertainment” and not music. I thought entry 7 seven was totally off-base until I got to entry 11:
“A form of 'non-music' theater. Music wasn't invented until 1980 odd with the creation of rap. Women weren't allowed on stage during Shakesphere times which is when most old people today came from. So all the women in bikinis, riding in the cars in each opera'like you see on MTV were really men! Which means non-heterosexuals enjoy this. Those creatures on strange pierce the ears of anyone apart from the deaf old people that listen to this. Only old people like opera and all old people are deaf. Coincidence? If they had rap to listen to when they were younger, maybe they would be living normal lives pinpim' thier rides and hoes and shooting one another. Instead of watching castrated gay men. The tennors sing (NOT rap!?!?!) at a high pitched voice which means they are gay and thus disobeying the word of god and therefore it is your duty of moral Catholics to burn them using sticks of fire. Opera can be distingused by it's lack of turntables, abense of flow and non-gangsta style lyrics. Opera also consisted of very few black people because everyone was racist back then and all the black 'singers' weren't allowed to wear the same pretty hats as the white scum we allow to share our air. Most Opera tells a FAKE story because it is all a staged play unlike Vanilla Ice who speaks from the street and from the heart. The story is written by an old person that doesn't even know what 'shiznit' means (Yes, some people are that uneducateded.)”
This definition also leaves much to be desired, but at least it is amusing to read. Misspelling the word ‘uneducated’ was the icing on the cake. Entry 8 is also interesting:
“Some gay kind of concert that rich people go to where they have to wear special glasses just to see the stage.
Guy 1: Dude! Where did you take your girlfriend yestarday on your date?
Guy 2: I took her to the Opera. I wanted her to assume I was both rich and an intellectual.
Guy 1: Well... Did it work?
Guy 2: Ohhhh yea!
Which brings us to our next point, opera is elitist.
Opera was invented in the 1600s as an attempt to try to recreate ancient Greek drama. When can we stop worshiping the Greeks? Sure they invented democracy, but they also had slaves. Okay, they invented science, but they also worshiped a thunderbolt welding god who lived on a nearby mountain. The past is past. Leave it there. The majority of opera is sung in Italian. Why? Because that’s what the Greeks spoke. No wait, that’s wrong. Because opera was invented in Italy. Pucinni’s “La Boheme” is in Italian because Pucinni is Italian. Fine. “Wozzeck” is in German because Berg is Austrian. Good. Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” is in Italian. Why? I speak English. I don’t enjoy needing subtitles to listen to music.
Poetry and lyrics are not the same thing. Examples:
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
Brevity is key in good poetry – saying as much as possible with the fewest number of words. Now if these were lyrics, the song would be about 23 seconds long. Not good. Lyrics use repetition. The refrain or chorus of a song is totally superfluous in the form of poetry, but not in song.
Let it be,
let it be,
let it be,
let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom,
let it be.
- The Beatles
This is a crappy poem, but an excellent lyrical chorus due to its repetition contrasted with changes in melody, harmony, rhythm, and dynamics. So when Berg tries to set Georg Büchner's play Woyzeck to music, it falls flat. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to be laughing at the closed captioning, but I couldn’t help it. It was so damn ridiculous.
And finally, the singing sucks. The operatic singing style is just another means by which opera asserts its high-class snobbery over the general public. This singing style is not natural. Try to stick to one note per syllable please. Melismas give me migranes. I think my thoughts on this topic can best be described by the modern day music critic bamimsam from youtube.com:
The end.
