Opera, anyone?

[PADDY]

Dhermann...what a star!!

I think 'a star was born' when they took that shot of you in '63! What a wonderful moment captured immortally on film. That just brought a huge smile to my face this morning.

So AMERICA, if you are getting sunshine over there right now, well...that's my smile lighting the place up, after seeing this wonderful pharoesque photo!!

Thank you so much for that!!:eusa_clap

 

[Baron Kurtz]

great photo. WONDERFUL bikes!

Opera? Not for me. I need to be educated about the genre. Right now i just don't get it. I understand the skill of the singers, and love the stories. It just bores me to tears.

bk

 

[Smithy]

I love it too dhermann, that's quite brightened up my day as well :eusa_clap

 

[dhermann1]

great photo. WONDERFUL bikes!

bk

The kid at the right, in the dark coat, was killed the following winter on his bike. . . age 15. I always remember him when I look at this photo.

 

[Samsa]

great photo. WONDERFUL bikes!

Opera? Not for me. I need to be educated about the genre. Right now i just don't get it. I understand the skill of the singers, and love the stories. It just bores me to tears.

bk

I'm not sure education is necessary... some people just don't like it. To each his own, say I.

 

[zaika]

Oh, God. I can't resist. Have I never posted this before? This is yours truly in August 1963, age 16, as a spear carrier on the Chautauqua Opera Association's production of Aida. Shirley Verette sang her first Amneris. Maybe this belongs in the "Most Dorky Picture of Myself" thread. Ah, the web certainly is a great place for narcissistic self gratification, isn't it? Anyway, here I am, in all my glory:

I've actually supered (supernumerary) in several operas there, and let me tell you, it's the best seat in the house. It is FUN.

this is one of my favorite pictures EVER. fantastic! :eusa_clap
oh, to be on stage...that would definately be the best seat in the house...and the best way to experience the opera.

 

[dhermann1]

I think I have a soft spot for women with purple hair. Thanks! I've been a waiter in La Traviata, the owner of Cafe Momus in Boheme, a gondolier in Tales of Hoffman, a matador and a soldier in Carmen. Being on stage during the cigaret scene in Carmen was fantasic, and wearing the toreador costume was a hoot! Sadly no pix of any of those, just this.

 

[zaika]

I think I have a soft spot for women with purple hair. Thanks! I've been a waiter in La Traviata, the owner of Cafe Momus in Boheme, a gondolier in Tales of Hoffman, a matador and a soldier in Carmen. Being on stage during the cigaret scene in Carmen was fantasic, and wearing the toreador costume was a hoot! Sadly no pix of any of those, just this.

will you be my new best friend?? lol lol
seriously...that is so awesome! how did you come to do all that?

 

[dhermann1]

Check out www.ciweb.org . That's where I grew up. They have the third oldest opera company in the country. I worked for them for a couple of summers in the 70's, doing posters, etc, and occasionally supered as well. The picture was earlier. They needed a big gang of people for the triumphal scene in Aida. Several dozen kids covered in brown body makeup and loincloths. Pretty hilarious.

 

[ASimpleLady]

My husband took me to see "Madame Butterfly" before we got married ( 6 months married now) and it was amazing. I can't wait to see another opera.

 

[Samsa]

Just finished watching a production of Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette" on DVD. :eusa_clap

Sometime this week I plan on watching "Tosca." I'll have to lighten things up after that...

 

[Nashoba]

running into a thread late...as usual...

I love opera. I grew up going to them from a very young age and as far back as I can remember my dad would have it playing in the house. It's wierd, but if he put an opera on, I was allowed to stay up as late as I wanted to watch it. Otherwise my bedtime was pretty early.
During my formal music training I focused on opera more than anything else and sang quite a few arias in various places. I almost always chose an aria when I competed and when I went before the CMEA Command Performance boards. And more often than not it paid off....
My favorites have to be Carmen, and Tosca....And the Ring Series...nothing quite like what is it...10 hours of opera...

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Although Mom was a big supporter of the Long Beach & Los Angeles Civic Light Opera in the 50's, 60's & 70's, and I remember seeing various shows from the mid-60's onward, my first real opera was about 1991. Friends were teachers and in Santa Fe for the summer where they'd rented a condo and suggested my partner the opera singer partner and I fly in whenever we felt like it and use the condo if they were there or not. Tickets were ordered for Cosi fan Tutte. For weeks beforehand, all I heard was I had to read and study the libretto, Santa Fe was a world class opera, it would be sung in Italian, you need to study the libretto so you understand the story as it proceeds, it's going to be fun, but you have to study the libretto...how much of the libretto have you memorized this week, Santa Fe is considered one of the world's top opera companies and they would NEVER lower themselves to doing a show translated into English, etc.

I get the same routine on the plane from LA to Albuquerque, and on the shuttle from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. "You know, you could take this opportunity to brush up on the libretto..." It was to the point I felt like I was cramming for a final in college. Our tickets for the opera are for our second night in town.

We have a light dinner before, reservations at one of the trendier restaurants for post-opera. I'm all excited, we're all dressed to the nines. It's an absolutely gorgeous night (this was when it was still open air for the audience) and the music starts...I'm feeling the whole spectacle is just magical. I've memorized this damn book to the point I can recite the whole show if need be.

Second word out of the first singer's mouth, I realize "This isn't Italian! It's in English, dammit!" Someone sank lower into the seats while I glared...and while the rest of us were having a nice dinner at the Coyote Cafe post show, someone was back pedaling and eating a lot of crow...

When said partner sang in the chorus Jurassic Park and other films, I couldn't resist, at the premiere, leaning over and saying "Wouldn't Mozart have preferred that to have be sung in the original Italian? Remind me - the original libretto wasn't written in raptor, was it? Was it Italian? French?"

But I still thoroughly enjoyed the opera in Santa Fe, and other subsequent operas in the succeeding years. But I've also seen at least a few horrid productions. If you're ever invited to The Consul - run. Quickly. Trust me! When it's presented as a holiday production and features a husband killed by the secret police about 5 minutes into the show, grandma dying of pneumonia or tuberculosis part-way through the second act, and then Mama smothers the baby before putting her own head into the oven to close out the show...

 

[Nashoba]

"
But I've also seen at least a few horrid productions. ...

Likewise if anyone ever offers you tickets to 'Of Mice and Men' the opera (no i'm not kidding) also run. It was the only opera to date I've been able to get my husband to go to as my dad gave us the tickets. We left at intermission and I havn't been able to convince him to give it a second shot since.

 

[imoldfashioned]

I've only seen one, and it's the best I think I could have possibly seen, a production of La Boheme directed by Baz Luhrmann and scene/costume design by Catherine Martin. My parents took me to see it on my 18th birthday...I was blown away!

I've seen that production (on DVD only, alas), you're so lucky to have seen it live--I've always thought that it's very much a dry run for Moulin Rouge. http://www.amazon.com/Puccini-Boheme-Luhrmann-Australian-Opera/dp/B00006LPE9 over $60 but you could probably find a cheaper copy on ebay or some such.

Fabulous photo dhermann1, and Shirley Verrett--wow! So sad about the guy in the jacket.

Carmina Burana continues to be stirring even after having been ripped off a million times--quite a feat.

 

[Samsa]

This past Friday I saw the Detroit Opera House's production of Le Nozze di Figaro, which was great. I'm already excited for the Met's high-definition video broadcast season, which starts on December 15th with Gounod's Rome et Juliette. Apparently this has become so popular that they're tripling the number of movie theatres that they're broadcasting to.

 

[deadpandiva]

I've only seen a live opera once. It was La Boheme. It was okay but there are other Operas I'd rather see. Last year the Minnesota Opera did Lakme and The Marriage of Figaro and I missed both.
This year they are not playing anything I want to see but I think I'll go anyway. My brother in law can get us good seats and a tour of the Theatre afterwards.

 

[$ally]

Does Gilbert & Sullivan count?