Comments on: How to Appreciate Opera

on 7/6/2008 "... a fan of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” will be unable to tolerate an atonal opus like Berg’s “Wozzeck.”"
I'm not sure why you make this assumption but I enjoy the music of both of those operas.

on 12/14/2007 This is a very well written article.I am presently in a troubled state, having been asked to join an elitist opera group.My interest is there,but I fear embarrassing the person that recommended me,as well as myself.

on 8/8/2006 Opera needn't be expensive. You can often see and hear better from the first balcony than from more expensive seats.

Also, there is no reason to fear Wagner! If you enjoyed the "Lord of the Rings" movies, for example, and are open to the sounds of a symphony orchestra, then you will like Wagner's "Ring"! Try "Die Walkure", which includes the famous "Ride of the Valkyries"!

on 11/22/2005 Consider reading about the life of a great opera composer. Verdi should be a very good start, Puccini may work as well. Realize how the making of an opera was the result of a complicated process, where everything in the partitas has a meaning and not just text put on a nice melody. Interesting and useful will be also reading about the very beginnings. How the need to imitate human speaking and emotions in the form of simple but effective rhetoric figures, has leaded to a genre such as the madrigal and later opera. Research Monteverdi in this regard.