In Richard Wagner’s opera Parsifal, about the search for the Holy Grail, a character sings about “enlightenment through compassion”. Wagner was the most theoretically ambitious of all opera composers as he wanted to combine several art forms into one great art form in order to have a maximum impact on audience members. Although he had some significant personal flaws, he aimed high – often for a type of spiritual transcendence. Even opera which is not shooting for the sky, however, can engage someone on significant emotional levels due to the combined effects of actors, music, scenery and meaningful text.
The music itself, in many operas, carries real, continual emotional impact. This helps to elevate the story telling techniques, especially the conflict and resolution of narratives. Operatic music also deepens our awareness of individual characters and helps us develop perspectives toward them, like forms of sincere empathy or moral outrage. The depth of emotion this combination of art forms entails in the audience can only have beneficial effects on sensitive and open-minded folks (like you folks who read this website).
Due to the expense of operatic productions, you may never have attended an opera. Or, you may think that opera has been hijacked by the affluent, and maybe it has. But there are ways for the 99% to see it too. Indeed, you can stream, for free, virtually any opera you might want to see on YouTube. There are even classical music and opera streaming sites.
In the older days of opera, the audience was much more economically diverse than it is now, and composers certainly did not think they were composing only for the affluent. When Giuseppe Verdi died, common people followed his hearse singing Va, pensiero (a song from his opera Nabucco, which is so popular it is usually performed as an encore during every performance).
So here are 11 classic operas as a suggestion for you to engage your moral sensibilities and hone your moral perceptions. Maybe some day you can get a ticket at your local opera house (you can sit way in the back if you want to, away from the monied interlopers) to enjoy a compelling part of humanity’s cultural legacy. It was meant for you to experience, too. (By the way, there are spoilers below, but it improves one’s ability for analysis and interpretation to know what happens in an opera ahead of time.)
La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi. Verdi was the master. His plots are interesting and thoughtful and move along at a brisk pace. His music is deep, rich and engaging. His musical language is simple, direct and often powerful. La Traviata means, basically, “the bad girl” or “the wayward girl”. The bad girl is Violetta, a Parisian scenester who lives a life of callous dissolution, until Alfredo sees something redeeming in her and helps her change her life toward the meaningful. Yet, Violetta’s reputation is not so easily abandoned and replaced.
As she puts it in the opera, God always forgives and forgets the deeds of the repentant sinner, but people are rarely so kind or forgetful. Although she is completely changed, Alfredo’s distinguished father will not allow his son to marry a woman who will besmirch the name of their family and ruin the chances of Alfredo’s younger sister to marry a “decent” man. Tragedy ensues.
Carmen by Georges Bizet. You have heard bits and pieces of this opera – the music is intense, lively and often rousing. Don Jose is enticed by Carmen’s striking physical beauty, and her fierce independence, to abandon his respectable position in the military and to join her freewheeling “gypsy” band. Once Don Jose gives up everything and joins with Carmen and her folks, he becomes a fish out of water, cannot function well in their community and becomes the object of scorn and ridicule for Carmen and all around her.
Don Jose has an exulted sense of honor and decides to make Carmen pay after his life is ruined. It is a story of a man who is required by his profession to understand and be in command of his emotions but who, when challenged, is found to be hollow and capable of irrational and violent action. In some alternate versions, Carmen shoots Don Jose in self-defense as a statement against violence directed at women.
La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini. Rodolfo is a poet who lives in complete but contented poverty in Paris with his three male ‘bohemian’ friends: a painter, a musician and a philosopher. Rodolfo meets Mimi, a poor seamstress, in their building and they fall deeply in love. Mimi, however, suffers from a horrible cough which keeps getting worse and Rodolfo is incapable of getting the money to save her. She loves him due to his integrity and commitment to his art and bohemian lifestyle, but this commitment leaves him helpless in regard to her worsening situation.
The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini. You’ve definitely heard pieces from this opera, especially the name “Figaro” sung over and over again. This is one of the most popular comedies performed in the opera repertoire. Figaro is the barber of Seville, who is also a pharmacist and jack-of-all-trades who becomes the catalyst in bringing together Count Almaviva and Rosina, a young woman who is earmarked for a powerful and wealthy man she does not love.
The opera is known for overthrowing biases related to social and economic class distinctions as Figaro, basically a worker, is much wiser and efficient than those who are accorded the utmost respect in his society. Figaro is the go-to guy, he is there to help anyone of good will, planted squarely in the realm of daily life and not aristocratic titles or prestigious nomenclature. The play on which this opera was based was written in 1775, a short time before the beginning of the French Revolution, which would overturn the social injustices revealed and mocked in this opera.
Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. 15 year-old Cio-Cio San’s family has hit hard times and although she had been receiving an education, she is now forced to become a Geisha. So the idea of being married to US Naval officer B.F. Pinkerton appeals to her greatly. Pinkerton has paid what is to him a small sum to a marriage broker and moves into a traditional Japanese house with his new wife while he is stationed in Nagasaki. Cio-Cio San falls deeply in love with him and bears him a child while, all this time, he has a fiancée in the States to whom he ultimately goes back. Tragedy ensues.
The opera was unique for the compassion it showed for the character of Cio-Cio San and the understanding it showed of the hardships that many women around the world experienced. In this opera Cio-Cio San’s life matters to the audience, if not to the military officer who feels it is his right to exploit this woman for his pleasure. In a world where women are still trafficked and exploited and sex-tourism openly thrives in Asian nations like Thailand and Cambodia, this opera still makes a strong and humane statement.
The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This is a very allegorical work. In ancient allegorical literature sex/gender often means something symbolically. The male protagonist symbolizes a type of spiritual desire while the female protagonist represents a type of spiritual fulfilment of this desire. Basically, the opera is about Prince Tamino’s search for Princess Pamina and the obstacles (both real and imagined) that come in his way. So the underlying meaning of the opera is about the trials involved in the process of genuine spiritual desire meeting with genuine spiritual fulfilment. Like much of Mozart’s work, the opera is filled with good-will, humor and joy.
Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi. The Duke of Mantua’s court is an opulent moral cesspool. At the top is the Duke and at the bottom is Rigoletto, the hunch-backed court jester. The courtiers of the Duke while away their time in pettiness, the exploitation and corruption of innocent young women being high on their to-do list. Rigoletto blames the courtiers and Duke for his own evil nature.
When Rigoletto mocks a father whose daughter has been sexually abused by the courtiers, the father puts a curse on him. Indeed, we soon find that Rigoletto has a daughter, and the Duke discovers her existence. This opera contains the famous aria (song) “La Donna È Mobile” – “…women are fickle and can’t be trusted”. This is sung by the Duke as a justification for the exploitation of women. Such a charming tune with such repugnant lyrics – an example of Verdi’s genius as one of the themes of the opera is that the most nauseating corruption often can appear delightful to those who live in darkness and denial.
Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart reveals a keen awareness of both psychology and sociology in this work. Written just before the start of the Industrial Revolution, the character of Don Giovanni embodies everything that will turn into the heartless and self-serving industrial bourgeoisie class – he is completely self-absorbed, oblivious to the suffering of others, ultra-aggressive and incapable of restraining his desires or temper. Leporello is his proletarian accomplice, sometimes dreading and sometimes wallowing in Don Giovanni’s corruption.
Salome by Richard Strauss. Oscar Wilde wrote the play on which this libretto (text) was based, and he wrote it to be a shocker. Salome, as the daughter of Herod, has never been taught to say ‘no’ to anything. Possessing zero self-restraint and no moral code, she becomes fascinated with a very important prisoner. John the Baptist is, after all, a guy who has been saying ‘no’ to things his whole life. She becomes obsessed with him, wonders about him a lot, and, she wants to have sex with him. She wants to just start with a kiss, which, as you might expect, John refuses to give her when they meet in prison. Well, pretty soon he is without his head, but she is now able to get that kiss she always wanted.
Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Canio is a very popular clown in a traveling troupe and his most popular comic piece involves a clown whose wife is seduced and spirited away by another man. In the comedy the clown played by Canio laughs the situation off when he loses his wife. Yet, when the same situation occurs in real life, as Canio’s wife Nedda (also in the troupe) is seduced by another man, tragedy ensues. When Canio sings the famous aria, Vesti La Giubba – “Laugh clown, at your shattered love…” – he not only reveals his anguish for being betrayed but also of not being able to live up to the carefree standard he has been acting throughout his career. Enrico Caruso had a million seller with this aria when he released it on 78 rpm in 1907 (the first million-selling record).
Parsifal by Richard Wagner. This is definitely not Verdi. The music is solemn, conveying deep gravitas, and it is often more atmospheric than melodic. Wagner went so far as to say this was a sacred work of music more than an opera. King Amfortas suffers from a wound which will not heal. He realizes that Parsifal, a wild, reckless boy lacking much knowledge or awareness is his only hope for healing. Indeed, after various experiences and challenges and resisting seduction by a sorceress, Parsifal realizes he has the capacity to bring back a magic spear to heal Amfortas and to reveal the grail to the knights supporting the king. The music conveys profound faith and longing as well as a sincere desire for salvation.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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