Ron David - The History of Opera for Beginners

Shawshank & The Fat Lady Revisited

Q: Some intros to opera begin, Now that you have a ticket to a liveopera performance?

A: An introduction to opera should not assume you already have a ticket to the operathat's leaving the most difficult part undone.

I have tried to entice you to buy that ticket.

Q: Some introductions to opera suggest that people are alreadyaware of opera's power to arouse great passions and inspire outpourings of unadulterated ecstasy. How do you feel about that?

A: I think that's putting the cart before the horse. If people had the slightest notion they stood a good chance of experiencing outpouringsof unadulterated ecstasy from listening to opera, they'd be a lot more eager to get to it. I have never seen an intro to opera that explained how one goes about experiencing these emotional outpourings of unadulterated ecstasy? They don't even ask the question, let alone try to answer it.

I have tried to answer that question.

Q: How does one go about choosing opera singers?

A: Sample as many singers as you can in whichever formats you prefer: CDs, DVDs, YouTube, radio, TV, live concerts, live operas, Met Opera Radio or TV broadcasts, Met Opera High Definition Theater Videocasts, free radio opera performances from all over the worldsnoop the dozens of web sites that feature opera (see Resources section); listen and/or watch as many different opera singers as you canand pay attention to what gives you pleasure.

This book aims to be a pleasure-driven introduction to opera!

Q: Do you have to go to the opera house to begin listening to opera.

A: No. You begin listening at home, looking for a voice or two that pushes your buttons. Like every opera nut I know, I have had some of my most intense experiences listening from home or in the course of my everyday life.

Q: Give us an example.

A: A few years ago, training for a marathon race, I scheduled my long runs for Saturday afternoons so I could listen to Met Opera broadcasts. This day featured Placido Domingo singing Otello. Running through one of the ugliest places on earth (from Hoboken, NJ, through the tangle of roads to and from the Lincoln Tunnel toward WeehawkenUGLY!)Domingo starts singing his heart out (Dio! Mi potevi)I'm running, tears all down my face, impervious to cars lane-hopping, horns honking, drivers cursing, breathing exhaust fumes instead of air, lifted high above the ugliness, but forcing myself to be careful because Domingo's singing is making me feel bullet-proof.

(I was so filled with the power of the music that I felt that any car that hit me would just bounce off me!) And Otello's death scene (Niun mi tema)forget about it! Like the dude in Chariots of Fire, I felt God's pleasure. That feeling, whatever you call it, is one of the pleasures I get from opera.

And you don't have to go to the opera house to get it!

Q: Does this book aim to do anything we might not be aware of?

A: Yes. (Or maybe.) I have tried to use The Shawshank Redemption to emphasize the fact that the power of music you don't quite understand to move you beyond your limits can be intensely liberating if you trust it and let it work its magic. If you let it happen, the payoff can be glorious.

Best case: You get a taste of transcendent ecstasy! (Or not.)

Q: Opera books are very specific about which operas to see but theydon't seem to be the least bit fussy about the singers.

A: Professional critics and musicians generally consider opera singers a necessary evilgifted morons who contribute nothing of real artistic value to opera. They will rave about composers and conductorsbut not SINGERS! Most opera reviews have more to say about the production (the crap on the stage) than about the singers.

A Few Things Worth Mentioning

• Sub-Titles & Super-titles: Virtually all operas nowadays give you the translated text of what the characters are saying (singing). Sub-titles (text at the bottom of the screen) are usually used in videos and DVDs. Super-titles (text at the top of the screen) are usually used in the opera house.
• Does It Matter Where You Are Seated in the Opera House? YES, of course it does. Books and articles that are eager to get you into the opera house downplay the importance of where you are seated, but the difference can be enormous. The closer the better.
• Dress any way you likebut don't applaud until you hear other people applaud. Just about the only way to make a fool of yourself at a live opera is applauding at the wrong time.

A Special Thanks to Stefan Zucker

Stefan Zucker (b. 1949) is an American opera singer, an expert in Italian opera and the profoundly eccentric editor of Opera Fanatic magazine and former host of the radio program of the same name.

Zucker wrote, edited, published, organized, broadcast, ate, slept and dreamed about Opera Fanatic magazine and radio show. He knows and loves singing as much as any fanatic on earth. Although he is obsessively devoted to singers like Magda Olivero, he encouraged different opinions and he treated everyone who phoned into his radio show with respect.

Dear Stefan, you taught me more about singing than anyone in the world. You gave me a taste of operas and singers I had never heard before. I've never met you, I just wanted to thank you.

Ron David.

Snoop through opera's past. It's a goldmine of spectacular singers. Zucker even puts out an Opera Fanatic's Catalogue, featuring hard-to-get videos, tapes, CDs.

Zucker's New York area radio show was the best program I've ever heard for learning about opera, especially about singing. In addition to guests like Franco Corelli and Carlo Bergonzi, a constant parade of true opera fanatics and connoisseurs phoned in with commentary that ranged from brilliant to outrageous. Zucker's show was a cross between an encyclopedia of singing and the NationalEnquirer.

Q: How is it Possible for the Sound Quality of Old Recordings to Improve?

A: A perfect example of not only how the sound quality can be improved dramatically, but of how much work and dedication it takes can be seen in the first half of this NY Times article:

Beyond High C, High Technology

by William G. Honan in The New York Times

For the love of opera, Stefan Zucker trained to reach the upper limits of the tenor's range.

For the love of opera, Stefan Zucker spent 12 years of Saturday nights as the host of Opera Fanatic, a radio show on WKCR-FM that featured rare recordings, interviews with performers and call-ins.

And for the love of opera, Stefan Zucker has reinvented himself as a techno geek.

Mr. Zucker, 55, has learned that the computer can be his friend. After Columbia University, the owner of WKCR-FM, dropped Mr. Zucker as the host of Opera Fanatic in 1994, he turned his efforts to preserving early opera recordings and films through his nonprofit Bel Canto Society. There, at www.belcantosociety.org, fellow fanatics can hear his old radio programs and purchase his remastered CD's, DVD's and videos.

As a result, Mr. Zuckercheerful and shaggy-beardedsays that when he is not listening to music, he likes nothing more than to curl up with a current issue of the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society.

I started as a singer, Mr. Zucker said, and soon became fascinated by the way in which singing had evolved.

Recently, Mr. Zucker acquired for Bel Canto Society a live recording of a 1939 Il Trovatore performance starring Jussi Bjorling and Gina Cigna. The original was made on a 78 r.p.m. recording marred by fluctuations in speed and audible clicks and pops.