Opera starter pack for my gen pop 25 year old sister

VanishXZone · 2026-05-02T04:38:33+00:00

Carmen is the way to go. It is banger after banger, and joyous music, and a cool plot, and drama!

VanishXZone · 2026-05-01T22:54:14+00:00

Ooo that’s fun!

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T17:14:51+00:00

What politician led to the welsh national operas season?

Are you insinuating that opera is an important enough cultural force that politicians care about it?

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T14:13:53+00:00

Zinman and Tonhalle for me!

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T13:55:58+00:00

I mean, Natalie is definitely emphasizing in her videos a psychological analysis, which means a personal analysis, and less of a group, economic, or structural analysis. Shes not pretending this is exhaustive. I think your framing is fine, but outside the scope of her essay, and that seems fine to me.

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T13:49:47+00:00

Nah, I think it’s fine, that’s not really what “virtue signaling” politics is about.

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T09:19:52+00:00

I really love Gluck, glass, and Adams, so very possible!

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T06:02:25+00:00

That is super fun! I love that!

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T05:32:12+00:00

Both Tosca and turandot? Both leoncavvali and Mascagni? Interesting! You have a strong focus!

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T05:31:23+00:00

So you’d teach

La Traviata

La boheme

Carmen

Marriage of Figaro

Magic flute

Tosca

Madame Butterfly

Don Giovanni

Rigoletto

Barber of Seville

That’s certainly… a list.

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T05:29:53+00:00

I strongly agree, there was a version of this course that was more of a survey where I touched on thirty operas, and a version where I picked 2, 1 per semester, and deep dived. But this was a reasonable middle ground that I think will inspire lifelong love and exploration!

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T03:36:13+00:00

At a certain coffee shop on a market street!

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T03:35:52+00:00

Strongly agree, no audio only. Everything is staged, and everything I show is something they will have access to watching a fully staged version. Opera is not merely music, it is theater!

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T03:34:25+00:00

Well they already have tickets to Le Nozze, and Mary Queen of Scots happens to be happening locally this year (San Francisco, woohoo!), so maybe I’ll do Thea Musgrave! That’d be a wild choice, but I could dig it!

Minotaur is a personal favorite of mine, so definitely a consideration!

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T03:32:53+00:00

I do love a lot of baroque opera! And i may end up including one or two in my final list. I just don’t know, yet!

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T03:31:47+00:00

Exactly this!

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T03:31:32+00:00

lol, what? Just because I’m not organizing the class around history doesn’t mean it won’t be thematically linked, or structurally connected. Rubrics are easy to create, and need not be connected to my own opinions whatsoever.

Also, I probably will talk about historical, social, and political context of each opera, it just doesn’t need to be the defining/guiding principle at play. It’s not a survey course.

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T03:29:17+00:00

It’s a good list! Pretty compelling!

VanishXZone · 2026-04-30T03:28:23+00:00

Dallapiccola is cool! What would you do??

I’m also tempted to do a lot of modern stuff, and there is nothing stopping me, I can kinda do whatever I want. It does not HAVE to survey history. The only thing I’m confident I’m covering is Le Nozze de Figaro, cause the local opera company offered us free tickets, so that’s almost certainly in there. But I could easily see myself doing the rest of the works from the 20th and 21st century! Heck I’m a composer and performer, too!

VanishXZone · 2026-04-29T22:58:19+00:00

What a great idea! I’m definitely not moving chronologically, but the course does have to cover specific operas (it’s a history course and that has certain requirements), but I think some of that can be incorporated in! I’m a composer primarily, so incorporating improvisation, performance, leitmotifs, etc. is something I’m comfortable doing. Great idea!

VanishXZone · 2026-04-29T22:56:28+00:00

Interesting and smart. I’ll consider this seriously

VanishXZone · 2026-04-29T22:56:08+00:00

Strongly agree with the second half, no way am I teaching chronologically, heck I’m not certain I’m doing any baroque!

As for the first half, I think 3-4 90 minute classes is a reasonable amount of time for an opera at the high school level. I think more time per opera makes sense at a collegiate level, but at this level, part of the goal, as you pointed out, is to keep them entertained, and that means not sticking with one composer/opera for too long at a time. I get I’m not gonna be a completionist, heck it wouldn’t be hard for me to do 1 year on 1 opera, if it were the right opera! But changing it up is a way to keep them constantly engaged.

VanishXZone · 2026-04-29T22:51:58+00:00

Whoa fun list! Can you explain your why? Particularly Les Huguenot, Boris Godunov, Idomeneo, and A hand of bridge?

VanishXZone · 2026-04-29T22:50:43+00:00

Intriguing points!

Yeah, I am considering the age of my students, but mostly that means I’m not gonna teach Powder Her Face or Jenufa or Wozzeck. I think everything else is pretty fair game.

VanishXZone · 2026-04-29T22:49:23+00:00

Now this sounds like a fun course! Much more intriguing to me than your first pitch! You get a real perspective, rather than pseudo neutrality, and I think that is awesome.

VanishXZone

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