Your views on "Popera" - yes? no? never??!
 

Hi Folks

as the subject goes, i am interested in how musicians, music enthusiasts (and random people on the whole) view on the genre of Popera~

Do correct me if i am wrong, but Popera comes from two words, Pop (from popular music) and Opera, and sadly there is no direct source to quote this from

A few well known popera artist include Charlotte Church, Josh Groban and even Andre Bocelli is considered to be a cross over singer hmm........

BUT as there are two sides to a coin...
There are pure opera singers, such as the infamous New Zealand opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kawana, who labels 'popera' artists as "fakes" who sing with microphones.

However... it is hard to ignore the presence of popera artists and bands that have dominant presence in the music markets, such as Hayley Westenra (the artist Dame Kiri took a swipe at lol).


So, as an audio student researching on this area, I would LOVE to know your comment/views/criticism on this subject.
What do you think about Popera?
Do you think Opera/Classical music can make a come back into the music market from this?
(--> do you think Classical music will disappear from the music market?!?!)


thanks!!

I am going to be as direct, to the point, non-explanitory and most likely unhelpful as possible with you..

I HATE it.

None of the artists you mentioned sing (or put out albums of) opera, pop or otherwise.

haha that's fine ;)

Then what type of music do they sing then?
Please enlighten the rest of us~

It's Classically inspired vocal music. Opera isn't a style of music it's a musical structure (aka a genre). It's a theatrical piece where all the dialogue is sung rather than spoken. Similar to a musical, except a musical consists of normal spoken dialogue with song breaks to accentuate the story line.

i see~

so reversing the question, what type of artists/bands would fall under popera then?

tbh i've always thought the artists i've mentioned goes under the popera category...

eh, probably the artists you mentioned. It's a misnamed genre, but that's just me being hoighty-toighty about things.

But didn't you say in an earlier post that those artists were not popera singers?

Depending on the artist, I quite enjoy popera, although I have always considered it light rock. I consider popera to be actual pop operas; for example, "bare". Great plot, great score, great lyrics. Although they promote it as a pop opera, I'm not sure if it technically can be considered one. At least from the opera aspect of it, there are about ten different briefly spoken scenes. I would be more likely to call it a musical, but I'm not sure. But anyways I thoroughly recommend it!

Oh razz, I didn't mean to start promoting anything. Now I'm getting off subject. Sorry!

Great question!

The "popopera" style has succeeded in making some formal vocal music more "accessible" to the average listener. I cannot sit through opera in its pure form, so, of course, I vote "yes" for Popopera and Crossover.

rebecca

Yes, definitely.
Long live Russell Watson.

Vx

Andrea Bocelli?

Do you know who I really don't like? Ryhdian.

Now there's Popstar to Operastar on TV.....what does everyone think of that programme?

I am in two minds about it. the pop stars are performing better than i thought they would, but is the show undermining opera's integrity?

I think that the contestents should be judged on their talent, but I fear it's likely there will be a stigma working on them. Sad truth but most Opera fans seem to be elitists.

But maybe this can breed a new generation of non-elitist opera fans??!!