| Even though by historical standards opera is a very | | | | will be forced to take in day and night, FOREVER, a |
| young art genre (as opposed to, say, theatre or | | | | repertoire consisting exclusively of operas that include |
| painting), the amount of nonsense that has been said, | | | | countertenors and/or High F's. |
| written, and published about it over the past two | | | | (Let me explain. I'm not merely an artist, critic, or |
| centuries truly defies imagination. At least eight | | | | connoisseur; I'm an epicurean as well. I have an |
| different conflicting OFFICIAL opinions exist on any and | | | | EXTREMELY LOW BOREDOM THRESHOLD. |
| all of its aspects; whenever an expert opens his or her | | | | Seriously, I do. I absolutely HATE being bored. I cannot |
| mouth to utter a comment, ten others jump at the | | | | stand it. Boredom to me is unbelievable spiritual and |
| commentator's throat ... No. Not really. As it is with | | | | mental torture. There is exactly ONE composer of |
| pretty much everything today, opera commentary has | | | | note who employs ONE countertenor part in ONE of |
| become politically correct, i.e. vague and uncertain, lest | | | | his operas, and the opera is not a very good one, |
| someone should take offence; so much so that it is | | | | either. There is exactly ONE opera by a notable |
| taken as a matter of course that folks who ask | | | | composer that features a High F, and that opera is |
| straight questions are amateurs while those who | | | | BORING. I go to the opera to be moved and |
| provide straight, to the point answers are ignoramuses. | | | | entertained; I purchase recordings that I know will |
| Straight answers are an endangered species facing | | | | move and entertain me. You couldn't pay me enough |
| extinction. | | | | to endure three acts of BORING music, no matter |
| This would be comical if it weren't so detrimental to | | | | how many important and reputable folks have praised |
| opera. | | | | it and built their careers around it. My taste, my ear, my |
| Constantly complaining about the "lack of new blood," | | | | perception are, to the best of my knowledge, pretty |
| opera's powers-that-be and their voluntary assistants | | | | standard; from which I conclude that since, after taking |
| with music school diplomas and insecurity complexes | | | | in two thousand live operatic performances of all kinds, |
| make every effort to confuse, rather than enlighten, | | | | I still find Bellini's operas tedious (and Debussy's, and |
| the newcomer. | | | | Berlioz's, and Berg's, too), so will thousands of others |
| At one of our recent live seminars, as Ricardo was | | | | potential opera buffs. To expose a novice to a tedious |
| busy elucidating types of operatic voices for an eager | | | | piece FIRST is to turn him or her away from opera |
| audience consisting mostly of novices, a man with a | | | | forever. My rhetorical question to every operatic |
| pot belly raised an objection, proclaiming in screechy | | | | Pharisee out there goes like this. I have turned |
| tones that the tenor was NOT the highest male voice | | | | countless folks into die-hard opera buffs. What have |
| in opera. Ricardo countered by saying that FOR ALL | | | | you done?) |
| INTENTS the tenor IS the highest male voice ... "And | | | | Opera as we know it is not rocket science. There is |
| the High C," interrupted the "erudite," continuing to flaunt | | | | so little one has to know beforehand to enjoy a |
| his pseudo-knowledge, "is NOT the highest note in the | | | | GOOD opera fully that it all fits into the three-hour |
| tenor range. There are parts in operas from the | | | | format of Ricardo's "Getting Opera" Course, with time |
| Seventeenth Century to the present that include the | | | | to spare (our live seminars feature |
| High F! You're ignorant! You don't now what you're | | | | questions-and-answers sessions and a fifteen-minute |
| talking about!" | | | | coffee-and-cigarette break). Neither of us is affiliated |
| He continued to "demonstrate" with increasing | | | | with the opera industry, or music industry, in any way. |
| frequency how knowledgeable and superior he was | | | | Ricardo's opinions are entirely objective, his expertise |
| until finally I had to escort him out. Our live seminars are | | | | true, his approach honest and very effective. |
| pretty expensive ($60 per person, locally; $200 per | | | | What "Getting Opera" does is sweep away the layers |
| person when we go on tour); folks flock to us to find | | | | of nonsense accumulated over the past two centuries: |
| out how they can enjoy opera, and we absolutely | | | | the nonsense that is put into textbooks and guides, the |
| have to give them their money's worth. If you think | | | | nonsense that is taught in music schools and |
| your knowledge and expertise are valuable and | | | | proclaimed fatuously from the lectern; and leaves in |
| sellable, by all means, set up your own seminar. | | | | just what used to enable an ordinary clerk or factory |
| Anyway, the point I'm trying to make here is that the | | | | worker in a fifth ring seat (in New York, in New |
| knowledge that certain tenor parts do in fact include | | | | Orleans, in Milan, in Vienna, in opera's heyday) to |
| that silly-sounding High F, and that the countertenor | | | | appreciate every note and every shade of harmony |
| does in fact sing higher than the ordinary tenor, is the | | | | of the beloved operatic masterpieces. |
| ultimate reward to those who insist on pointing such | | | | The entire history of opera is presented as if it were |
| things out whenever an opportunity presents itself. | | | | an adventure story, with subplots, intrigue, love affairs, |
| Such people don't really enjoy, nor even care about, | | | | gunfire, and callous meddling politicians getting in the |
| opera. They have no respect (never mind love) for | | | | way. The three major opera periods, which include the |
| their fellow human beings, either. Just as the biblical | | | | sixteen great operas written by five composers are |
| Pharisees took all joy out of religion (and annoyed | | | | covered in full. The differences between the styles are |
| Jesus and his apostles every chance they got), | | | | thoroughly (and humorously) explained and easily |
| operatic Pharisees today take all joy out of opera, | | | | grasped. The best recordings are used to illustrate |
| distracting and annoying those who for one reason or | | | | each point, and before you know it, you find yourself |
| another wish to wrench it from the stifling control of | | | | familiar with several opera plots (libretti). Some |
| elitist bureaucracy and restore it to its proper owner: | | | | terminology sinks in as if by magic, so much so that |
| the audience. If there is a special place in hell for the | | | | the listener will be able to hold his or her own in a |
| operatic Pharisee, I hope it features a large auditorium | | | | conversation about opera - with anyone. |
| with good acoustics, in which the unrepentant pedant | | | | |