Reddit reviews A History of Opera

This is used as a textbook at the music school on upper west side of NYC where I work

Hey, I'm super new to opera too! I got into it after listening to this lecture series by the Great Courses on Audible: How to Listen to and Understand Opera. They're the most entertaining lectures I've ever heard on anything, and the reason I got interested in opera. It goes over a brief history of opera, all the terminology, gives excerpts of famous operas, and talks about the differences between operas of different time periods and countries. The lecturer Robert Greenberg also has a lecture series on the operas of Verdi, the operas of Wagner, and the operas of Mozart which are also fantastic.

After I listened to How to Listen to and Understand Opera, I bought tickets to every production put on by my local opera theater for the remainder of the year, and over the summer I got a subscription to The Met on Demand. I'm also reading A History of Opera by Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker. But I wouldn't recommend the book until/unless you've seen quite a few operas. The references to operas I haven't seen are going over my head, but the references to the operas I have seen are so insightful that I know I'm missing out by not knowing some things!

I'd highly recommend the Great Courses lectures, and also just getting out and seeing stuff whenever you can! If seeing something live isn't possible, then you can rent something from or subscribe to the Met Opera on Demand. I liked their production of Carmen from 2010, Verdi's La Traviata, and Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes.

Congrats on your new opera addiction- I mean affinity! Opera is a whirlwind of fun!