Saturday night, while my wife was busy at the Racine Theater Guild, I was down in Naperville, Illinois visiting our friends Trevor and Megan Parker, seeing their lovely new home, enjoying some incredibly delicious homemade Chicken and Vegetable Soup. . .
. . . but the main order of business was doing another of our Opera Questions. Every few months, Trevor and I will get together and exchange our carefully crafted responses to our latest opera exercise. In one of them, we each chose one of our favorite arias where we owned multiple recordings of it- and wrote a detailed review comparing them. (“I love how Vickers takes that high note softly, but McCracken screams it like he just shot himself in the foot…”) In another, we each took a favorite opera (I chose Verdi’s Aida, while Trevor chose Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde) and constructed our dream casts for them. One of our very first efforts was when we each created a fantasy opera gala for three sopranos. . . sort of patterned after the famous Three Tenors Concerts. . . in which we got to choose our three star sopranos and exactly what they would sing in the concert. And one of our favorite exercises was when we each chose our top ten favorite arias and our favorite recording of each. In this latest go-round, we chose our second ten favorite arias- in other words, arias #11-20 on our respective hit parades- and explained in detail why we love them so much.
And when I say “in detail” I mean maybe 5 or 6 single space typed pages!
This is obviously not everyone’s cup of tea- and even amongst passionate and experienced opera fans, this is not something all of them would want to do. I learned that when I approached Marshall – the most learned opera person I know/ next to his Albert Einstein, I’m Barney Fife – and asked him he would have any interest in joining Trevor and me in one of these Opera Questions, just for fun. He looked at me like I’d just grown a second head before politely but firmly declining. 🙂 Which is just fine. He and I have a quarter century’s worth of Lyric Opera performances that we have enjoyed together, and God willing we have many more years of that ahead of us – and that’s an even more precious operatic experience for me.
Anyway, as I was traveling back from Naperville the other night, it occurred to me that what Trevor and I are doing may be utterly unique to the two of us. It’s hard to say, but I’m just guessing that there might not be two opera fans doing exactly what we’re doing with these thoroughly considered and carefully crafted essays which we exchange with each other and no one else. (Although I harbor a secret hope that someday he or I or the two of us will write an article about this that will show up someday in ….. dare I say it? …. Opera News magazine.)
In the meantime, we continue to do this as much as our crazy schedules and the geographical distance between us allows. (It’s not like Naperville is Outer Mongolia, but it’s far enough away and the drive is just hard enough that one does not make the trip at the drop of a hat.) Why? I guess part of it is that it’s a way for us to sustain the experience we had when Trevor took Opera History from me at Carthage in a one-on-one, independent study setting…. which allowed us ample time for extensive discussion to our hearts’ content. (This venture was Trevor’s idea, by the way, and I’m pretty sure that this was part of his thinking.) It’s something which forces me to carve into my life a bit more careful, thoughtful music listening than I might otherwise be inclined to undertake. And I think it’s always beneficial —– and really fun —— to reflect on why you like something or someone. I love Marietta’s Lied from Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt. Always have. Always will. But why? What is it about that aria that is so captivating to me? And my favorite recording of it is by Spanish soprano Pilar Lorengar. Again, why? What is it about her voice and her phrasing and all of the other elements of her singing that make her recording of that so sublime? I love the challenge of having to sort out that answer and then put that answer into words that will make sense to someone else. (A football fan might enjoy a similar exercise in having to explain what it is they like about Aaron Rogers or what they dislike about Ben Roethlisberger. . . . or someone might try to put into words why they love / or despise . . . Glee. I’ve done the latter, which was sort of fun…. but of course it’s even better to spend your time pondering and then talking about why you love something. That’s what really feeds your soul. )
Finally, there is an element of open-hearted sharing in these Opera Exercises that I think is so important, because even in the company of a trusted friend it can still be a little bit scary to say “I love such-and-such or so-and-so” whether you’re talking about your favorite aria, TV show or NFL quarterback or whatever. I’m always acutely aware of this sort of thing when I’m chit chatting with Carthage colleagues and end up revealing that I love Third Rock from the Sun reruns. You are really revealing something about your inner self and your deepest values when you talk about the things you really love. . . especially when you’re talking with someone whose idea of entertainment might be reading the new edition of the Unabridged Works of Chaucer. But even when you’re in what you might consider the relatively civilized arena of opera, the fur can fly! I belong to the largest operatic listserv in the world, Opera-L, and this is an internet forum in which impassioned opinions are flung about like salvos in a Paint Ball battle. Confess to the group, for instance, that you love the Isolde of Deborah Voigt and you’re likely to be bombarded by the furious rebuttals of other fans who think you’re an idiot for thinking such a thing, when there hasn’t been a great Isolde since. . . Birgit Nilsson or Helen Traubel or Kirsten Flagstad or Fieda Lieder. . . depending on who that particular person loves the most. Opera fans can be nasty, and the nastiest of them make Donald Trump look like an altar boy. So I guess I really appreciate a setting where I can say that my favorite Isolde is Deborah Voigt- and not have to duck!
So my suggestion to you is to think about doing what Trevor and I are doing. . . although not with opera, unless that’s your Big Thing. But if there is something you are really passionate about and love discussing – and if there is someone with whom you have frequent discussions on that particular subject – think about the possibility of actually sitting down with pen and paper/ or more likely your friendly word processor . . . and engage in some serious writing about it. You just might find out that “Serious” can be incredibly FUN.
pictured above: Trevor in the midst of reading to me his essay about his second Top Ten favorite arias. . . a fascinating list which was dominated by Richard Wagner, while mine was more slanted towards Giuseppe Verdi. Good thing we didn’t try to resolve our difference of opinion with some arm wrestling; I wouldn’t have liked my chances.