Juliana Bishop Hoch, founder of the Loveland Opera Theatre. It’s an opera I used to sing when I was a young singer,” explained Dr. “I had three principal singers that were excited about this project and I’ve always loved this opera. The opera tells the story of Leadville silver tycoon Horace Tabor and “Baby” Doe Tabor’s highly scandalous relationship. People looking to attend their first opera, as well as dedicated fans of the art, will have the unique opportunity to see an American opera when the Loveland Opera Theatre, LOT, brings “The Ballad of Baby Doe” at the Rialto Theater. APRIL 6: Kate Lindsey as Offred performs on stage during a dress rehearsal of English National Opera’s production of “The Handmaid’s Tale” at London Coliseum on Apin London, England. Learn more about the art of opera by checking out “The Beginner’s Guide to Opera” at. Productions often provide detailed programs and some performances provide supertitles, opera’s version of movie subtitles, that help audience members follow the story. While many operas are sung in Italian, French or German, audience members don’t have to be fluent in those languages to follow and enjoy a performance. Librettists Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer adapted Frank Capra’s popular film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” into an opera. Poul Ruder wrote the opera, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” based off of the book by Margaret Atwood. Interestingly, operas are often based off of pre-existing work and people that write the text for operas are called “librettists.” (Photo by Annette Riedl/picture alliance via Getty Images) Many productions feature large casts with elaborate costumes and props. Operas are much more than just someone on stage singing. Tenors are typically the highest voice in an opera while baritone singers are the most common male voice.īass, which comes from the Italian word “basso,” are the lowest male singers. On the men’s side of things, you have countertenor, tenor, baritone and bass.Ĭountertenors are the highest male voices. Contralto-alto singers have the lowest voices. Soprano singers are the highest voice type while mezzo-sopranos are lower than a traditional soprano singer. The first ever opera house opened in 1637 in Venice, Italy and since then, the art has grown in popularity with opera venues opening in countries around the globe.įemale singers fall into one of three categories: soprano, mezzo-soprano or contralto/alto. Jacopo Peri is considered to have composed the first opera in 1597 when he wrote “Dafne.”īy the 1600s, opera had taken Europe by storm and saw the rise of one of the greatest composers of Italian Baroque opera, Georg Frideric Handel, a German who lived most of his life in London. Opera was created in Florence, Italy more than 400 years ago during the Renaissance by a group of artists, writers, statesmen and musicians called the Florentine Camerata, according to the San Francisco Opera’s website. While you don’t need to be an expert in opera to enjoy a performance, the A&E Spotlight breaks down some of the basics for anyone looking to attend their first performance and introduces readers to the Loveland Opera Theatre’s upcoming production of “The Ballad of Baby Doe.” The main cast of “The Ballad of Baby Doe”, from left to right, Bradley Thompson, Marcia Ragonetti, center, and Amy Maples Wickberg on the right. Much like any form of art -be it music, painting, literature or any other genre- as long as you are enjoying it, that’s all that really matters. When it comes to opera, there are many misconceptions around the art, the main ones being that you need to be an expert to enjoy it and that opera is only for the wealthy.
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