i suggest you learn the text first. if you begin with the music or,
both at the same time, it is so easy to get distracted by the music and the
vocal challenges it may present at the expense of the text. even if the
text is in your native tongue, it can so easily degenerate into
"blah-di-blah, blah".
aside from the fact that opera is musical theater and that the text is
important (though some might claim otherwise), having a good understanding of
the text can assist in understanding the composer's setting of that text.
also, when it comes to memorizing the work, it is easier to remember what
comes next if you can follow the sense of the text as it represents a story
line rather than depending on 'learned response' to get you through.
mike
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