Originally posted by She ls Raging:
This is what I have always thought, and it's along the same lines of what's already been said. Basically to me, I find opera very confusing mainly because most of the time it's in a completely different language- and basically very hard to figure out what's being said/going on, etc, and I think also because I'm not a big fan of it. The light bulb can represent the one thing you can see and understand. You know how like in cartoons (bad example, I know) when a character finally understands or figures something out - a lightbulb appears over their head? (Ding! Ding! Ding!)Well I guess in a time of confusion (opera) in his mind - the love was the "lightbulb" - the one thing he can understand and see clearly.
I hope that made sense.
I get what you're saying - it can be kind of hard analysing songs, or even emoting what you feel in your heart and trying to translate those thoughts into words.
Opera in my head... operas in and of themselves being tragedies.
The Greeks were the masters of tragedies, the master of translating the tragedy of man and summing them up into plays. Add in a dash of social commentary and even a little humor... The Greeks were, from an historical point of view, and enlightened people not just in the arts, but in philosphy, astronomy, and many aspects of life. When the Romans conquered Greece, they borrowed many Greek ideas and applied them to their own - thus creating a new brand of enlightenment. Many people in both these civilizations were educated, there's even been some evidence that the slaves were educated to some degree as well as to better serve their masters. Education is, and has always been, the key to enlightenment.
As time went on and the eventual feudal wars prevailed, education and enlightenment became not only something of the past, but became something that only those with money could attain. Unfortunately during the dark ages, the money went into the churches and all education solely revolved around religion. Everybody really was "in the dark" and there really wasn't a whole lot of epphasis on education, let alone enlightenment. For with education comes rebellion of old ideas, and acceptance of new ideas.
Until the the new age of enlightenment, the idea of the Renaissance era was not only to paint pretty pictures on cathedral ceilings, but to capture the essense of what true enlightenment was about both spiritually and physically. The Renaissance was also a time of reflection of the great Greek and Roman societies that were so enlightened. Everybody jumped on the band wagon. After spending so much time in the dark, it was now time to pour money into education and art. One aspect of ancient enlightened times were the great Greek and Roman tragedies. Rather than duplicate what was already done, the new Renaissance decided to take on a musical interpretation (almost like spin offs) of the great tragedies. Thus opera was born. It is said that the first operas were from the Netherlands, and were more operettas although the most famous or "true" operas undoubtedly come from Italy during the age of Enlightenment.
A liking of Opera is not limited to those who understand the language in which the opera is sung - the very idea of it was that operas have a universal appeal. So how did they do that? Operas convey emotion through song, though the flutter of a violin to the influctions in the voice. Another idea of Opera is to convey that emotion through what's going on on the stage - thus you have the eloborate stage production of the opera. Language barriers aside, many operas are painfully beautiful. We know this because we can hear it in the singer's voice even though we may not understand word for word what he/she is saying. It's like, we can tell when someone is happy or in pain even though we may not understand what they are saying. In this case, actions do speak louder that actual words.
So now we're talking about Opera in my head which to me (and this is just my opinion) conveys that the hero of the song knows the gist of what's going on, knows the pain and the tragedy, but is unable to put it in speakable terms of explanation (being 'messed up)
Sorry for the long reply. Got off on a tangent there.
