aside from PoTO, what are the opera you enjoy?
I’ve always been partial to Verdi and Puccini’s operas. I absolutely destroyed a tape of L’elisir d’amore when I was a kid, though now my favourite is probably Tosca.
My appreciation for a lot of them has changed as I learned the libretto.
It always cracks me up seeing people tear up listening to Nessun Dorma. It’s a guy bragging about how he tricked the princess into marrying him, even though she’s threatened to kill everyone if they don’t help her stop him. "So beautiful! *sniff * "
Shows the power music has beyond words or intention, I suppose.
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stupid question…but what exists for ‘English’ opera? anything of claim?
The trouble is, English-written opera tends to attempt to emulate Italian opera. I don’t know if English has a different level of flexibility that allows it more poetic license or if the librettists for most operas just cared more about the story than the musical structure, but if you listen to a translated libretto it really doesn’t work. The exceptions tend to be ones where the composer either worked closely with the librettist or used the same librettist over a long period (Puccini, Donizetti, Rossini to an extent, certainly Wagner).
Having said that, neither does Shakespeare or Chaucer if you translate it directly into modern English.
well…I’m not thinking of translated to English…but rather that it was composed in English originally.
It also kinda depends on what you are counting as Opera since I would put Phantom as a musical more then an Opera.
that is true…
so I mean something epic that is usually in Italian or whatever, but English. it would be nice to actually understand what’s being sung, LoL!
I tend to listen to Opera and not really care about the exact words being sung and more about the feelings being conveyed by the music. I can understand a little due to my misspent youth taking a dead language(Latin), but not a ton.
true…but understanding would still be pretty nice. 
There was a lot of resistance to writing opera outside the romance languages. German eventually found its own audience, as did Russian, but by the time people started writing English operas in earnest they were really writing operettas. So unless you like Gilbert and Sullivan, there isn’t a lot to choose from in the Baroque/Classical/Romantic style.
As for being able to understand the lyrics. Good luck:
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