I know many people can't stand opera, I'm one of them. However, there are some great operas out there. I won't force you to listen to them, since its also torture to me; but there are a couple of pieces of opera that I do like, and those I would like to share. One's by Vivaldi and the other is by Mozart, so where should we start? I choose Vivaldi, okay?
I really don't know what this particular movement is from, thats if it even is part of samething in the first place, all I know is that its a famous piece by Antonio Vivaldi. It's called andante, which is a tempo marking slower than allegro. It is Italian for "at walking pace". When I first head this piece, I didn't even notice that it was an opera. That is why I wanted you to listen to this first, before the Mozart. Its really a lovely piece, it has no lyrics and it is not sung using the very highest of notes, one of the reasons many people dislike opera.
Find the song among the samples of music at the left of this page and listen to it. Did you change your mind about opera? It isn't scary or annoying is it? If you notice something about this piece, is that the human voice is used more as an instument than anything else. As a matter of fact, during the days when instuments were first invented, musicians and the people who built the instuments were trying to invent an instument which came as close to the human voice as possible. The piece also has alot of violin in it so if the voice was bothering you too much then just focus on the violin. This is a youtube link of another version of andante, being played of the violin, cello, and mandolin without human voice, this arrangement is equally beautiful.
The second piece, Queen of the Night by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is a little annoying at first I'm afraid. Bear with me however, as I find it very interesting and facinating once you get over its "annoyingness". I even heard this piece in a children's movie my cousins were watching, so I'm guessing its one of the best choices of opera a person could listen to. It is also one of the hardest arias to sing; an aria is a piece wrotten for one voice and an orchestra accompanying it. So again, I'll ask you to point your cursor at the left of the page and play Queen of the Night. And please, dont turn it off as soon as you turn it on, give it a chance. I know you'd want to. Try to listen to it, or atleast just wait until 0:43, something interesting happens here. Like it yet? I love this part of the opera. Hear the short, staccato notes she sings? She uses her voice as an instrument, more than just a way to sing lyrics like in today's songs.
Composers such as Mozart obviously saw the beauty in the human voice and wrote compositions that involved ways to show off the natural human voice. There is also another place in the song, similar to this part, at 2:03, watch out for that too. I'd ask you to listen to this link of you'd like, it is a young boy who sang this incredibly hard piece. You could also find this specific part of the opera here.
Forget the recording studios, isn't the natural human voice just great?
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