Classically Abby - January 31, 2020


BUSTING 5 OPERA MYTHS ｜｜ Let's get the facts STRAIGHT

Hosted by
Abby Shapiro
Mentioned
La Boheme Reiner Fulmich Phantom
1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY! ｜｜ Get ready for some changes... A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN OPERA SINGER ｜｜ Vlogging my entire day!

Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

196.5

Word count

1,133

Sentence count

73

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I break down 5 common opera myths and give you a little more information about what opera is and why you should go to an opera. I also talk about why opera is not only for rich people, but also not for old people!

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Hello, beautiful ladies, and welcome to today's video where we're going to be busting five opera myths. 1.00
00:00:07.780 There are a lot of myths about opera, and I think that those need to be busted.
00:00:13.420 Personally, I think that people have a really big misperception about what opera is, what we do,
00:00:19.400 who can be on stage, who can go see operas, and I think so much of that is totally misinformed.
00:00:25.540 So I'm here to give you guys a little bit more information and break some opera myths.
00:00:31.440 The first opera myth that I would like to break is that opera singers have to be bigger.
00:00:36.400 Now, there are opera singers who are all different shapes and sizes, but you don't need to be large to be an opera singer.
00:00:42.560 There's a little bit of a misconception regarding this because I think there's a caricature of an opera singer,
00:00:47.920 large and in charge, wearing a helmet with horns, and that has to do with Wagner.
00:00:53.920 We won't get into that.
00:00:55.540 But here's the true facts.
00:00:57.520 Opera singers can be good singers whether they're skinny or whether they're larger,
00:01:01.820 and there's no problem with either.
00:01:03.980 Here is the only problem.
00:01:05.600 The problem comes when an opera singer is larger and loses a lot of weight very quickly.
00:01:10.900 Let me explain what happens.
00:01:12.900 Opera singers have to train the muscles in their ribcage to be held out
00:01:16.680 so that we can sing long, long phrases without taking a breath.
00:01:20.720 When you're a larger person, those muscles don't actually ever get the training they need.
00:01:25.260 They are naturally in a state of being distended because there needs to be more breath to support your body.
00:01:30.520 So when you lose weight quickly, you also lose the ability to hold out your ribcage when you're singing.
00:01:36.520 So a lot of singers that go from larger to thinner very quickly end up having to take a little bit of time to recuperate
00:01:44.360 because they need to train those muscles again and in a different way.
00:01:48.960 But opera singers can be thin.
00:01:51.540 Opera singers can be large.
00:01:52.840 It really just depends on the person.
00:01:54.940 You can look at opera singers like Pavarotti, and you can look at opera singers like Renée Fleming,
00:01:59.620 and you can see that there's really a spectrum of different body types in opera.
00:02:05.560 The next myth is that opera is boring.
00:02:08.520 That could not be further from the truth.
00:02:10.820 Why do you think that soap operas are called soap operas?
00:02:13.640 Because operas are as dramatic.
00:02:15.800 The stories in opera are really intense, and you have these characters that are going through really intense situations
00:02:22.860 and experiencing them musically.
00:02:25.000 So if you go to an opera and you know what's going on, you'll see very quickly that the stories themselves are not boring at all.
00:02:32.520 Another huge thing is that if you go into an opera and you haven't spent any time to learn any of the music before you go in,
00:02:38.560 it can be like a wall of sound, and you won't necessarily be able to pick out the beautiful moments
00:02:45.220 because you won't recognize anything.
00:02:46.920 It's two and a half hours of totally new music.
00:02:49.560 That's why I recommend listening to a couple of my podcasts where I walk you through the plot
00:02:54.020 and give you about ten excerpts so that when you go into the opera, you actually have an idea of what you're listening to.
00:02:59.260 But opera is definitely not boring, especially if you go in with the right mentality.
00:03:04.040 The next myth is that opera is only for rich people.
00:03:07.080 Opera is not only for rich people.
00:03:11.980 Number one, look at your local opera company.
00:03:14.960 Most of them sell tickets for about $25, so that's number one.
00:03:18.720 Number two, most opera companies are becoming more casual,
00:03:21.920 so you don't have to be wearing a very fancy dress in order to go.
00:03:25.260 Now, let me say, personally, I love going to operas in fancy dresses,
00:03:30.740 and you can find fancy dresses at Forever 21 for about $15 if you look in the right places.
00:03:35.600 So I'm always a proponent of getting dressed up and being classic.
00:03:40.040 But if you really can't afford it, you won't be an outcast.
00:03:42.820 You can go to the opera and there are people dressed from very casual to very fancy,
00:03:47.340 and it's very much an open space for all different kinds of people.
00:03:52.160 I'm not rich.
00:03:53.040 I know a lot of other opera singers who are not rich, and we all enjoy going to the opera.
00:03:57.920 So don't feel like you are not included in an opera-going crowd.
00:04:03.640 You definitely would be able to go no matter what end of the wealth spectrum you are on.
00:04:08.860 Number four is that opera is for old people. 0.68
00:04:12.580 Also a lie.
00:04:14.000 Opera is not for old people.
00:04:15.380 Old people do tend to know opera better than young people, 0.99
00:04:18.600 but there are a lot of young people who are now getting into opera
00:04:21.820 because it is such beautiful music, and their stories are so interesting.
00:04:25.860 And you don't have to be one of those people who just writes it off and says,
00:04:29.040 Oh, I'm not old.
00:04:30.200 I don't have to do this.
00:04:31.360 It doesn't apply to me.
00:04:32.720 I mean, you don't have to do it, but...
00:04:34.820 I will say that the Manhattan School of Music, for example, where I got my master's,
00:04:38.920 we had about 120 young people who wanted to be singers,
00:04:42.240 so that means that there are also 120 people who go to the Met
00:04:45.440 because they want to watch opera.
00:04:47.660 The Metropolitan Opera, not the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
00:04:51.080 So opera is definitely for people from any age and any wealth background.
00:04:56.620 And the last myth that I am going to bust today
00:04:59.960 is that Phantom of the Opera is an opera.
00:05:02.660 Phantom of the Opera is not an opera.
00:05:04.700 It's a musical.
00:05:05.780 It's in an opera house.
00:05:07.180 That's where it takes place.
00:05:08.260 That's why it's called Phantom of the Opera.
00:05:10.240 But the show itself is a musical.
00:05:12.460 It is not an opera.
00:05:13.900 So when someone asks you, what's your favorite opera,
00:05:16.760 don't respond to Phantom of the Opera.
00:05:18.720 You should probably respond with, let's say, La Boheme.
00:05:21.900 It's easy to say, and it doesn't require that much energy trying to pronounce the words.
00:05:26.820 Plus, I have a podcast on La Boheme, so you can go and check that out,
00:05:30.480 and you'll actually know what you're talking about.
00:05:32.680 So those were my five opera myths busted.
00:05:35.540 I hope you guys enjoyed today's video.
00:05:37.080 Please subscribe to my channel and to my blog if you haven't already.
00:05:40.460 Head over to my Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and follow me there.
00:05:43.580 And I'll see you guys in my next video.
00:05:45.640 Bye!