I think the following two articles give one a great vision into the difference between conducting (as well as playing) symphonic works -- where the orchestra and conductor have total control of the music between them -- and opera -- where the element of drama and the scope and capacity of the human voice to express more physically grounded emotions, both complicate and enrichen the experience. With all its inherent vulnerabilities, its intimacies as well as its passions, opera continues to tie its music-making to the human story in palpable and visceral ways -- both subtle and grand.
Read here how even a distinguished symphonic conductor such as Leonard Slatkin comes a cropper in TRAVIATA at the Met and has to withdraw.
And read here the same reviewer's analysis of the sensitive issues which define the limits of the VERDI style.
