10.1.12

Today, we spoke about opera and the different types of voices for men and women. I thought it was pretty interesting to find out that opera was created around the early 1600s by combining drama and music. I was a bit disappointed when Professor Kahan didn’t include my favorite composer, Rossini, in her “Four Greats” but I was particularly happy when we spoke about him for a few minutes. Being a horn player, I’ve unfortunately come to brush off listening to Mozart (his four horn concertos are drilled into any horn player so, it can be a not so nice reminder when Mozart comes on the radio) and I feel terrible for not recognizing that he was a great opera composer.

Learning some of the opera vocabulary is making me more comfortable in talking about operas. I’ve always been afraid to speak about operas because I thought I might come off as unintelligent about the subject and therefore too inferior to speak about it. Now that I know some of the vocabulary, I’m becoming more comfortable and embracing this opera loving side of me. In my high school music program, we had to go to a school broadcasting live performance of the Met once a semester. I remember Carmen, obviously, even though I saw it almost two years ago. At the time I thought I was too young to find enjoyment in the operas but now that I’m older I know that was really silly of me.

I’m so excited to see the opera, and even the dressed up audience members, that I listened to the opening night of Turandot on Saturday on my satellite radio. I didn’t have the time to listen to it all and I didn’t have English subtitles but I had tremendous respect for what goes into the opera.

– Amber G