Opera Music

Some people love Opera music. To them, Opera music is the most beautiful and exciting music. They go to the theater to hear Opera music. They own vast collections of rare vintage Opera music recordings. Some people close themselves up in their room so they can listen to Opera music for hours on end without disturbance. While, to other people, Opera music is just a lot of people bellowing to classical music in some foreign language. These people think Opera music is boring or worse. They make fun of Opera music. the laugh when the characters in cartoons they watch try to sing Opera music. Two very different points of view on Opera music. Who is right? Who is wrong about Opera music? Maybe both, maybe no one.

has always been a bit inaccessible to the average man. If you can't understand Italian or German, then most operas are not very comprehendible to you. Opera music has always had this air about it. To those not in the upper classes of society, Opera music has always been portrayed as something that is just not for them. If you didn't speak the language and you had no one to explain to you what was going on, and couldn't read if they offered librettos then it might be difficult to enjoy Opera music. So out of defensiveness, popular culture has often made fun of Opera music. Every kid grew up being told by other kids that Opera music was silly and that Opera music was only for swells and eggheads. And what kid wanted to be considered an egghead?

So we watched all the cartoons make fun of Opera music and we learned to make fun of Opera music ourselves without ever really getting a chance to understand or enjoy Opera music for ourselves. I know of one exception, and there must be many, but there was a seven year old boy who happen to hear an aria from The Magic Flute Opera and he said, " Now, that's for me!" and was an Opera lover his entire life. But most parents don't introduce their children to Opera music. These days, the majority of music children are exposed to in the home is either music on television shows or in movies and whatever the adults of the house happen to play. But not many youngsters these days have parents who are blaring Opera music all day long in the home or taking their pre-teenage kids to the Opera for their birthday outings.

Opera music was always a mysterious realm. One which you could not really explore. Oh, you might see a famous opera singer on TV once in a while singing Opera music, but it just sounded so foreign to your ears that somebody would inevitably switch the channel to something else. So it was difficult to get any positive exposure to Opera music. And what a shame since great Opera music is a wonder to listen to. And the greatest of the opera singers during the golden age of opera were ones of a kind...

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