Cover image: Andrew Foote as the doting Major General in The Pirates of Penzance. Image courtesy of West Australian Opera Instagram

My first ever exposure to opera was at aged 6, and it was the Looney Tunes cartoon “What’s Opera, Doc?”; a brutally hilarious parody of Wagnerian opera. When Bugs Brünnhilde mock seduces and abandons Elmer Siegfried to escape, Elmer retaliates and “kills the wabbit”, only to be crushed with remorse. As he carries the lifeless Bugs up the mountain to grandiose orchestral accompaniment, Bugs remarks to the camera, “Well what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?”.

Opera is kind of ridiculous. It’s also arguably the most ambitious of all artforms put together. But I argue this is also why opera is so wonderful as a medium. If you’re still on the fence, here are five reasons opera has the power to move you like no other musical artform can:

The MUSIC! The INFLUENCE!

That amazing thing film composers do where they come up with themes and musical phrases to represent places, characters or ideas? You got it, it’s called leitmotif, and that came direct from opera. In addition to this, try to imagine Apocalypse Now without Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, Moonstruck without Puccini’s La Bohème, Merchant Ivory’s Room With A View without that Puccini aria, Shawshank Redemption without “Sull’aria”,or The Fifth Element without Diva Plavalaguna’s ode to Lucia di Lammermoor’s mad scene. Time and again, opera fulfils that need for emotion or epic.

The VOICES

Opera singers are always in training; they start in their late teens, and most opera singers will tell you they’re still working on their techniques right up until they retire. That kind of commitment delivers the most powerful, unique and jaw-dropping voices on the planet; all generally done without amplification, whilst perhaps swinging on a tire, in a ten-tonne costume, under hot lights, across an enormous orchestra (just an average example from experience). No mean feats here.

The ORCHESTRA

Historians draw a direct line of influence between the development of the operatic overture (an introductory piece of orchestral music at the start of an opera) and the development of the symphony. From smaller Renaissance and Baroque ensembles to massive pit-exploding Wagnerian orchestras (tubas! Bass trumpets! Multiple harps! More than 90 players!) and modern orchestras featuring synthesizers, electronic instruments and a wide array of percussion effects, opera is orchestral music PLUS: a thrilling thing to hear in full flight.

The TUNES

There are so many lasting and wonderful melodies in opera. Witness a great diva demolishing the Queen of the Night’s “Der Hölle Rache”, or a tenor rolling out that final high B in “Nessun Dorma” or a Figaro baritone listing off his achievements in hairdressing in the “Largo al factotum”, or a sultry mezzo Delilah singing “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix” to understand the range of emotion and situation opera encompasses.

The SPECTACLE

Opera is a hybrid art form full of visual art, sound, costume, special effects, lighting. Experiencing a great opera performance is visceral, it’s deeply emotional and heartfelt. Admittedly, it’s a rare synergy that isn’t always achieved. Although there’s always something to enjoy about an opera (even if the production is weird, or the design is awkward, or the lead tenor is a bad actor, or the set malfunctions, or the soprano slips on the fake blood recently splashed onto her costume) when you do experience an opera where all the cylinders are firing, I argue it’s the most moving and meaningful time you can spend in a theatre.