BUSTING 5 OPERA MYTHS ｜｜ Let's get the facts STRAIGHT
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
196.4967
Summary
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
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Hello, beautiful ladies, and welcome to today's video where we're going to be busting five opera myths.
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There are a lot of myths about opera, and I think that those need to be busted.
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Personally, I think that people have a really big misperception about what opera is, what we do,
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who can be on stage, who can go see operas, and I think so much of that is totally misinformed.
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So I'm here to give you guys a little bit more information and break some opera myths.
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The first opera myth that I would like to break is that opera singers have to be bigger.
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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.
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There's a little bit of a misconception regarding this because I think there's a caricature of an opera singer,
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large and in charge, wearing a helmet with horns, and that has to do with Wagner.
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Opera singers can be good singers whether they're skinny or whether they're larger,
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The problem comes when an opera singer is larger and loses a lot of weight very quickly.
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Opera singers have to train the muscles in their ribcage to be held out
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so that we can sing long, long phrases without taking a breath.
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When you're a larger person, those muscles don't actually ever get the training they need.
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They are naturally in a state of being distended because there needs to be more breath to support your body.
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So when you lose weight quickly, you also lose the ability to hold out your ribcage when you're singing.
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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
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because they need to train those muscles again and in a different way.
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You can look at opera singers like Pavarotti, and you can look at opera singers like Renée Fleming,
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and you can see that there's really a spectrum of different body types in opera.
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Why do you think that soap operas are called soap operas?
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The stories in opera are really intense, and you have these characters that are going through really intense situations
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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.
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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,
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it can be like a wall of sound, and you won't necessarily be able to pick out the beautiful moments
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It's two and a half hours of totally new music.
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That's why I recommend listening to a couple of my podcasts where I walk you through the plot
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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.
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But opera is definitely not boring, especially if you go in with the right mentality.
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The next myth is that opera is only for rich people.
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Most of them sell tickets for about $25, so that's number one.
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Number two, most opera companies are becoming more casual,
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so you don't have to be wearing a very fancy dress in order to go.
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Now, let me say, personally, I love going to operas in fancy dresses,
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and you can find fancy dresses at Forever 21 for about $15 if you look in the right places.
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So I'm always a proponent of getting dressed up and being classic.
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But if you really can't afford it, you won't be an outcast.
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You can go to the opera and there are people dressed from very casual to very fancy,
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and it's very much an open space for all different kinds of people.
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I know a lot of other opera singers who are not rich, and we all enjoy going to the opera.
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So don't feel like you are not included in an opera-going crowd.
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You definitely would be able to go no matter what end of the wealth spectrum you are on.
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Old people do tend to know opera better than young people,
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but there are a lot of young people who are now getting into opera
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because it is such beautiful music, and their stories are so interesting.
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And you don't have to be one of those people who just writes it off and says,
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I will say that the Manhattan School of Music, for example, where I got my master's,
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we had about 120 young people who wanted to be singers,
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so that means that there are also 120 people who go to the Met
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The Metropolitan Opera, not the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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So opera is definitely for people from any age and any wealth background.
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And the last myth that I am going to bust today
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So when someone asks you, what's your favorite opera,
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You should probably respond with, let's say, La Boheme.
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It's easy to say, and it doesn't require that much energy trying to pronounce the words.
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Plus, I have a podcast on La Boheme, so you can go and check that out,
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and you'll actually know what you're talking about.
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Please subscribe to my channel and to my blog if you haven't already.
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Head over to my Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and follow me there.