A Few Things To Consider Covering When Writing Opera ReviewsNov 03 '07 (Updated Mar 09 '08) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Writing a good opera review isn't difficult if you keep in mind what the audience would want to know. A Few Things To Consider Covering When Writing Opera Reviews Writing opera review is not difficult, really (at least not nearly as difficult as singing it)! In many ways, it is easier than writing pure music review since you know the story the music is supposed to convey. When a singer sounds bubbly and cheerful when her character has just been dumped by the boyfriend on stage, you know something is wrong, no matter how wonderful she sounds. For anyone who has never reviewed operatic recordings or performance before, here are a few things that hard core opera fans would find really useful to see in a review. 1. Give both the name of the opera and its composer. A few certain stories have given rise to many opera by many different composers. Even if one version is preferred over all the others, it is always a good idea to identify exactly whose ‘Orfeo’, ‘Otello’, ‘Romeo et Juliette’, ‘Orlando’, or ‘Faust’ you are reviewing (did you know that at least 40 different composers have set La clemenza di Tito to music even though the only one that is often performed these days is Mozart’s?). A decade or two ago, one could get away with assuming that everyone will ‘know’ that Otello is written by Verdi or that The Barber of Seville is by Rossini. But in this current age of ‘rediscovery’ of obscure works by not so well known composers, this isn’t a safe assumption anymore (for the record, I like Rossini’s version of Otello, though quite agree that Paisiello’s Barber of Seville is a rather forgettable work). 2. Identify the principal performers and the conductor... and the stage director (if you are reviewing a live staged performance, or a VHS or DVD recording of one). Many (to most) opera-fans are groupies.... We follow particular artists regardless of what opera they are in (for their performance, that is... Stalking is not a cool practice in my book). Some ensemble opera have very large cast (Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Berlioz’s Les Troyens, for examples), but in most cases they don’t contain more than 5 or 6 major roles. Those are the ones that need identifying. Also, if there is an aging legend singing a minor (cameo) role, it is a good idea to mention him/her, too. You might be surprised at how many hard core opera fans will buy a recording of a work they don't even like just for the performance of a fading favorite in the minor role. The non-singing parts (like Asfolto in Händel’s Alcina or Mohammed the page boy in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier) aren’t usually listed. Though if their performance impresses you, a good mention is always welcomed by the artists, I think. 3. Include at least a brief synopsis. For some weird reason, opera recordings don’t always come with a booklet containing synopsis. Most of the time the audience wouldn’t have much trouble guessing at the story, but there are some opera that even the hard core fans have a hard time getting (think Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust or Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten’). Be sure to tell the plot in your own words rather than copying word-for-word from another source, though. 4. Review the performance, more so than the opera itself. Most opera fans are more interested in hearing about how good the singing and the conducting in this particular performance is, rather than what you think of the opera's plot. We can find out about the story of the opera elsewhere. Please take into consideration how physical the singer is when s/he is singing that stupendously difficult aria before condemning him/her for a musical slip, also. For example, look at this clip (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=l5wpBoEhxDk). Can you really fault Natalie Dessay for some uneven vocalism when she's moving around this much while singing this music? 5. What language is it sung in? Any subtitle(or printed libretto/text) available? While most opera are performed in original language these days, there are many opera houses that prefer to do them in a particular language. For example, the English National Opera (ENO) does nearly all foreign language opera in translated English. Older recordings of live performances from Germany up to the mid 20th Century will likely be in German regardless of what the original language of the opera is (the Germans seem to like the story telling more than the voice). This can be quite important to opera fans. Some operatic music fits the original text a lot better than it does the translated one (Donizetti’s La Favorite is a good example). Also, opera singers aren’t necessarily linguistically gifted and some just can’t sing words intelligibly in more than 2 languages. I usually don’t care about not being able to decipher someone’s sung French as long as he/she can communicate the emotional content of the music in his/her singing, but many opera fans are also linguistic snobs who can’t stand it when an English opera diva’s sung Italian ends up sounding like Swahili (and no, it doesn’t do any good to remind the audience that they themselves don’t sound all that fluent in their second language either. You'll just earn an extra-large batch of hate mails for it instead of the usual moderately large one). 6. If possible, identify the version (or cut) of the opera this performance uses. Despite of all the modern obsession over ‘authenticity’ or ‘fidelity to the original score’, most of the pre-modern opera (up to Verdi's time) come in many different versions, with some revisions written/sanctioned by the composers themselves. Even some modern opera like Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier are performed with different ‘cuts’ these days (actually it is hardly ever performed in full due to it’s lengthy nature.... If the final curtain doesn’t fall by midnight, the opera house would get charged with overtime pay for the orchestra and stage-hands, so usually Ochs’ Act II Waltz is snipped, along with some other chunks of music). A few famous opera that are often performed in different versions are Mozart’s Idomeneo, Verdi’s La forza del destino, Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, Rossini’s Tancredi, Verdi's Don Carlo. 7. Refrain from showing off your gift (or curse) of the perfect pitch and/or fluency in classical music lingo (unless you are sure that your target audience is just as fluent as you are). Yep, impressing others by identifying the exact pitch of every high note a diva sings, or the key of every modulation in an orchestral piece, etc, can feel gratifying.... Gratifying only for you, that is. Most readers can’t tell a C from an E (or if the pitch is tuned to the modern standard A or not), and therefore couldn’t care less if the soprano missed the high E by a quarter step or a half step. Unless you are identifying a special treat (like a mezzo-soprano hitting something above soprano high C or someone really nailing the 2 written G's (above high C) in Mozart’s ‘Popoli di Tessalia,’ or a specific blunder that regular fans would care about (like if the Queen of the Night misses her high F’s in The Magic Flute), then chances are very good that the readers will find the excessive use of technical lingo off-putting. 8. As much as possible, refrain from bashing other singers in your praise of one. If the singer is really good, then surely she can be praised on her own merits without you having to indulge in the ‘my diva is better than yours’ or the ‘nobody will ever be able to sing this better than my diva can’ kind of argument. Believe me, I probably won’t feel charitable toward your favorite mezzo if your only mode of praising her is to keep claiming that she is so much more musical or more complete or prettier than my favorite diva is. I'd probably feel like sending her a bouquet of poisonous toadstools instead of roses... (and signing your name on the card that goes with it, for good measure). 9. Make the distinction between a live recording and one that was made in a studio. The 'perfection' of the studio recording is not something to be expected in a 'live' performance, since performers on stage can't benefit from multiple takes, splicing, and sound engineering. The recording microphone has a much harder time capturing larger voices, while it can make the small voices sound larger than they really are. A lot of singers today will sing extreme high notes in studio recordings that they will never sing in live setting (no one wants to risk being blasted for going after an interpolated high note and misses), so please keep these technicalities in mind when you are tempted to compare a live CD of an opera with a studio recorded one. ------------------------------------------- The provisions above may seem commonsensical, but we are all apt to fall off the wagon at one time or another (me included). Above all, though, have fun listening to the amazing operatic music and have fun telling others what effects it has on you. Just keep in mind that the singers are humans, too, and have feelings (and, reportedly, most are driven by their lifestyle into becoming internet addicts... and will likely come across your review sooner or later). The great German mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig writes in her memoir that the reviewers should take care that they wouldn’t be ashamed or afraid to say exactly what they write about a performer to his/her face. That is a good rule of thumb when penning a review, I think. One doesn’t have to be vindictive in order to be constructively critical. More about the opera: A Few Words To Opera Newbies, Dance Thru Opera History with Munkus, Commandments for the Opera Fans, 10 Beginners-Friendly Opera, Some Friendly Diva Opera Arias (the ladies), Some Friendly Divo Opera Arias (the gents), Some Friendly Operatic Duets, Some Friendly Operatic Ensembles, 15 Favorite Opera Youtube Clips (2007), Newbies' Guide to German & French Opera, Newbies' Guide to Operetta  |
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