Opera Guide for Beginners E-Book

Jasmin Solfaghari

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 155

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Opera director Jasmin Solfaghari has written a very special kind of opera guide. Three milestones of the opera literature are explained by the narrator "LUNA of the moon" in a most skillful way: "The Marriage of Figaro", "The Freeshooter", and "The Ring of the Nibelung". In the second chapter, LUNA takes the reader backstage and spreads a little light on many secrets of the theater. Finally in chapter three, in order to understand and enjoy the operas more fully, LUNA explains many of the German words from "The Freeshooter" and "The Ring of the Nibelung" not always found in a normal dictionary. The "Opera Guide for Beginners" is available in hardcover, paperback, or as an e-book. Let yourself be carried off to a world of dragons, weddings, chaos, tears and unbridled passion!

Leseprobe

Solfaghari – Opera Guide for Beginners

Jasmin Solfaghari

Opera Guide for Beginners

The Marriage of Figaro, The Freeshooter, The Ring of the Nibelung

Dedicated to my sons

Leander and Emanuel

In memory of Dr. Ziaeddin Zolfagari, Viola, Rolf, and Karl Kleissler

Bibliographic information of the German National Library The German National Library lists this publication in the German National Bibliography; detailed bibliographic data can be found on the website: dnb.d-nb.de.

978-3-95983-601-2 (Hardcover)

978-3-95983-602-9 (Paperback)

978-3-95983-603-6 (E-Book)

© 2020 Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz

www.schott-buch.com

All rights reserved. Reprinting in any form as well as the transfer to other media by television, radio, film, photomechanical reproduction, sound carrier of any type, or for use in lectures, even in parts, only with the approval of the publisher.

Content

Foreword

Introduction

LUNA lights the way through our story and its background

The Marriage of Figaro

The Freeshooter

The Ring of the Nibelung

The Rhinegold – Prologue

The Valkyrie – The First Day

Siegfried – The Second Day

The Twilight of the Gods – The Third Day

LUNA guides us backstage

Bayreuth or Beirut?

How to give a “stage slap”

The Gold and the Ring

What is a “pants role”?

Beverages on stage

How does an exchange of costumes work?

What is stage music?

Spears – Examples

Fire safety in the theater

Fire on stage

Anecdotes

LUNA sheds some light on words and their meanings

A as in “Alkohol” (alcohol)

B as in “beleidigen” (to insult)

D as in “drehen” (to turn)

E as in “Esel” (donkey)

F as in “Feuer” (fire)

G as in “Genuss” (pleasure)

H as in “Hunde” (dogs)

I as in “Inspizient” (stage manager)

J as in “Juliet”

K as in “Kampf” (fight)

L as in “Lachanfall” (fit of laughter)

M as in “Milchtopf” (milk jug)

N as in “Nebel” (fog)

O as in “Ohren” (ears)

P as in “Pferd” (horse)

Q as in “Qual” (agony)

R as in “Rauchen” (to smoke)

S as in “Sprinkleranlage” (sprinkler system)

T as in “Theaterpferd” (stage animal)

U as in “Umzug” (costume change)

V as in “Vogel” (bird)

W as in “Wasser” (water)

Z as in “Zuschauer” (audience)

Index of Illustrations

References

Index

About the Authors

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Often in my career I have been asked by spectators and students: “Which opera should I experience first, as I’m a beginner?” I like to recommend operas I consider to be light, such as The Marriage of Figaro. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and all of his music are always very light and blessed with beautiful melodies, as well as being very easy to listen to. Figaro, additionally, is entertaining and easily accessible for a beginner: musically and visually light and fun. I also suggest that a beginner acquires a specific book about opera in order to better understand the meaning of the plot, and here it is: The Opera Guide for Beginners.

It gives me a great honor and privilege to have been under the direction of one of the finest stage directors of opera and the author of this book, Jasmin Solfaghari. Our collaboration included The Ring of the Nibelung in a production of the Hamburg State Opera in the 90’s, in which I sang Wotan. Honestly – I would never have thought The Ring to be a music-drama fit for beginners, as the story is very complex. However, with the help of Ms. Solfaghari’s narrator LUNA and his explanations, everyone figures it out.

Opera is a musical profession that includes all forms of musical entertainment. In other words, you have singers, orchestra, conductor, and a director who actually stages the story, scenery, costumes, sets, chorus, acting, dancing, ballet, and lighting. I don’t know of any other form of entertainment that is live and includes all of these ingredients. If you go to a play or to a movie, you don’t get live performances with so many professions as you do in opera. The middle chapter of this Guide gives you ideas about how we find practical solutions for nearly every problem. And you get insight into a lot of the various skill-sets just mentioned. Without the support of our colleagues backstage, we singers cannot give our best for you, the audience.

As a teacher I definitely recommend studying the last chapter carefully. Singing is one thing, but you need to understand (and, of course feel) the meaning behind the sung words, especially in the case of Richard Wagner. This index is an immense help for foreigners who want to approach German opera in general.

In conclusion, I would recommend to any person going to an opera for the first time, that they be well rested, to be alert to the new experiences an opera brings to their life.

For me, Simon Estes, all operas are composed by people who received a great talent from God. Now, ladies and gentlemen, dress up in your beautiful gowns and suits, and enjoy one of the greatest moments of your life!

Simon Estes

Opera Singer and Professor, Iowa USA, 2020

Simon Estes inThe Valkyrieat Deutsche Oper Berlin, 1984.

Introduction

During numerous audience discussions in my career as a stage director, I have received many questions from the public about approaches and choices of staging an opera. I sometimes had the feeling that much of the performance practice and history of opera were foreign to them. They told me about their difficulties following the sung text, even in their native German! Supertitles and pre-performance talks by dramaturges are already helpful for the audience. However, I wanted to find a way to perform opera for beginners of all ages. A way to take the audience by the hand and teach them something without their noticing. Above all, I wanted to take away the fear that they can’t enjoy opera without knowing a lot about it.

I often use a storyteller for my opera for beginners’ productions. It’s proven useful as a moderator between the piece on stage and the audience, simplifying complex situations and accompanying the public as their “tour guide” throughout the piece. The opera world is international, so the storyteller should be someone who speaks every language, loves opera very much, and is not unknown. I came up with LUNA, coming from the moon. He could be a mixture of my opera-crazy uncle, the warmhearted prop master of the Freiburg Municipal Theater back in the 80’s, and Fellini’s copyist in the film Orchestra Rehearsal. LUNA – played up until now only by men – has already used his perspective to bring many people in Leipzig, Berlin, and Vienna closer to the opera.

A special kind of opera guide was born. I’ve chosen for you three major milestones of opera literature. The Marriage of Figaro, The Freeshooter and The Ring of the Nibelung. LUNA describes in the first chapter their contents and relationships. In the second chapter, we open up our box of theatrical tricks and give the public a peek or two behind the curtain. During my time in the theater, I’ve always been pleased to see the lively curiosity of people of all ages about what really happens on stage. I love recalling the wide eyes of those taking backstage tours when they witness for the first time the coming together of theatrical magic and stage reality. LUNA enlightens us about the bottom of all this. A large part of my work coaching singers is dealing with their German diction on the one hand and conveying the meaning of the text on the other. Furthermore, as a stage director, I help them combine the musical, linguistical, as well as the contextual aspects of their roles.

In the German edition, I used German dialects to help convey the meaning of the stories. Here, in the English edition I have written a new third chapter containing certain German words and terms from The Freeshooter and The Ring of the Nibelung which might not be so easily found in your everyday dictionary. “LUNA sheds some light on words and their meanings” can also be used for private study. It can also be helpful to many viewers or listeners in understanding certain moments in the often complex plots. LUNA has experienced many stories from the opera world first hand and would like to share them here with the public.

LUNA invites you into the world of dragons, weddings, chaos, tears, and unbridled passion!

For those of you who would like to listen to the music while reading, the musical references are marked with the ♪ symbol.

Jasmin Solfaghari, Berlin 2020

LUNA lights the way through our story and its background

What a long trip … I live hundreds of thousands of miles from you, but I’ve finally made it. Greetings, my name is LUNA and I’m from the moon! You know, actually it’s pretty nice up there. A bit cold. You get a little rusty and inflexible, even lonely, really! Nobody visits me, you can’t even depend on those scientists anymore! NASA only circled the moon a few years ago and then … everybody wants to go to Mars! To keep warm, I’ve gotten used to orbiting the earth every month so that I can see it from all sides. Besides keeping me fit, I’ve made a great discovery on my trip: on earth, you have something that can’t be found anywhere else in the entire universe. Know what I’m talking about? It’s the wonderful world of theater, but most of all – OPERA.

I’d like to share something with you, but please keep it to yourself: whenever I feel like seeing an opera, nothing can keep me out there in space. I look for just the right moment when the sun can’t see me and then … off I go. I sneak into your opera houses. I make myself as small as possible, squeeze through any open window I can find, and slide down onto the gallery. From there, I try to find a good view of the whole stage and hope that nobody sees me.

LUNA.Freeshooter for Children,Leipzig 2015.

The Marriage of Figaro

Before the backstage boss – stage manager – finds me, I’ll tell you about The Marriage of Figaro, or, as they say in the original Italian, Le nozze di Figaro. The music was written by the Austrian Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Lorenzo da Ponte from Italy wrote the text after a play entitled The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro, written by the French playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. In order to make the plot a bit clearer, I’ve charted out the family relationships.

Who is who?

Act I – An empty room, except for an armchair