How to Write an Opera
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- Опубліковано 28 тра 2024
- When people hear that I write operas I often get asked simply 'How?' To write an opera is obviously an enormous undertaking and in this video I take you through some of the steps that were involved to create my recent opera 'Nothing' which premiered in Glyndebourne a few years ago. Huge thanks to Glyndebourne for the amazing experience I had working with them on this opera, and also the Royal Opera House who co-commissioned it.
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More excerpts from Nothing (I'm afraid I'm not allowed to put the whole opera online) • Nothing - opera by Dav...
George Benjamin Written on Skin • Video
Thaaaaaaaank you fooooooooor you innnnnnnsiiiiiiiight *jumps off a rampart*
_molto vibrato_
hahahahaha
@@Tylervrooman tutta forza
“...long sessions down the pub...”
I’ve suddenly got the desire to write an opera.
Can we set the opera in the pub? That'll save on... Transport costs.
You in?
Also, brilliant channel. I just listened to Fanfare and Lyric, glad I found you! You earned a sub :).
@@tronkiechannel I heard someone mention a production of Rameau's Platée that was set in an aquarium of a certain bar that used to be in NYC.
The pub is surprising quite an inspiring place to write an opera.
I was writing part of a libretto down the pub once on my tablet, the barman asked what I was doing, I ended up having a long convo about Rossini (Guillaume Tell specifically) with him whilst writing!
He was talking about how he didn’t realise The Lone Ranger theme came from Guillaume Tell (He went to see a production, his first opera experience).
Nevertheless, he really enjoyed it and wants to see more!
Please tell me that after the newborn comes out, he belts out a show-stopping high note to raucous applause.
"Nothing" looks and sounds pretty amazing. Be sure to let us know if it ever comes to the U.S.!
really cool video! i am 16 and starting to write an opera right now! this is helping a lot! thank you
Same
I was in the Aarhus production of ‘Nothing’ and it’s a truly wonderful opera! Thank you for the beautiful music
Important lesson: take your librettist to the pub and liquor him up for an easy working relationship.
Thank you so much for this. It is really inspiring how UA-cam by allowing independent broadcasters like you to share their views, can make the quality and diversity of the content reach unprecedented levels. Your input is really valuable, and your time and efforts are deeply appreciated.
No wonder he thinks nothing matters: he's been in high school for 40 years.
And here I am dropping out of university before the first year.
@@tronkiechannel sometimes you need a second go around, no big deal
@@andrewnicorn Thank you, I appreciate you for saying that. I feel a bit better about myself now. :)
Nothing really matters, anyone can see
I'm trying to write an opera based on the movie "Five Feet Apart." I am blind, so the operas with recitatives are best to listen to for me. If you have seen the movie, you probably know the two lovers die at the end. The way I plan to lighten the opera a bit is by including scenes involving a random ice cream truck driver just driving by playing his tune. And to add a little positivity to the end of the whole thing, I plan for him to be slowly driving behind the funeral procession playing "Silent Night" basically telling the audience the lovers will be "sleeping in heavenly peace."
omg
David would you consider making for us a video of the technical differences between an opera and a musical? 🍀
I wrote a response to a similar question above.
Great video. One of the things I like about opera is the virtuosity of the singers. When I get to see Tristan live for example I'm just amazed at how the singers can remember such an amount of not very melodic music and have the stamina to sing it for 4 hours with all the technical demands Wagner places on them. Even physiologically speaking it's like some kind of black magic.
Are you saying you’ve been writing opera for years and have Nothing to show for it?
This comment could never have enough likes
Comment Of The Day
Nothing to show for it? Did you not hear/see the Operas he wrote?
Mason Torrey I said Nothing 😜
@@MasonTorrey wooshh
This has been a remarkable video. I am inspired and also grateful for the resources and examples you provided! Thank you!
Thank you David! This was fascinating! I've just finished work on my first opera, based on Dorian Gray (we're performing in July!) - I totally agree on the librettist front, 'cause I tried to do it myself for about 3 months, and then was lucky enough to find someone to do it better!
I really really want to see Nothing now
I love how you put "How to write an opera" to an excerpt of Verdi's "Requiem" that is an "opera in ecclesiastical robe".
Thank you for another hugely interesting episode. Everything you say here is invaluable.
As to the perennial question of what comes first the words or the music, I like to recount the experiences of Richard Rodgers. With Larry Hart he mostly had to write the music first in order to get the alcoholic and depressive Hart to sit down and write some words, which Hart could often then do brilliantly in short order. Later, when working with Hammerstein, Oscar needed to write the songs first having studied and contemplated the plot over a long period and then let Rodgers put them to music -- which suited Rodgers best.
Interesting point about hearing the lyrics. The first live opera I saw was Britten's Peter Grimes. It's in English, I thought, so I'll be able to follow the story. Big mistake. I couldn't make out a word. I literally had no idea what was happening or who was who. After the performance I went to the library (no Internet back then) and read the libretto. Ah, it all makes sense, now. I bought another ticket and attended a second performance of the same production. What a difference!
I've noticed the same problem with productions of Greek tragedies; the Chorus is almost never understandable.
That's one of the big challenges --the full power to the vocals and comprehensibility to the lyrics. If my opera ever gets performed in my lifetime, I want the audience top understand the words, but I don't want it to sound like a musical, not that musicals are always sung intelligibly, either. I saw the Broadway in the Boros concert of Beetle Juice Friday before last, it it was only half intelligible and nasal as hell.
I was the youngest member of the Nothing chorus when it was performed at Glyndebourne, it was the most memorable opera I have ever been in and is why I am perusing a career as an opera singer today. Thank you David and Glyn!!!!
that's amazing! Thanks for letting me know!
I just completed "War of the Martian Ghosts", an avant-garde opera. Part of this was based on the martian wars described in the movies "Men in Black" and "Mars Attacks", and a bit of the good and evil that existed in the "Star Wars" saga. I also got the inspiration from watching the original "Starship Troopers" movie. Now I need to put this thing on stage, since I wrote the music and the libretto.
Wow, that came unexpected... I always wondered how composers wrote and write such massive works
The book nothing is awesome. My wife reads it with their pupils. I read it last year during one night while we were camping near Bayreuth. During the day we went to see Castorf's Ring des Nibelungen.
My choir is part of the production of Nothing in Copenhagen this fall! (if it doesn’t get cancelled or postponed). Unfortunately I’m not going to be part of it because I’m going to a boarding school in the other end of the country but my 2 best friends is part of the class. We just got the music for it and I was really surprised when I saw you wrote the music for it.
I'm so excited for this new production, and just praying it goes ahead!
Great video, David! It surely will help me with this "monstrous" task of opera writing! Thank you very much!
Thank you for another vlog!
That's amazing, David! I had no idea "Intet" (as I know it) was known outside Denmark. We all read in around seventh grade, and it was a really great book and story - that age is the perfect age to read stuff like that, because you begin to think along those lines.
I would like to see the opera in it's entirety, but I guess it's not possible at the time being...? It is fun to see the short clips of it, though. Pictures from old memories of school and adolescence suddenly compared to an American composer's interpretation on a stage far across the ocean of a story buried in your subconsciousness. For example, school uniforms...? I do not know a single school in Denmark, where you have to wear a uniform... ;) I guess it was for visual purposes?
Super cool David, thank you!
We’re blessed to have you on UA-cam
A really fascinating insight! I love the idea of writing a ten minute opera- as you said it sounds like a great way to get a foot in the door... and from what you showed of 'Nothing' I have to say - what a fantastic work!
This was a great video, talking about something I didn't even know I desperately wanted to know.
The title card "How to Write an Opera" while Verdi's Requiem (which is NOT an opera) is playing in the background, is quite humorous 😁
Thank you for your insights!
Thank you thank you thank you for all of the beautiful music from your opera. The bleakness, the savagery is so oddly moving. It almost made me cry!
Awesome video that I've only just stumbled apon! My friend was actually in the Glyndebourne production so it's really cool now to hear about your process after hearing about the production in general through said friend
This was great! Thank you.
Wonderful video! I'm in the midst of writing an opera and this coincidentally popped up... It was great, because it felt like having a chat with someone who's gone through the experience before. In that sense, thanks for all the insight and advice!
very nicely done and informative
Thanks for this...wonderful to hear a working composer explain these complex difficulties in a clear reasoned way. I've no questions about how to write an opera, just how to get one on the stage. But that's not your worry. In all events, congratulations for your friendly reception, the excellent work, and thanks again for your insights.
Thank You for Your kind explanation about the way an Opera has to be composed , as it is really true that I personally never have had any chance to hear it explained to some one from You exceptionally being the One who cared to do some thing like that to each of us : Thank You &Best Regards
Thanks for this video, it was really motivational!
This inspired me 2 years ago and continues to do so!
This video was super interesting to me,but was unexpected
Thanks 😍
Very interesting. Lovely material. ..
Fascinating!
Great explanation
Cool vid friend! Thanks for useful insightful music inspiration.
Awesome video!
I have another question: what do you see as the difference between an opera and a musical? Is it just performance practices and the training/background of the performers, or is there something more intangible?
Probably a subject for a whole video some day, along with how to define Classical Music.
@@DBruce Would you consider writing a musical?
@@DBruce I've been pondering about the definition of classical music for a long time, because I feel that orchestral movie or video game soundtracks aren't classical, but at the same time I could consider some music made completely with computer software classical or at least be very close to being classical. I have even my self tried to make some music that has a "symphonic structure" with a DAW (with some succes).
From a writing/composing perspective there isn't really much difference. Certain song forms are more common in what are called musicals and vice versa. It's the commercial opera/operetta of England and America from the late 19th century to the present basically. All the little differences have analogues in all the other variants that opera has had when transplanted out of Italy during it's long history.
I was just about to ask this same question!
A very thought-provoking presentation, thank you. I am now following Glyn Maxwell on twitter; he sounds interesting.
Thanks for this. I want to work on an opera but didn't know where to start.
Excellent! I wrote an opera myself on the life of Gesualdo called "The Prince Of Venosa". Thanks for sharing.
Great video.
there's an opera about "Nothing"? OMG I was so confused when we read this in class... I might should try it again today...
Seinfeld: The Musical.
How often do you feel that the characters in your operas can “hear” the music? Or is it always just the audience that “hears” it?
That's a lovely question. I can't think of any times when that's happened in my operas. Can you think of any examples in operas where the character does that (other than when it's something specific, like a bird call or something)?
Mozart does some interesting things in Die Zauberflöte, I believe. For example, Papageno's music box and of course the magic flute itself. I think the music is definitely "diegetic" in those cases.
@@DBruce this is a topic that fascinates me. Another example in Mozart, beyond the ones in Magic Flute, is in Don Giovanni when there is a series of tunes from (then) famous operas, culminating in "Non più andrai" from the Marriage of Figaro of which Leporello, who has been commenting on all of them, remarks "Questa poi la conosco pur troppo" meaning roughly "this one I know too well." The joke is further reinforced since the original Leporello was Felice Ponziani who had played Figaro the year previously, and in the centuries since it has been common for the same basses/baritones to play both parts.
Beyond Mozart, there are some other cases of "diegetic music" in opera I know of. The most obvious cases are the singing competitions in Tannhauser and Die Meistersinger. There are also several R. Strauss operas featuring operatic singing inside the opera (Rosenkavalier, Ariadne Auf Naxos, and Capriccio being the ones I know). In Tosca there are a few points of it, since Flora Tosca herself is supposed to be a diva, the bells are supposed to be the church bells of Rome, and Scarpia's "Te Deum" is his twisted version of the actual Te Deum going on in the church around him. There is also the Easter Hymn in Cavalleria Rusticana, and more than a few cases of in story entertainers/folk musicians temporarily interrupting the action. Interestingly, these are often children, as in the three entertainers in The Burning Fiery Furnace and the shepherd boys singing to themselves at scene transitions in Tosca and Tannhauser. Another fun example with in-story children singing from Britten is in Albert Herring when the three kids are supposed to perform a song at the festival, and, for that scene only, are incredibly and hilariously out of tune.
Seemingly related to the shepherd boys in Tosca and Tannhauser, but orchestral, is in act three of Tristan und Isolde when the characters can hear the beautiful "shepherd pipe" solo (usually, these days, played as a solo on the cor anglais) and the delirious Tristan has a very strong emotional reaction to it as it brings back memories of his parents.
EDIT: other examples
> la fanciulla del west -- wowkle's lullaby
> Il barbiere di Siviglia -- opening serenade, and the "opera inside the opera"/music lessons
> Béatrice et Bénédict -- group song in act 2
>Turn of the Screw -- Mile's aria/latin rhyme "malo" (which the governess reacts to quite strongly, although I'm not sure if it is supposed to be to the music or just the poem)
> Porgy and Bess -- opening lullaby "Summertime"
(BTW, great video. And now I really want to hear "Nothing")
Lord of the Flies: now there's an opera if ever there was one.
10:03 5/8 + 5/8 + 13/8... nice, so Strange in theory but still it sounds so natural in the music😃
i DON'T KNOW HOW BUT i MISSED THAT VID IN 2018.... here I am now
I literally got home from an opera my music professor wrote, and saw this video in my sub box. Funny timing!
David Bruce I think your opera sounds beautiful and powerful. What what an achievementI have been crazy about opera since I was 11 now I am 60 my favorite source of entertainment thank you for sharing the growth process of opera composing and writing A librettp
You so much. It's nice to have an opera composer thanking me for my comments and appreciation of his work. I love your videos
Is there any way to purchase a copy of the full performance of the opera?
Clear, patient and generous explanation of your process. Thank you! Is there anyway to see/stream Nothing?
I am now working on 3rd spanish opera, I am writing an intricate libretto with no end in mind, I just continually react as cleverly as I can to what I have already, so it remains new to me, it's like a farce as they would call it. Lots of movies get written this way I have heard. The music is like fishing, waiting for a good melody to come to me, throwing away all mediocre melody like they were small fish
awesome!
Great vid! Are you going to upload the whole opera?
I would love to hear you talk about Du Yun's opera Angel's Bone. She won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music for the piece, and its one of my all time favorite pieces.
I've never heard of 10 minute operas, it sounds like a great concept though, kind of a "pop" approach on the heavy format, with a lower threshold for composers as well as listeners. I went "to the opera" a few times but never had the endurance to stay really foused through the whole piece, the mixture of stoytelling and music just didn't work for me on the long run, I always felt that these aspects didn't support and improve but actually block each other. I never got the plot and then got sort of bored or felt asleep. But 10 minutes might be short enough to keep me hooked through a whole piece, like a cartoon opera for my stupid modern brain.
I was thinking the exact same. I'm super... Selective with how I want to spend my time. So, unless it's the next Avengers, I'm reluctant to spend more than 45 minutes on something which doesn't benefit my future. Even at university for classical piano performance I struggled sitting through the concerts they put on so I barely went. This 10 minute concept might be enough to calm my poor ol' brain. Maybe we can sit together! Right at the back next to the exits?
I'm glad I'm not the only one with a stupid modern brain.
Have a great day!
Your Pal,
Connor.
Gallantry by Douglas Moore is a parody of a hospital soap opera. I think it's closer to 20 minutes, though.
@@tronkiechannel I'm writing on opera based on a cult classic Marvel comic, but Marvel probably won't allow it to be performed.
When he was singing "nothing matters" all i could hear was "nesum dorma"
For years, my job is playing as repetiteur. For years, I've been messing around with music, trying to compose the sounds I do like. Few years ago, I wrote a storyline for an opera and maybe I'll try to write it down eventually. Your channel is very helpful to me! So many knowledge here! I do enjoy watching your videos.
I remember how much I enjoyed watching Written on Skin, when it first came out. Is there anywhere I can find Nothing online? (even at paid subscription)
Hey David, great video! Could you recommend us some 10-minute opera to listen to/watch/study?
Hindemith has an opera "Hin und Zuruck" which only takes c.10-15 mins to perform
Dear Bruce, thank you for posting. I am an Italian composer living in Denmark and I would really come and enjoy your work in Aarhus. Can you please give us some more information about it? Ciao, grazie!
I really wanna say “Have you missed me, good monsieurs? I have written you an opera.” So I’ll watch this
I wanna see this opera now...
OMG I love this video and I love this idea for an opera as well -- is there any way I can go see this opera?
The Story you talk about is a Novel by Jane Teller
Music can UNDERSCORE certain concepts better than dialogue. Get it? "Underscore"? See what I did there...?
OK. Dad jokes aside, this is a brilliant little video. I once had the pleasure of working for an opera company (not as a composer, of course, nor a singer - I was in publicity), and - as an amateur composer - I often considered attempting an opera. But I had NO IDEA where to start, and was not (and am not) convinced I can write well for the human voice. Literally all my work so far is for instrumentalists. Don't know if I ever will attempt an opera, but if I do...I will definitely be giving your video another look and listen. Perhaps several. :-)
Thanks!
Dave my friend my guy we've gotten to know each other well over the past few videos and every time I hear you introduce yourself as "David Bruce" and not "david bruce composer" I get realLY UPSET WAS THIS ON PURPOSE
Excellent content as always though
Great video with lots of good tips! Any advice where one can find a librettist? I can't say I know many playwrites myself haha
Love this, as I'm writing my first opera myself now. How do you distinguish writing opera vs. a musical?
I'm planning to do my own edition of Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann". Since most of the alternative numbers I plan to use aren't available in full score (not to mention the original manuscripts), I plan to restore them myself (of course, with putting in just a few of my personal touches). I got several versions of the libretto and on video
ecording CDs, a copy of the piano score for Oeser's edition, and the full length score of Choudens' edition. I'm starting to work on it this year, with my father. Wish me luck? :)
An opera about _giving birth_ ? With the mother-to-be in labor screaming at the top of her voice?? You almost had me falling out of my armchair laughing there! _Love_ it!! Keep'em coming!🤣
Seriously, though: with my modest attempts at songwriting, I appreciate having full control over both the music and the lyrics, and any compromise I make between the two is always satisfactory to my overall sense of how the song should work as a whole. With operas, I do, however, see that this is a tad more tricky most of the time.
Britten´s Turn of Screw influence in the beggining of your opera.
Ahhh thank you so much for this!! I've composed theatre shorts, and dramatic song cycles before, but I've always wanted to take things further and write operas, never quite taking that plunge, despite having the ideas for them. :/
Anyroad, you've inspired me to actually find a librettist and crack on. I wondered if there's any advice you can offer on finding librettists, or for transitioning to larger scale works? :)
Thank you again!
Hi) I've been writing libretti as a hobby for about a year and really itching to show my 'work' to an actual composer. So, if you haven't found anyone yet maybe consider writing to me)
This was so informative, thank you.
I'm an MFA creative writing student and previously have studied music. I am working on my first opera -turning my film script to a play- and was wondering if there are any resources on libretto writing you might suggest?
Are there any stage directions in libretti and if not, is there a book (with more instructions) involved separate from the libretti?
How much of a framing of a story is in the libretti, how much of it is a director's interpretation?
Written on skin surprised me. I was expecting it to be pretentious, overblown, horribly sung and incomprehensible because that's my idea of modern opera, but it was none of those things. Instead it was sensuously beautiful, musically very tasteful, and well sung - it reminded me more of my own unrealised ideas for an opera than anything I had heard before.
Had to read this book in school, it totally traumatized the whole class
Cool! How many times have you had your operas recorded?
Perhaps the beauty he sees in nothingness it's it's potential. I was listening to the music and I heard a sort of open possibility in the melody, while the harmony sort of painted it as a dark revelation in the beginning, it's much more abstract and open, which I think better reflects the idea of nothingness. In the beginning, the lack of meaning to life is portrayed as such a doom and gloom concept, whereas in the end I can feel it as a more of potential energy. Truly, it suggests, the meaningless is an opportunity to pursue our own personal meanings, to find our own something in the great nothingness. I think in the end the other kids do teach him about the truth of meaning, though it may not be the lesson they had intended. Anyways, that's my quick interpretation based on the snippets I've seen. Thanks, anyone who's read this.
Did you worked on other pieces during that year?
So I'm going to keep bothering you UA-camrs about this until one of you a video about Benjamin Britten. You seem the best qualified.
Can you publish your libretti for the nothing opera as a pdf somewhere. Thanks David.
Great video! Do you write the piano score first, and then orchestrate? Or do you write the complete score, and then extracts piano score for the repetiteur?
It is almost a religious experience when you hear an orchestrated piece. I wish I had heard pictures of an exhibition first on piano for a few years, and only then Ravel's orchestration. It would have been incredible.
An Opera can be about anything, in any language. Just ask the Finnish, apparently they wrote an opera about bad plumbing once, they also embraced opera as part of their culture... (I read that about a book called 'The Business of Opera')
As an English major with a major interest in music, and struggling to perform to musical standards, I find the job of a librettist intriguing and oddly fitting. Maybe this is something I will look into
I have a dream to make an opera, I probably won't write the whole orchestra, maybe just the libretto and plot with the vocal line. I'm starting my music theory exams soon! Yeah I'm setting my sights pretty high but you only get one life SO START NOW! (Or until you know some theory in my case :)
Super cool! For these operas, were you commissioned by someone first and then went away to write for them, or did you just write the full thing and then found someone to put it on for real?
Thanks a loooooooot for sharing .... David I'm a composer from Iran and I have question for you.... Is there any way that a composer like me can cooperate with an opera house in Europe or America?
What are your thoughts on reinforcing the vocals by amplification - radio microphones - would that change whether you consider the volume of the music in the composing process? BTW thanks for the informative insight into writing an opera.
Always much prefer no mics if at all possible.
david bruce, whats your favourite modern opera
Do you always write the ouverture after the opera itself? I have a consept, but I do not have a complete libretto and it feels like my libretto will be goofy 😅