Opinion of the musical genre round 5: Opera

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Well, the thing about opera is that it is incredibly diverse. It's a musical drama arranged according to theatrical conventions (thus acts and so on) in which the parts are continually sung by classically trained singers and accompanied by an orchestra. An opera by Wagner does not sound much like a Mozart opera, a Britten opera does not sound much like one by Verdi, and an opera by Mussorgsky has remarkably little in common with one by Rossini.

Why does no one on the forum aside from a few seem to understand that this is also VERY true of emo?

Real Opera only consists of the early 17th century Italian opera scene and the early Romantic German opera tradition. What is known as "modern opera" is nothing but musical theater with questionable true opera influence. When people try to argue that works like Rent or Les Misérables are not real operas, while claiming that Wagner's Ring cycle is, I can't help but cringe because they are just as inauthentic as Rent (plus the pretentiousness).

Real opera sounds POWERFUL, EMOTIONAL and somewhat GRANDIOSE. Fake opera is weak, overly sentimental and a failed attempt to capture true dramatic force and vocal artistry. Some examples of REAL OPERA are Verdi's Aida, Mozart's Don Giovanni, Bellini's Norma and Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. Some examples of FAKE OPERA are Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon and Rent.

OPERA BELONGS TO THE CLASSICAL TRADITION, NOT TO BROADWAY, ROCK OPERA, MUSICAL THEATER OR ANY OTHER MAINSTREAM GENRE.

I love that literally none of your examples of REAL OPERA are from either the early 17th century Italian opera scene or the early Romantic German opera tradition. Nice touch.

Anyway, I like opera a lot. I saw Der Rosenkavalier at the Met for my birthday last year. FG.