Best books about opera music according to redditors

We found 13 Reddit comments discussing the best books about opera music. We ranked the 12 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Opera & classical music songbooks

Top Reddit comments about Opera Music:

u/valkyrie1876 · 11 pointsr/opera

Hi, I created my own Wagner Opera major at Conservatory, so I'll do my best to help:

I have to say that live performance is the best way to experience the Ring, but otherwise the Solti recording is one of the best (Levine, Barenboim, and Janowski/Staatskapelle are up there too). The music is made up of leitmotivs, or musical phrases associated with characters, ideas, feelings etc. The leitmotivs constantly change based on context, and there are around 100 of them (pending on who's counting). To make sense of the opera, you need to have just a basic understanding of them. This is a good list of the more important ones: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcPgcaow01FUWAH-b-z6Ix7W3_7QBBjLN Don't bother memorizing them, just familiarize and listening to the operas will do the rest :)

Additionally, a basic plot understanding is useful, and the Wikipedia articles for each individual opera are sufficient:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Rheingold#Synopsis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Walk%C3%BCre#Synopsis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_(opera)#Synopsis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6tterd%C3%A4mmerung#Synopsis

I also find that listening along to a text and translation is most effective, which you can find here:

http://www.murashev.com/opera/Richard_Wagner

There is one book I would strongly recommend to any Wagner newbie: Bryan Magee's "Aspects of Wagner." In my opinion, it is by far the best short book on Wagner. While not about the Ring itself, it covers exactly how all of Wagner's operas function (I think they are really quite different from all other opera), his concept of art, his influence, and his controversies. It should give the proper frame of mind to dig into the operas. If you really want something focused just on the Ring, however, I'd recommend M. Owen Lee's introduction. It's a slim volume with a summary, a motif index, and some commentary on the big ideas. Or, there's a nice Ring companion book put together by Barry Millington with a full text translation that also has scholarly essays on conception and context, as well as index of important leitmotivs:

https://www.amazon.com/Aspects-Wagner-Bryan-Magee/dp/0192840126

https://www.amazon.com/Wagners-Ring-Turning-Sky-Round/dp/0879101865

https://www.amazon.com/Wagners-Ring-Nibelung-Barry-Millington-ebook/dp/B00D3F94RE

Apologies for the length, I hope this was at least a little useful, and let me know if you'd like to know any more :)

u/caffarelli · 8 pointsr/AskHistorians

I read a fair amount of pop history, and there's lots of good pop history! The "good stuff" tends to be quieter and not published by Certain Big Names and will cover more niche topics, or just generally make more modest arguments. I review pop history regularly on Saturday Sources. Honestly I tend to be harder on the academic history. Some recentish pop history I've liked (loosely defined as "costs less than $30")

u/Black_Gay_Man · 8 pointsr/opera

There are no tenors anywhere of any ethnicity who can sing the role of Otello on the level of the all times greats, because there has been a huge decline in singing in favor of pretty people who can’t actually sing in a manner that does the art form justice. This point was also referenced in the article. I would, however, prefer to hear Russell Thomas in the part to Johan Botha who mangled it with Fleming in 2012. But you’re not seeing the forest for the trees. Neither Midgette nor I said that there had been no black singers who had major careers. The larger issues are what institutional barriers keep black singers from getting the best training and also how they are viewed in certain repertoire by people in the industry. Having a fulfilling career in opera and being on the Porgy & Bess circuit for over a decade are very different things. After all, there were many black actresses before Viola Davis too, but how many of them had characters as rich as those she has played on stage and on screen?

But also, do you really know the stories of these black singers you mention? Did you really read Jessye Norman’s book
wherein she has an entire chapter dedicated to her experiences of racism in the industry? Have you ever met Felicia Weathers
or spoken to Reri Grist
about how good they had to be to even be given a chance, and how quickly black singers are discarded if they aren’t absolutely excellent? Did you know about Camilla Williams
who debuted as Butterly at the NYCO 9 years before Marion Anderson sang at the MET, and how she was never given the recognition she deserved? How about Roland Hayes (who had to rent out Carnegie Hal with his own money in order to give a recital there and was barred from a career in opera) or Terrence Winters who was one of the greatest baritones of the 20th century and was similarly never given his props? Have you seen Simon Estes talk about how much better a black singer has to be than a white singer to get a job, and how they will still be paid less like he did in the documentary I linked above? Or do you just hold up black singers like these and Leontyne Price as trump cards when you want black people to shut up who have the audacity to speak out about the racism in the world of opera?

It seems like your black bean counting is seriously lacking in substance and perspective. You sound a lot like the guy saying he isn’t racist because he has a black friend or those who say race isn’t a problem anymore because Obama was President for 8 years. Pointing out examples of black excellence in opera does not discount the very real grievances that many singers of color have (even among those whose careers you make trite reference to), and it actually belittles their legacies in a transparent attempt to brush off accusations of disparate treatment.

I also cannot fathom the entitlement and arrogance of you coming here to filibuster a black singer with a list of black opera singers. It was clear the last time you derailed a discussion about race in opera with regard to Otello with false and ironclad interpretations of the work and a complete straw man about how Otello isn’t a minstrel show, as though that was what was the only thing offensive about the depiction of a white singer in black face. But I’m sure you’ll find a way to make yourself out to be the victim again, and be offended that you were called out instead of recognizing the dangerous ways you have diminished the experiences of black people. I mean how dare a black opera singer have a vastly difference opinion than you on the role of racism in opera.

u/reverendfrag4 · 7 pointsr/opera

It's not remotely what you're looking for, but a fun introduction to Opera for noobs like me is Forman's A Night at the Opera. It's quite funny and highly educational.

EDIT: The other opera book I have is The Book of 101 Opera Librettos, which I scored for a whopping dollar at a library book sale. I'm really just bragging with that one. :D

u/Joyce_Hatto · 4 pointsr/opera

I really enjoy A Night at the Opera by Denis Forman, available for Amazon Kindle.

I’ve read through his summaries many times - he’s funny and clever and loves opera.

A Night at the Opera: An Irreverent Guide to the Plots, the Singers, The Composers

u/elizinthemorning · 3 pointsr/comics

I read this version of the Merchant of Venice the other day. It was interesting - the artist had modernized the setting and some of the language, along with streamlining the story, but it seemed a pretty decent adaptation. If I taught high-school English (instead of elementary-school science) I'd certainly share it with my students alongside the original.

I also once read this version of The Magic Flute (the Mozart opera, not the Smurfs), which was okay - this one looks much more artistic, though.

u/spinto_starlet · 2 pointsr/opera

Soon to be masters grad (soprano) here.

A high quality recording device can be very useful. The non-musically inclined electrical engineer boyfriend bought me a Tascam DR-05 with a small stand and case for my birthday last year. (It also came with a fun lesson from him on how sound recording works -- talk about nerd-out connection!) It is wonderfully portable and I use it all the time to record lessons, coachings, and practice sessions. Also on the tech front, the best investment I EVER made as a singer was a great set of noise canceling headphones. (I have Bose QC-15s that I bought in 2010.) They are a godsend when I am traveling for auditions and have become an integral part of shutting out the rest of the world for my pre-performance/audition routine. In terms of listening to her own voice, good headphones or speakers are pretty much a requirement since most speakers/headphones can't handle the high upper partials of the high notes in the female operatic range.

What I always, always, always want for every occasion that merits presents are books and/or scores to build my personal library. There is a good chance that she has a list of things that she would like to own and you might consider asking if you're not invested in surprising her.

Nice opera scores are always a great option. Consider looking for a hard-bound score (like Ricordi or Bärenreiter) for one of the major mezzo role operas like Carmen, Werther, or Barber of Seville. (They are not particularly cheap.) You might consider asking her singer friends what roles she might be expected to sing during her career to guide your selections.

A great song cycle for mezzo could also be a nice gift. Jake Hegie's [The Deepest Desire] (http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/the-deepest-desire-piano-vocal-score-sheet-music/19646133) is still under copyright so she wouldn't just be able to print it from a free online resource like imslp.

Reference books could also be a great idea since she's about to lose access to a lot of materials that she has probably used on a regular basis through her university. A libretto collection and the New Kobbes Opera Book are two that immediately come to mind.

u/Firmicutes · 1 pointr/opera

Hogwood or Lang, both are sound, can't really go wrong with either. I liked that they weren't too music-ky if you know what I mean... that reminds me, I have read books about brahms, britten, and sibelius, but not yet Verdi. I should probably do that.

u/KelMHill · 1 pointr/opera

The only other humorous approach to marketing opera that I've come across so far are a few very brief videos by Des Moines Opera. They aren't giving synopses; they're just very short promos that parody specific opera characters ...

http://www.youtube.com/user/DesMoinesMetroOpera/videos


There is also a blog about attractive baritones, which can be amusing. Search for "BariHunks blog".


There is also a handful of humorous books on opera:.

http://www.amazon.com/Tenors-Tantrums-Trills-Opera-Dictionary/dp/0920151191/ref=sr_1_1

http://www.amazon.com/When-Fat-Lady-Sings-History/dp/0920151345/ref=sr_1_6

http://www.amazon.com/Grabbing-Operas-Their-Tales-Liberating/dp/0920151388/ref=sr_1_16


I greatly admire a book by Hector Berlioz that contains a wealth of humor, entitled "Evenings with the Orchestra".

http://www.amazon.com/Evenings-Orchestra-Hector-Berlioz/dp/0226043746/ref=sr_1_1



That's all I've come across.

u/vapre · 1 pointr/KitchenConfidential

Came in looking for Scappi. Wasn't disappointed.
His book has been translated into English and reasonable @ 30.

u/WashedAwayADreamOfU · 1 pointr/opera

I learned a lot from the book Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera.

He gives a lot of basics about how opera works, and then he goes in depth on various of the major operas. He even gives recommended recordings.

I believe one of the first ones he dissects is Puccini: Tosca; c. de Sabata; Callas, di Stefano, Gobbi; EMI 1953 , mentioned elsewhere in this thread by https://www.reddit.com/user/empenneur.