Everyone's Opera

To Start...

My name is Louis Arevalos, but I'm known all over the web as Callaven Skaya and, on onlinebookclub.org, as Nathrad Sheare. I've been an opera freak for about five years now, so I know all about its relative foreignness in the mainstream, and all about Hollywood's suggestion that it impresses mostly government conspirators, supervillains, serial killers, and the tongue- clicking pets of performing arts school professors that all the aspiring pop stars want to stick it to. Let's, for a moment, though, look at opera as what it really is: great music. Plain and simple. Think of "The 'X' Factor" and "Britain's Got Talent." How often have we applauded when a classical voice has made it into the game?

My Story

I'll admit that even I went to my first opera with low expectations. I'd glutted for over three years on Baroque and instrumental Mozart and the sounds of modern classical rockers like John Williams and Mark Mancini. It all basically translates to polished choirs and spicy players serving one big tune or another that kids in diapers all over the world now sing along to at the movies. I had heard of sopranos who could shatter a crystal glass and an eardrum at once without a microphone. My rom- com viewing habits had prepared me for a few things, too. I wouldn't be surprised by the sounds of canaries dying in the throats of toads. I wouldn't be shocked by a spectacle of costumes and set designs that, after about twenty minutes or less, would start to seem pretty unimportant with all the players simply putting their hands together and belting away as if trying to make a point that everyone was gonna miss. After all, only Broadway stars can sing AND act, right? Yet, before the finale of the first Act, my face was black and blue, socked over and over by my surprise at what I actually heard and saw. I found my musical focus shifted from violinists and vibrato- free vocals to pro screamers. There were no canaries, no frogs, no pointless decoration or action. I easily found the meaning of every note, not only in the glances I gave the English supertitles that blinked above the performers, but in the conspiracy, obsession, love, destruction of innocence, and bits of comedy between that lit up the stage. It was like watching the cast of "A Streetcar Named Desire," if they'd been trained in classical singing. Not a small bonus was the fact that the lead soprano had a voice like an obsidian blade, shimmery and penetrating. After it was all over, I was ready to jump up and down and scream like a Directioner.

What You'll Find at Everyone's Opera

If I haven't exactly said it, the fact is that if you want the best operatic experience, you have to know where to look. If you've just stepped onto the opera scene hoping to find the ideal stuff to start off on, check out my article series, "Everyone's Operas," and find out what you've been missing and what you didn't know you loved about opera all those years you were keeping up with the Rolling Stones, Kiss, and Avrile Levigne. For my fellow freaks, "Stage Light" will keep you up to date on what's new and happenin' in the opera world, and "Performance Reviews" will give us a chance to chat about recent broadcasts and theatre experiences. Don't be shy on my comment boards, and check out the "Artist Apprezz" articles to show your appreciation for the great talents past and present that have kept the art alive and kicking in the centuries of recording technology. Are you a short fiction fan? Give my original music- themed stories a look at the "Fiction" page. For videos and extra fun content, "like" Everyone's Opera's Facebook page. Happy opera loving, my friends!

All images used on this site are protected under the creative commons license here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ and are listed as follows: Veronique Mergaux's "Opera Garnier," "Ensemble del Conservatorio di Brescia al Teatro Bibiena di Mantova" by Antonio Castagna, "Opera Paris" by Atibordee Kongprepan, "Inside Verdi - La Traviata - Renata Scotto, Alfredo Kraus, Renato Bruson, Sarah Walker, Cynthia Buchan, Henry Newman, Richard van Allan, Roderick Kennedy, Suso Mariategui, Max-Rene Cosotti, Christopher Keyte - Philharmonia Orch, Riccardo Muti, EMI Box" by Piano Piano! Kenneth Setser's Maria Ventura, and Sharon Mollerus' "Untitled" 
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