ML Hart - Opera Basics / Introduction

"Opera lovers are fanatical because when a performance is great, it's the most exhilarating experience in the world outside the bedroom."

- Stephen Brook

"I have always believed that opera is a planet where the muses work together, join hands and celebrate all the arts."

- Franco Zeffirelli

Think opera is a dusty old museum kind of art, written by dead people, performed for rich people? Think again!

Sure, opera has a reputation as being something those in high society attend... but a lot of that crowd is there to be seen, rather than to see. And hear.

"Of all the noises known to man, opera is the most expensive."

- Molière
(1645)

"Opera must make you weep and die."

- Vincenzo Bellini

Opera is an expensive art form to produce because it's the collaboration of so many different types of art, and artists. But it started out as a form of theatre, and has always received its strongest support from everyday people - you and me.

Damnation. [Richard Leech and Adria Firestone in "Carmen"]

Composers of opera dissolve everything in their art. This is why knowledge of basic human emotions is virtually all the extra-musical equipment that is needed to understand and enjoy opera. Like the heroines and heroes - and the villains - of Shakespeare, Hugo, Dickens, Molière, Melville, the characters in operatic stories belong to that tradition which is in complete harmony with the conventions that shape and govern it.

"Every theatre is an insane asylum, but an opera theatre is the ward for the incurables."

- Franz Schalk

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REASONS YOU THINK YOU CAN'T GO:

It's too expensive - not really, not if you sit in the balcony. Even in big cities, you can get balcony seats for less than you'd pay for dinner at a restaurant.

I don't know where to sit - sit up in the balcony! You may end up next to someone who knows and loves opera and would happily share some of that knowledge. A huge benefit of that rather more budget-friendly seat in the balcony is that the sound is so much better.

What should I wear - anything from jeans to your grandmother's ratty fur. It's nice to make an occasion of it, dress up a bit... but you can see little old ladies, students, business suits or bikers. In times past it may have been more about what you wore, but now it's about what's on stage.

I can't understand what they're saying - with surtitles, you don't have to know. Besides, you don't always want to know. Sometimes the poetry or prose has to be tweaked a bit to sit well with the music. Have you ever sung in a choir? Handel's Messiah? then you know they often repeat things over and over again. And again. It can help to know the story, though.

I don't know anything about it - thats what these pages are for! The beauty of opera is that as complex as it is, as many layers of meaning and technique and all, it can be enjoyed in many different ways. Give yourself up to the emotion of the music... and read on for more about opera in general, its history, its challenges, and some of the most memorable individual stories.

Strange characters... [Peter Blanchet as Monastatos in "The Magic Flute"]

Laughter. [Vivica Genaux, in rehearsal]

"Opera: An exotic and irrational entertainment."

- Dr Samuel Johnson (1780)

"We are the music- makers,

We are the dreamers of dreams ...

We are the movers and shakers

Of the world forever, it seems."

- Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy

Take a look at the opera book pages for a look at the tangible result of this project. Visit the individual operas to get a sense of the performance and to learn more, from operatic classics to brand-new works. Drop in on a rehearsal. And preview ML Hart's current project, a unique look at the glory of the tenor voice.

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"The opera is the only refuge for poetry and fantasy.

"It is the unique place where the verse is still perceived, the last sanctuary of the gods, sylphides, nymphs, princes and tragic princesses; where uncouth reality is not admitted; it is a little world blazing in its gold and light... there is nothing of the actual, nothing of the real; one is in an enchanted world.

"The word is sung, the steps are pirouettes... an evening at the opera rests you from real life..."

- Théophile Gautier

EXPLORE MORE

"This is the ideal book for everyone who loves opera."

"... a distinguished book with heart."

THE ART OF MAKING OPERA

Your invitation backstage to learn more about how opera - and art - is really made. This award-winning book is available on this website.

Find out what's inside. The OperaWest critic says:

"Hart's observations about what goes on backstage, frontstage and all around the theatre are - I can only say - truly revelatory. This is one of the best books I've ever read on the creation of opera."

NAVIGATION

The Opera Project - What's It All About?
The Art of Making Opera - Inside the Book
See what people are saying about the book

OperaBasics - Top 10 Ways to Fall in Love With Opera

Principal Singers & Singing
Invitation to the Rehearsal Hall

WORDS & MUSIC SHOP
recommended recordings by tenors and Artist Profiles of many favorites

INDIVIDUAL OPERAS IN PHOTOGRAPHS... AND MORE

CONNECTING

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PRIVACY STATEMENT

ML HART HOME

ML Hart's current project is "The Tenor Book" . . .

World-class tenors featured in photographs and in-depth interviews. Additional comments from dozens of conductors, directors, sopranos, baritones, teachers, writers, and yes... more tenors, all of them trying to explain just what the mystique is about.

Visit the work-in-progress pages -- photographs and excerpts from the interviews reveal the most thrilling sound on stage.

PASSION & GLORY AT THE OPERA - The Tenor Book

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