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Operas and musicals


Notte stellata

  

  1. 1. Do you like operas?

    • Yes!
      35
    • They're okay but I'm not a fan
      45
    • I dislike them
      13
    • Not sure
      18
    • Other
      4
  2. 2. Do you like musicals?

    • Yes!
      80
    • They're okay but I'm not a fan
      18
    • I dislike them
      11
    • Not sure
      4
    • Other
      2
  3. 3. If you like both operas and musicals, which do you prefer? (Choose N/A if you like only one or neither of them.)

    • I prefer operas
      18
    • I prefer musicals
      47
    • I like both equally
      11
    • N/A
      39

This poll is closed to new votes


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I love Operas. They're like macho versions of musicals. The singing and dancing in musicals comes off as extremely silly to me with the few rare exceptions. I even got some opera dvds and cds from my Dad for Christmas.

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I really like musicals, whenever I go see one I am blown away by how awesome they are. ^_^ I love the live experience of the shows, recordings are not nearly as exciting and I can take them or leave them. I'm not very fond of the opera, though I can appreacite the talent of the singers. I mostly do not get any enjoyment out of listening to or attending operas and get easily bored since nothing about them excites me or grabs my attention. Come to think of it, neither musicals nor operas have too amazing storylines :blink: Still I think musicals are awesome fun. :cake:

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Notte stellata

Come to think of it, neither musicals nor operas have too amazing storylines :blink:

I've noticed that too. Well, some musicals and operas adapted from classic literature have good story lines (e.g. musicals: Les Mis, Notre Dame de Paris; operas: Eugene Onegin, Werther), though they often have to cut too much stuff from the original stories. Most of the time I'm not impressed by the stories of musicals or operas, especially operas. What irks me most is pretty much all the love stories in operas are love at first sight (musicals aren't much better, of course) and swearing to love each other for life or die for each other before even exchanging ten sentences. :wacko:

However, I have to tolerate the story in order to enjoy the music. Unless the story is too boring or ridiculous, I can overlook it and focus on the music. Although I hate love at first sight stories, I can still appreciate the emotional intensity in the music. :)

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I like musicals, but I haven't seen very many, but I'm Phantom of the Opera at my school currently, and I was in Miss Saigon a couple of years ago and it's lots of fun

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I mostly prefer operas. But I would like to go to an opera one day!

One of my favorites is Don Giovanni and Carmen

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Squirrel Combat

I mostly prefer operas. But I would like to go to an opera one day!

One of my favorites is Don Giovanni and Carmen

Carmen in good! But there's quite a bit of spoken dialogue in that opera, hence it's a comic opera.

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I enjoy both but I like a little bit more dialogue to go along with set musical numbers.

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Notte stellata

I mostly prefer operas. But I would like to go to an opera one day!

One of my favorites is Don Giovanni and Carmen

Carmen in good! But there's quite a bit of spoken dialogue in that opera, hence it's a comic opera.

Much less than many musicals. :P Carmen also seems to have many versions, some with more spoken dialogue than others. I've watched three productions, which were all different. I think the first one had (almost) no dialogue, so I was a bit surprised to hear dialogues in the other productions.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I love music from operas but not so font of the voices (I'm totally not impressed by sopranos :P ) so not much of a fan but I sure enjoy the music

now musicals and by that I mean theatrical ones (some movies are good too like Chicago or Fiddler on the room) I ADORE THEM

I'm into Japanese musicals from an all female theatre, and what impresses me is how the male impersonators lower their voices so much :)

my favourite production so far has to be "the man who never sleeps, Napoleon" which was a collaborations of possibly the best Japanese musical script writer and an amazing music composure from France, hopefully it will go out to the world for everyone to see what an amazing production it was :wub:

here's a sneak peak of the production

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  • 1 month later...
Titus Oates

I wonder how many people like operas and/or musicals, and if you like both, which do you prefer? I'm not going to ask about specific works/composers/singers as there are too many, but feel free to talk about your favorite ones in the comments.

I've been a musical fan for many years but only started to seriously appreciate operas recently (though I watched a few operas long ago and was familiar with some of the best known arias). At this point I still prefer musicals, but I think I'm liking operas more and more. One reason I prefer musicals is the melodies are much easier to learn (I like to sing along), whereas I may watch an opera a few times and still can't recall or recognize 95% of the tunes. :mellow: Also, sometimes an opera has several arias that I really like, but the rest of it isn't that impressive to me.

My favorite operas so far are Carmen and Madama Butterfly (I think Carmen has the most memorable tunes among all the operas I've watched). I also like Werther a lot, mostly because I was deeply moved by the tenor Jonas Kaufmann's portrayal of the title role. My all-time favorite musical is Les Miserables, followed by Miss Saigon, Avenue Q, Sweeney Todd, and Phantom of the Opera.

What about you?

I love opera, and I loved Kaufman in Werther. I also saw Rolando Villazon in the role alongside the inimitable Sophie Koch.

My favourite opera is a toss up between Boheme (it was the first one I ever saw) and Tosca (I love the whole premise), but my taste varies a lot over periods and repertoire. I'm also a big fan of Verdi (I couldn't pick out an overall favourite) and Gounod (Faust, obviously).

I used to be all about the Italian/French rep but over the last couple of years I've been growing an appreciation for Wagner, after seeing Kaufman in Parzifal in Vienna. A wonderful experience.

The best part!

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I like operas and some musicals. I like operas more because of the genre of music. My favorite musicals are "Sweeney Todd" and "Naked Boys Singing".

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I agree about the story of Turandot being troubling. Haven't watched it all yet, and doubt I will. I'm not interested in most of Puccini's other operas, either.

Yeah, biggest problem with that one is, it wasn't finished. Puccini had to go to the hospital right about the time poor little Liu gasps out her last aria and dies at the palace gates, and he never managed to get back to it. So now you got nine-tenths of a real op-er-atic blockbuster, but in the missing one-tenth the main love interest has to go from stone-cold Ice Princess to melting in the Prince's arms before the audience falls into stupor. They blessed Franco Alfano with this thankless task, and you know, the guy did a pretty bang-up job. Puccini woulda never ended it with a reprise of the aria the guy sang before he took the plunge, but whaddaya gonna do? Of course, that don't stop Toscanini from laying down his baton at the point where Puccini left off and sending everyone home. He really had a way with people, that Toscanini. :rolleyes:

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I'd prefer operas much. I'm not a big fan of musicals. I really like singer's costumes, especuially those made by contemporary designers and operas direcfted in much post-modern way like f.ex. this of Mariusz Trelinski. Maybe I'm more into opera because it has always been an avant-garde kind of art. (I've even heard they are going to make an opera based on life of our transsexual mtf politician Anna Grodzka).

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Notte stellata

I agree about the story of Turandot being troubling. Haven't watched it all yet, and doubt I will. I'm not interested in most of Puccini's other operas, either.

Yeah, biggest problem with that one is, it wasn't finished. Puccini had to go to the hospital right about the time poor little Liu gasps out her last aria and dies at the palace gates, and he never managed to get back to it.
Some people think it should have ended with Calaf realizing Liu was his true love (but it was too late), which I agree would be a much better ending. :D

I've watched some more operas since making this thread. I loved The Pearl Fishers, and look forward to the Met Opera's new production of it. I also enjoyed L'elisir d'amore a lot (Rolando Villazon's Nemoniro was pretty funny; Roberto Alagna's was good too). Overall I seem to like Verdi best so far.

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Titus Oates

I agree about the story of Turandot being troubling. Haven't watched it all yet, and doubt I will. I'm not interested in most of Puccini's other operas, either.

Yeah, biggest problem with that one is, it wasn't finished. Puccini had to go to the hospital right about the time poor little Liu gasps out her last aria and dies at the palace gates, and he never managed to get back to it. So now you got nine-tenths of a real op-er-atic blockbuster, but in the missing one-tenth the main love interest has to go from stone-cold Ice Princess to melting in the Prince's arms before the audience falls into stupor. They blessed Franco Alfano with this thankless task, and you know, the guy did a pretty bang-up job. Puccini woulda never ended it with a reprise of the aria the guy sang before he took the plunge, but whaddaya gonna do? Of course, that don't stop Toscanini from laying down his baton at the point where Puccini left off and sending everyone home. He really had a way with people, that Toscanini. :rolleyes:

I agree with you, although the storyline was always going to be that way... It's been suggested that Puccini himself didn't like the ending, but I think it's just speculation. it's pretty discouraging from an ace perspective.

We, enclosed by ice, up in our cold rooms, looking at the stars... Apparently we must know love one day.

I was never a huge fan of Turandot - whether because of the music, or the silly orientalist setting, or the vague sense of unease I had about the message, even before I had ever come to terms with my asexuality, I'm not sure.

I love Puccini in general, though.

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I also enjoyed L'elisir d'amore a lot (Rolando Villazon's Nemoniro was pretty funny;

I enjoyed that production. L'elisir was one of the first I was introduced to, although there are also some criticisms of the story it's a little pleasure of mine. :P

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Notte stellata

I also enjoyed L'elisir d'amore a lot (Rolando Villazon's Nemoniro was pretty funny;

I enjoyed that production. L'elisir was one of the first I was introduced to, although there are also some criticisms of the story it's a little pleasure of mine. :P

Yeah, Adina's change of heart seems too sudden. It seems she was just used to Nemoniro's obsession with her and couldn't bear his indifference. (Also, I'd never fall in love with guy who believed in an elixir of love. :P) But then again, operas are full of unrealistic story lines so it's not too bad compared to others.

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I also enjoyed L'elisir d'amore a lot (Rolando Villazon's Nemoniro was pretty funny;

I enjoyed that production. L'elisir was one of the first I was introduced to, although there are also some criticisms of the story it's a little pleasure of mine. :P

(Also, I'd never fall in love with guy who believed in an elixir of love. :P) But then again, operas are full of unrealistic story lines so it's not too bad compared to others.

Same. I almost found the two of them intolerable at moments. xP But it's too silly and lighthearted to take seriously.

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ranting ferret

don't mind operas, but to be honest, haven't seen that many to have a sure enough opinion on the matter.

i've seen many more musicals and have finally seen some that aren't quite in the same variety as oklahoma, 7 brides for 7 brothers, etc. those were fun, i enjoyed them, but i've found others now that have much more to offer than what i first thought musicals.

that said, favorite musicals include fiddler on the roof, and les miserables, newsies and wicked.

....do the potter musicals count? because those ridiculous things crack me up!

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  • 10 months later...

This poll is being locked and moved to the read-only Census Archive for 2014. As part of ongoing Census Forum organization, and in an attempt to keep the demographics of the polls current with the active user base at the time, each poll will last for one year. However, members are allowed and even encouraged to restart new polls similar to the archived ones if they like them.

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