How to Write an Opera Review
10.6092/issn.2039-9715/18633
L’articolo è una breve guida per un critico che inizia a scrivere la recensione di un’opera. Con un po’ di ironia, l’autrice consiglia i modi per organizzare il materiale, analizzare la concezione del regista e gli aspetti musicali dello spettacolo (direttore, orchestra, cantanti).
application/pdf
2039-9715
18633
en
Olesya Bobrik
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
Musica Docta
Recensione
How to Write an Opera Review
Text.Serial.Journal
https://musicadocta.unibo.it/
13
Interventi
2023-12-14
2023-12-10
2023-12-14
2023-12-14
99-102
MD
Olesya Bobrik
2023/12/14
10.6092/issn.2039-9715/18633
99
State Conservatory 'P. I. Tchaikovsky', Moscow
2039-9715
Recensione
en
102
How to Write an Opera Review
https://musicadocta.unibo.it/article/download/18633/17051
13
       Musica Docta. Rivista digitale di Pedagogia e Didattica della musica, pp. 99-102




                                  OLESYA BOBRIK
                                       Moscow

               HOW TO WRITE AN OPERA REVIEW

     Before writing an opera review, at least once in your life it might be a good
idea to do the following exercise: walk onto the forestage in a theatre (preferably
a big one) and sing a few phrases, accompanied by an orchestra and watched by
one or two thousand spectators. Kind of hard to imagine, isn’t it? Alright, let’s
simplify the task. Don’t sing. Recite a few lines in French, Italian or German,
again in the presence of a conductor, an orchestra and a few thousand people in
the audience. Fine, don’t sing and don’t recite anything. Just walk back and forth
on the stage for a while from one curtain to the other. The conductor, orchestra
and a couple of thousand spectators are mandatory. Repeat the exercise three
times. Some of my fellow journalists could handle the last version of the exercise.
I believe in us! As for the previous versions: I doubt it.
     Many critics would say there’s no point in them doing this: a singer and a
music critic are two different professions. Nevertheless, I’d like to ask you a
favor: don’t consider yourself above those onstage and in the orchestra pit. Try
to be a bit more modest. The professions of singers and conductors are a lot
more demanding in terms of work and energy, both physically and
psychologically, aren’t they? And ultimately, setting up a play takes around a
month, a month and a half, and it takes even longer to learn the part or music,
perfect it and recite it. It’s a lengthy and virtually permanent process. Writing a
review, even if you factor in the creative process with all its torments, usually
takes a day or two. One may argue, “But we went to school for this… They can’t
write like we do”. Yes, of course they can’t. And still, I’m asking you once again:
don’t judge/rate. Try to understand why the play turned out a certain way and
explain why. Don’t forget that your job is to give a more or less suitable
commentary on what other people do.
     Now, let’s get down to work. It’s good to demonstrate some erudition in
the opening, such as knowledge of the context, as well as mainstream
contemporary theater, and an understanding of “the past in the present” (as the
great composer Modest Mussorgsky used to say). Remind the reader of the
author and their opera. I recommend to briefly revise the plot so that the reader
can see it amid the director’s fantasies. Here, it is important to feel the cadence
and “give the fountain of eloquence a rest” (Kozma Prutkov).
     Let’s move on to the main subject: opera. First, you have to talk about the
directing. (If you choose to continue in another direction – the conductor, the
orchestra, the singers – you risk losing a significant part of your audience.) There
are two ways to continue, depending on your aesthetic preferences:




https://musicadocta.unibo.it
ISSN 2039-9715
© 2023 Olesya Bobrik – Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2039-9715/18633
100                                 Olesya Bobrik




     1. You are an apologist of tradition. For starters, ask yourself: why? Why
waste time, feel perpetually disappointed and bore others? I recommend you
familiarize yourself with the opera announcements and decide: to go or not to
go, to write or not to write. Nowadays, getting traumatized at the theater for a
person of such views comes at a risk of ninety percent, if not a hundred. Wait
for the concert performance: it might be a bit boring, but at least it’s safe.
     2. You are an open-minded person who is not wary of postmodernism and
psychoanalysis. If you can react to all sorts of mental disorders with
understanding and even interest, analyzing the concepts of contemporary opera
directors may become an interesting task for you. Mental disorders are a typical
occurrence in opera anyway. You know, it’s part of the tradition. Modern
directors simply adapt them to make them easier to understand for the
progressive people of today. Speaking of which, ruminations on this topic can
be a good background for the opening of your review.
     Sexual disorders are a special case and a know-how of contemporary
directing. Are you shocked by nudity in the operas of Mozart, Glinka, Donizetti,
Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Verdi? Well, get used to it. Not our first time at the theater,
as the saying goes. Try to find something positive even in this twist of the
director’s imagination. A large part of the audience reacts to such things with
indignation, but (let’s not pretend) everyone finds them interesting.
     Other typical solutions, such as walking around in latex, acrobats and
clowns (at the worst moment possible), dozens of boys and girls instead of one,
women turning into men and vice versa, teleportation and time travel, are
completely harmless. Some people may have grown tired of all this, but there’s
nothing we can do about it. Only someone who hasn’t been to the opera theater
for the last thirty years could find themselves appalled. That’s not our case, is it?
So even if you think something isn’t right, don’t let it show. Let everyone think
you understood everything perfectly. After all, even the directors don’t know
what they want to say with all of this. And when you start writing your review,
use your imagination, you’ll end up somewhere eventually.
     But seriously, try to feel through what you see and hear, and to understand
whether this is something that you connect with on a personal level, as well as
your sense of time and what lies beyond it. If the answer is “yes”, then why?
Even hooliganism on the stage can turn out to be a revelation. As the saying
goes, let’s wait and see. And if you end up being the first one, hey, who made
the right guess?
     This is where many reviewers go for the coda, adding a few sentences about
the conductor and a paragraph on the singers. Why not? You’ve already covered
the main part. Still, some people might want to continue. I suggest two ways of
doing so:
     1. You can’t read notes. In this case, indeed, what should you do? Take
heart! There is a solution.




Musica Docta, XIII, 2023
ISSN 2039-9715
                            How to Write an Opera Review                         101




     The conductor. You’re in a pickle. I can offer you to choose something
from the following selection: ‘charisma’ (has it or not), ‘balance’ (ditto), ‘tempos’
(right or wrong), ‘discordance between the orchestra and the soloists or choir’
(use the latter if you have a feeling of vague dissatisfaction, but you’re not sure
where it comes from). Leave a separate mention for the ‘clean-cut (messy)’ wind
instruments and the ‘penetrating (lackluster)’ string instruments. (You can tell
the difference, right? Well, even if you can’t, no one will know.) Bring up the
excellent French horn solo. (It’s not too hard to make the French horn player’s
day, is it?)
     What about the singers? Stick to epithets: ‘a wonderful cantilena’, ‘did a
decent job’, ‘messed up’, ‘steady’/‘unsteady’, ‘smooth’/‘not very smooth’, ‘awful
phonetics’ (you are a polyglot, after all!). Let’s assume you’re an expert on singing
and you’re aware of the vocabulary of the chosen ones: ‘didn’t hit the high notes’,
‘vibrato is too fast (bleating)’, ‘nasal, breathy or throaty tones’, ‘should’ve put
more chest into it’, ‘lacks of evenness in scales’, etc. And you even suspect what
these phrases might mean. This knowledge is praiseworthy, but that doesn’t
mean you should apply it here. Don’t confuse your readers, don’t suffocate them
with your intelligence.
     One more thing: do you think someone started at the wrong time? Or did
they, perhaps, finish off too early? Try to recall what the singer was doing at the
time: jumping, running, falling, dancing, crawling under a sofa or a table,
climbing a ladder, flying up to the ceiling on a swing or on a horse, waving their
wings up in the air, riding a bicycle, hanging from a bridge, taking off their dress
or trousers? Sometimes they do simply stand on their feet, on the forestage, too.
In this case, know that they got lucky. Now, think of the exercises that were
offered to you earlier on. “Out of practice – out of breath” (quoted from the
libretto from Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride) doesn’t seem like much of an
excuse anymore, does it? Apparently, their hearing isn’t great, either. A
professional singer must be capable of satisfying the director’s every whim. (And
who’s in charge here?) Yet, still, they’re people, after all.
    2. You can read notes. Did you know that back in the olden days, viewers
would visit the opera with pocket-sized scores? That was a long time ago. No,
don’t bring a score, you will definitely be misunderstood. Instead, well, not to
suggest doing anything illegal, but make a phone recording. Later on, download
the score. Listen, read the score and summarize your impressions. Do you
understand what the instruments are here? Do you know how to use a
metronome? Well then, why not? We are professionals, after all. We have to do
our very best.
     And to conclude, a couple of words on personal matters. Are you planning
to become an opera critic and write reviews? Here’s my word of advice for you:
don’t make friends with directors, conductors or singers. Either you’re friends
with them or you write. One logically rules out the other. Some might say, well,




                                                           Musica Docta, XIII, 2023
                                                                   ISSN 2039-9715
102                                Olesya Bobrik




that’s a bit too far-fetched. Indeed, let’s look at this issue from another angle.
Being friends with the right people can be mutually beneficial. Go ahead, write,
make your friend happy! This might also provide you with a modest, but stable
income. Your job isn’t all that profitable anyway, so why not?
     And in the end, chill out, as they say. No one will criticize you. At ease, and
create, ladies and gentlemen!
                                                              olesyabobrik@yandex.ru




Musica Docta, XIII, 2023
ISSN 2039-9715
