5 books that should be operas

Editorial

Of course, not every work of fiction lends itself well to the addition of music; an operatic Finnegan's Wake might not be boring, but it may miss the point. Authors like John Irving write compelling characters (I could read The World According to Garp a hundred times), but they're developed over the long-haul, over a scope that's not conducive to the way opera tells stories. The same goes for delicious epics, like Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire, and even Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series.

Aria Guides: Je veux vivre

Editorial

This is Juliette's first aria from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, and she sings it after her nurse yet again brings up the fact that she has to get married to Paris. Juliette is young, and that can either mean she's giddy and excitable, or that she's nervous and insecure about things like arranged marriages and being only 13 or so. "Je veux vivre" is a hugely popular pick for audition packages; it's not too long, it shows off some coloratura, and it's a great opportunity to show polished acting chops.

8 contemporary roles to covet

Editorial

As we creep further into the 2010s, there exists enough new opera to take stock of the 21st-century roles deserving of our attention. Who are the Anne Trueloves, the Captain Veres, the Chiang Ch'ings of today? To help answer those great questions, we offer up 8 delicious roles from operas of this generation.

10 pop singers with pipes

Editorial

I'm a big old fan of opera singers and their alien skills. They can do anything at all with their voice, it seems. But of course, opera isn't the only place you'll find fantastic singing. We wanted to collect some proof of that statement, which definitely made for a fun day's work.

Chiaro vs. scuro: what does it all mean?

Editorial

Some of these descriptors are everywhere in operatic circles, yet it can often be hard to imagine what a "bright" colour sounds like in the voice, or what the word "warm" means when it comes to sound. We thought it would be handy to point out a few major categories under which voices fall, and let you easily hear the differences.

Roundup, 2015

Editorial

2015 is almost done, everyone! Slightly incredulous over here. It means it's time for some retrospective writing about notable moments in the opera scene for yet another calendar year. 2015 started tangible conversations about looming issues around opera, the money it costs, and the reasons to produce it. Like water-cooler conversations, but with more substance.

Bach was all about that bass

Editorial

It is not possible to overstate how crazy it would be to hear infrasounds in music for the first time. It would be like if tomorrow we discovered a new colour of visible light that we’d been overlooking since the beginning of time. A completely new response from a sense that had been giving you exactly the same feedback for decades. This sound, and therefore the music it's a part of, would make a huge impression on you.

Hot topics: singers who scoop

Editorial

Recently, one of our readers posed a question about that particular vocal technique, commonly (and charmingly) known as "scooping". When a singer scoops up to a note, it means they start making sound on a pitch that's below the one they mean to sing. Pop singers do a similar thing, but usually with less vibrato. It's a stylistic choice, and it's often on a conscious decision by the singer.

Nerding out: Mozart's blurry barlines

Editorial

All those squiggly lines that he wrote are erased bar lines. The duet is in 6/8 time, and in this version, Mozart has the downbeats lined up with words like "Männern" and "Liebe"; they're good words for downbeats, but Mozart apparently thought the pulse of this duet was a bit heavy-handed. So, he moved the all of the barlines over by half a measure, and the effect is pretty amazing.

The guy who sang at the Met 2,928 times

Editorial

In what can be deemed the Great Find of the Weekend, check out this list of artists who have had the most performers at The Metropolitan Opera. I can't vouch for detail-accuracy, and since it's a Wikipedia article, go ahead and take it with a grain of salt. That said, have a look at the ten singers with the most Met stage time: