Sir Antonio Pappano's opera recommendations for beginners
Penny Smith speaks to Sir Antonio Pappano about his love of opera
British pianist, conductor and the Music Director of the Royal Opera House, Sir Antonio Pappano caught up with Penny Smith to speak about their love of opera and what can be expected from Pappano's final season at The Royal Opera House.
September 2022 marks Pappano's 20th year as Music Director at The Royal Opera House, and has seen him conducting works by Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, Richard Strauss, Ravel, Berg, Shostakovich and Britten as the opera house’s longest-serving music director.
Did you have opera around when you were growing up?
'There were singers around. Some of my father's students and his colleagues and there was a piano in the house. My father had records of all the great tenors of the past, Caruso and Mario Del Monaco and Carelli and all these guys, so it was there. It wasn't until I started taking piano lessons, of course, that I had anything other than this, sort of periphery feeling of what music was. The actual touching of keys. And though, I was certainly no Mozart when I was a kid, I started to catch on... Onto the tactile feel of the music and then being around so many singers later with my father's students because I got good enough on the piano so that I could accompany his students. I saw a different type of expression, you know, expressing the voice and with words...
'Well, it's the most intimate, isn't it, because there's something direct and so immediately communicative that stuck with me, and I ended up being with singers for most of my life going forward.'
What would you say to people who say opera is elitist and expensive?
'I'll be the first one to say that some opera plots are ridiculous. But, the music and how the music weaves the story, I think is magical. You combine dramatic situations. Situations of conflict, comedy, despair, and heart-wrenching suffering, but also incredible romance, depending on the opera.
'And then there's the physical effort. Even though some singers make it look like it's effortless, there's a tremendous effort in singing. All of us sing. Whether it's in the shower or it's in the car... But to see it done at an incredible level of achievement I think is important. You see great actors, race car drivers, basketball players, and football players. It's that level of achievement which is a celebration of what it is to be a human being. I think it's fantastic.
'But like I said at first, there's the music. The music is often just absolutely terrific. It could be music that's driven to be music that just fills the auditorium with a lush haze of romanticism. It can be scurrilous, it can be evil, and it can be joyous. Opera. It requires so many people to put it on, that you can't imagine how this is possible, but it is possible, and I think it is a minor miracle that a show gets on.
To people that say that it's expensive. Well, yes, in certain seats in the House, it is very expensive. But if you book ahead and plan. You can get relatively cheap seats. It's a commodity that is in demand. You can't get into any restaurant just at the night. Certainly, you can't get into a football game for love or money unless you plan months ahead. And even then, unless you have a season ticket, forget it. And that's very expensive. So none of that stuff about elitism washes with me because of all the things that I've said about it being an experience. But if you plan ahead, you can get it. And it's something that is visceral and exciting and beautiful at the same time.'
What would you describe as a good starter opera?
'Well, I think the popular titles like La Boheme, Tosca and Madame Butterfly and La Traviata. Definitely Rigoletto, Aida. Those titles are iconic and they have great tunes and great stories.
"Rigoletto is one hit after another, and though it ends quite darkly... all these operas have a wonderful combination of the light and the dark. And that's what makes the evening so satisfying.'
Discover Antonio Pappano's suggestions for good starter operas
La bohème
A lost key and an accidental touch of cold hands in the dark – so begins one of the great romances of all opera, told in vivid detail in this classic production.
When Rodolfo, a penniless poet, meets Mimì, a seamstress, they fall passionately in love. But their happiness is threatened when Rodolfo learns that Mimì is gravely ill.
Rodolfo, painfully aware that he cannot afford the medicine and care Mimì needs, separates from her. At the end of her life Mimì returns to Rodolfo's garret. They ecstatically embrace – but, despite the care of Rodolfo and his friends, Mimì dies.
Tosca
From the demonic chords with which it famously begins to the violent twist of its shock ending, the tension never lets up for a moment.
Into the romantic world of an idealistic painter, Cavaradossi, and his sensuous lover Tosca comes the malevolence of Baron Scarpia, Chief of Police, with fatal results. Jonathan Kent's taut and intense production with Paul Brown's historically charged designs wonderfully evokes the dangerous atmosphere of Rome in 1800, where love and evil come – thrillingly – face to face.
Madama Butterfly
The clash of Eastern and Western cultures proves the downfall of a young geisha in one of the most popular of all Italian operas. Lianna Haroutounian and Dinara Alieva share the title role in this revival of Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's elegant production for The Royal Opera, inspired by 19th-century European images of Japan.
From the radiant happiness of Cio-Cio-San's 'Ancora unpasso', to the devastating pathos of 'Un bel dì vedremo' as she longs for the 'fine day' when her husband will return, Puccini's music evokes the shifting perspectives within the Japanese setting: sensual and seductive at the outset, yet brutal and heartbreaking by the end.
La traviata
The courtesan Violetta lives and breathes the glamour of Parisian high society, but she has never known love – until she meets Alfredo. Abandoning her hedonistic existence for a new life in the country, Violetta receives a surprise visit from Alfredo's father, who asks her to sacrifice her love for the sake of his family name, cruelly exposing society's double standards and accelerating Violetta's tragic demise.
Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata is one of the best-known operas in the world. With its riches-to-rags love story, it has everything: from unforgettable tunes, like the intoxicating 'Brindisi' party chorus, to the tragedy of the final act, where hope teeters on the edge of despair. Richard Eyre's stunning production returns, conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti and Renato Balsadonna, and starring Pretty Yende, Angel Blue and Hrachuhí Bassénz.
Rigoletto
A story of jealousy, vengeance and sacrifice which ends in tragedy, Rigoletto is one of Verdi's most popular operas. It features one of opera's most recognisable arias, 'La donna è mobile'.
Aida
Verdi's extravagant and magnificent Egyptian opera. Aida was acclaimed at its first performance in 1871 and has grown in stature ever since to become one of the best-loved and most-performed grand operas of all time.
The 2023/24 season will be Pappano's last at the opera house as he succeeds Sir Simon Rattle as chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.