How To "Do" Opera

If you’re an opera virgin like I am - or was - here are a few tips to get yourself...in the mood.

Choose an opera you can relate to.

You have to start with something accessible so that your first opera experience will be good.

Perhaps a story resonates with you, or you are familiar with the works of certain opera artists like Luciano Pavarotti or Mozart, or you have read novels that have been turned to opera such as “Little Women”.

If you’re a movie buff and have liked “M Butterfly”, “Moulin Rouge” or “Dead Man Walking”, you may want to watch its opera equivalents which are “Madama Butterfly”, “La Traviata” and “Dead Man Walking”.

You can also choose an opera based on the genre of films you like as opera operates on classic narratives. There is fantasy, romantic comedies, and of course drama.

Finally, choose a lighthearted opera with a simple storyline. Leave the complex, sprawling epics for much later.

Be familiar with the piece.

Read about it. Peruse the synopsis, even the libretto. These are accessible through the Internet. Get a program of the event which includes an outline of the plot.

Attend a pre-show lecture if there is one. This will give you interesting insights about the opera which may prove valuable to your viewing experience.

You may also want to listen to a recording of the opera while reading the libretto. This way your eyes, ears and mind become familiar with the upcoming live experience. You can buy opera recordings in stores or borrow a CD from your local library.

And don’t worry about foreign language libretti. There is usually English supertitles throughout the performance.

Open your vocabulary to the world of opera.

Here are several terms to begin with:

• Aria - a piece of music or song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment which expresses the innermost thoughts and feelings of an operatic character.
• Baritone - most common male voice, lower in range than the tenor and more darkly-hued.
• Bass Baritone - male voices with a range between that of the baritone and the bass.
• Bass - the lowest and 'darkest' of the male voices.
• Bravo - the Italian word for expressing appreciation to a male performer.
• Brava - the Italian word for expressing appreciation to a female performer.
• Bravi - the Italian word for expressing appreciation to a group of performers.
• Contralto - the lowest of the female voice-types.
• Libretto - the complete text of an opera.
• Mezzo Soprano - the mezzo is the lower-ranged female voice type.
• Opera - an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work (opera) which combines text (libretto) and musical score.
• Soprano - the highest of the female voice types, the soprano has always had a place of prominence in the hierarchy of vocal types.
• Tenor - the highest of the male voices.

Dress comfortably but appropriately.

These days you can go to an opera in smart casual chic, but dressing for glamour is part of the fun; So, if you have the stuff, go strut it.

Bring a pair of binoculars.

If you are seated way up high in the balcony, a pair of binoculars will help visualize facial expressions and important set pieces which are crucial in opera appreciation.

There you have it. Opera appreciation from a first-timer to opera virgins out there.

It believe it is an acquired taste so let’s be patient. The more we expose ourselves to opera, the clearer its relevance or irrelevance to our lives will be.

So do yourself a favor and explore opera. If you end up not liking it, at least you'll cease wondering what it’s like.

But if we discover we like it, it just might allow us to see the world through a whole different prism.

So...see you at the opera!

Once There Was An Opera Virgin

I know very little about opera and have never experienced one. Its elitist and snobbish air, specially that most libretti are in a foreign language, has kept me distant.

I feared if my first time is not pleasurable, it will leave a bad impression and I might shun opera forever.

But deep inside I know there is potential for opera appreciation as I enjoy listening to classical music and film scores, and watching stage dramas and musicals.

And then "The Fly The Opera" buzzed about the Los Angeles arts scene.


Constantly wanting but always stalling to have my first taste of opera, I felt “The Fly” is an appropriate start. It is culturally accessible to me since the libretto is in English, and I'm a huge fan of the gorgeously grotesque 1986 movie.



I couldn’t wait to see how the classic lines from the movie will be delivered: “Something went wrong.” “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” and “Help me! Please! Help me!”



I have seen snippets of operas through movies like “Godfather III” and “Pretty Woman” so I basically have an idea how an opera operates: The narrative is told through music and songs.

But unlike musicals, the songs are sung in a highly melodious (operatic) and at times sort of recitative way, instead of like a mainstream piece with varying tunes that most of us are accustomed to.

A triad of performers usually constitute the principal characters of an opera. They are the vessels of emotions with conflicting motivations that use acting and singing simultaneously to carry the opera from the first act to the grand finale.

Ultimately, it is the story that drives an opera. Plot lines with high drama, specially those with tragedy, work well as these provide strong emotional conduits for artistic expression.

“The Fly” has a compelling story about love and loss, dream and downfall, growth and decay. It has the workings of a great opera. How these conflicting themes come into play make the story truly palpable and genuinely terrifying.

"The Fly The Opera" is the fresh stimulus to my rebirth as a creature of culture. If the telepods transformed Seth Brundle into something beyond his imagination, this piece of theater art is starting to metamorphose me into something beyond mine - an opera fan.



My enthusiasm for opera is at its pupal stage. It will still go through a tedious process to metamorphose into the larval stage, before it reaches maturity and transforms me into a full-blown opera aficionado, if at all it will.

But suffice it to say that "The Fly The Opera" devirginized me to this wonderful form of performance art. It couldn't have been more apt what with full frontal nudity by main male actor Daniel Okulitch whose very able body and proud phallus are beautiful to hold - - I mean, behold!

Abuzz About The Fly

The Los Angeles performing arts scene has been abuzz lately about the new and groundbreaking production of L.A. Opera.

Remember the cult classic sci-fi/horror film "The Fly"? That movie starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis back in 1986 has metamorphosed to thrive on stage - not as musical, not as play, but as opera!

Quite a courageous cross-pollination of pop culture and old world art.

There are many milestones in:


Its staging at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Downtown L.A. is the opera’s U.S. Premiere.

Legendary tenor Placido Domingo conducts.

Multi-awarded playwright David Henry Hwang provide the libretto.

And three artists who worked on the 1986 movie make their debut on stage: Filmmaker David Cronenberg directs, film musician Howard Shore scores, and Stephan L. Dupuis, who worked on creature special effects in the 1986 and 1989 movies resurrects his work for the stage.



The opera version is quite faithful to the 1986 film, except that its setting is in the 1950s.

Interestingly, “The Fly” is actually a short story written by George Langelaan in 1957 (published in Playboy magazine) and was later transformed into the very first film adaptation in 1958.



Mature viewing is recommended as the opera showcases violence, gore, and sexual themes, which were expressed tastefully.

The libretto, though, I found to be quite wordy, as if events and instances had to be verbally expressed in profusion. It seems the opera could not delineate itself from the genetic makeup of the film.

Some wry humor were perhaps unintended and some unnecessary, thus somehow trivializing the gravity of the story.

Howard Shore, best remembered for his award-winning score for “The Lord of the Rings“ trilogy, provides the right mood and period with his music, although his work here left me as I left the theater.

Canadian bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch (Seth Brundle) has a powerful onstage presence. He is able to display his able body as he side-carts and somersaults to showcase Seth's newfound ability. Most impressive is how he is able to deliver his lines under heavy prosthetics and in gravity-defying positions that mimic that of a fly.

But Romanian mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose (Veronica Quaife) is the star of the show. Her presence on stage is electrifying. Several of her arias received well-deserved applauses.

The element of fantasy is used onstage as subjects are teleported from one pod to another in seamless reality. It was most exciting when Seth teleports himself between pods.

That scene where Okulitch steps into the transmitting telepod in the nude is compelling as it signals the beginning of Seth’s last moments as human. The next scene which finds him emerging from the receiving telepod is provocative, with backlights providing a powerful silhouette of the rebirth that has come

“The Fly” is the very first opera I have ever seen in my life and I was quite impressed. And with the main male actor disrobing for art’s sake, it was quite a treat.