Opera, anyone?

[Samsa]

I saw Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin broadcast live from the Metropolitan Opera House this past Saturday, and was absolutely blown away, especially by Renee Fleming as Tatyana. It was only the second opera I have sat through, and it got me wondering how many fellow Loungers regularly view or listen to operas.

So, how many of you listen to/go to the opera? Those that do, what are your favorites?

 

[vonwotan]

I love opera, and I think the Saturday afternoon Met performances on TV are terrific. They are an easy way to introcude some of my friends to the Opera without having to spend a lot on tickets. Our parents introduced us when we were quite young and it was a regular "home from school" ritual for us to ask for their subscriptions tickets so we could attend the performances. Now that we're a bit older, we still occasionally use their seats when they can't attend or try to by single seats at the same performances so we can join them when we're home.

Several of us, about sixteen now, subscribe to the Boston Lyric Opera - it's far less expensive than the Met, but only has three or four operas per year.

 

[LadyStardust]

Oh, yes! I positively adore it! There's not much of a scene,unfortunately, where I'm at, being a rather small city and all, but I try to make it out as much as I can! I tend to get so emotionally invested in every single one, and it's such a whirlwind experience everytime. It's a wonderful art form, and I have utmost respect for those who participate in it! :eusa_clap My favorites that I have seen so far have been Tosca and Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Stunning presentations! Also, I absolutely loved the operetta, Die Fledermaus.

 

[Tinseltown]

I have been to two so far.
Mozart's Don Giovanni and Debussy's Pelléas and Mélisande.
I liked the later best... But that could be because I liked the scenography and costumes. *fondly remembers a bustle-dress*

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

Beautiful sounds, drifting through the air across the sea, and into your ears.....

Can't name any pieces, any artists, or stories, (except for Carmen), but opera, to me is universal to the point where you never need to know more than what you are listening to. Simply beautiful.

 

[Spitfire]

Love it!
Verdi and Pucinni!!!!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[Scuffy]

I looooooove Madame Butterfly! If you've never heard it- go out and buy the cd. Carmen is also worth a good long listen.

 

[Orgetorix]

I've tried to catch one or two of the Washington Opera's performances each year that I've been in the area. Some of my favorites were La Boheme, Aida, Carmen, and Madama Butterfly.

 

[Haversack]

I was an odd fish as a child in the 1960s and a teenager in the 1970s. Very much out of step with the pop culture of my peers. Every Saturday morning at 11, (10 AM in the case of Meistersinger), I could be found listening to the Met and Milton Cross. By the time I was in High School, I could do pretty well during the intermission Opera Quiz. In spite of this, I've actually only seen a couple of operas over the years. (Gilbert and Sullivan however...). Still, I have a short list of operas that I will go see if the San Francisco Opera ever deceides to produce them. Gounod's Faust and a traditional Tannhauser.

Haversack.

 

[CanadaDoll]

Fortunately for me I work in a place that requires an artistic ambience, so I get to listen to Opera daily on a local artsy radio station.
Faust is good, and so is Madame Butterfly, the vocal manipulations the singers can achieve are astounding. I just love it.

 

[MAGNAVERDE]

Some of my favorites were La Boheme, Aida, Carmen, and Madama Butterfly...

Hmmm: consumption, suffocation, knife attack & suicide. That's my biggest problem with most operas: the last 2 minutes. Call me shallow, but I go for something a little bit lighter--OK, totally inconsequential & superficial--say, Gianni Schicchi.

Still, for a heartbreakingly lovely melodic line, nobody beats Delilah, plotting & scheming Samson's downfall. Leave it to a dame to be able to sing like that when she's up to no good.

 

[Samsa]

I just discovered that several scenes from the production of Eugene Onegin I saw this weekend have been uploaded to YouTube (surprise, surprise). Here's a link to the final scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6XB0HX9ILY


Unfortunately the subtitles are in French. But it would be hard not to get the feel of the scene.... If you listen carefully, or even casually, you can detect the sound of a moved audience member weeping in the background.

 

[Dixon's Dame]

Huge opera fan here. Grew up on it, still adore it passionately. Puccini and Verdi are my favorite composers, Tosca is my favorite opera, but there are many other Italian and French composers I love as well. I have a large selection on CD and DVD and listen to the Met broadcasts whenever I can. When I lived in San Francisco and Los Angeles, I attended performaces often, but alas, now I live in the boondocks, and it's not so feasible any longer.

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

Another huge opera fan here! Amongst my many, many favourites, here are a few:

- Das Wunder der Heliane by Erich Wolfgang Korngold

- Die Todt Stadt by Erich Wolfgang Korngold

- La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini

- Boris Godounov by Modest Moussorgsky

- Das Ring der Nibelungen by Richard Wagner

- Beatrice Cenci by Berthold Goldschmidt

- Wuthering Heights by Bernard Herrmann

 

[SinatraStyle]

The only opera I've attended is The Phantom of the Opera. I enjoyed it, but haven't had the opportunity to see another.

 

[Caleb Moore]

Greetings, all.
This is my first post after being a long time lurker.
There was an article about this opera by Garrison Keillor on Salon this morning.
(I'm a new, but big Keillor fan).

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/02/28/keillor/index.html

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

Hi Caleb:

Welcome to The Lounge! And thanks for posting the link to that article. I hope you enjoy your stay here.

 

[Samsa]

Greetings, all.
This is my first post after being a long time lurker.
There was an article about this opera by Garrison Keillor on Salon this morning.
(I'm a new, but big Keillor fan).

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/02/28/keillor/index.html

Welcome to the Lounge! And thanks for pointing out that article, I enjoyed it a lot. Much more colorful than the review in the New York Times.

 

[Harp]

Wagner's Ring. Puccini, La Boheme.

Aida; Tosca; Carmen; Madame Butterfly. :eusa_clap

 

[Mike in Seattle]

In the summer of 1990, my opera singer-partner and I went to Santa Fe to visit friends summering there. It also included a trip to the Santa Fe Opera. They were doing Cosi fan Tutte. The weeks leading up to departure and the flight included the oft-repeated admonition "Have you finished the libretto? You have to read it through a couple of times so you understand the story. This is true opera - Santa Fe is has a first class opera company, so it'll be sung in Italian, not English, so be sure you've read the libretto." The night arrived, we were all dressed up and seated out under the stars (this was before they added the cover more recently) and the lights dim, the overture starts...I'm all excited...the performers come on stage and start singing IN ENGLISH. But still...it was a magical show.

The worst worst WORST I've seen - The Consul. It was a performance in a church hall by a small opera group run by friends of Paul's. It was a couple nights before Christmas, it was cold & damp (for LA), the church hall's circa-1915 furnace had blown a week or so before and wasn't working, and I'm sort of given the line by more than one person that this'll be a happy little show, perfect for the holidays. Set in post-WWII Europe in an undisclosed behind-the-Iron-Curtain dictatorship, we have the father, the mother, the infant and the grandmother. In pretty short order, Dad goes out to get food and shortly we hear a hail of machine guns. Goodbye Papa! Mama spends her days going to the consulate trying to get her paperwork to leave the country. Gramma shuffles around, moans & groans, coughs a lot. And every day at the consulate, she runs into a happy little circus performer / jester with puppets and WAY too much caffeine and/or sugar. It's dark and grim, and the lack of heating in the building only adds to the atmosphere. On & on it goes with aria and the pounding-on-the-keyboard type of numbers and weird harmonies and abrupt starts. The last few minutes entailed Gramma dying of TB or pneumonia, and I can remember if Mama smothered or strangled the infant or if it, too, died of pneumonia, Mama belts out one last screechy number to the accompaniment of pounding-piano, and sticks her head in the oven - the end. Yeah, that was one really happy, uplifiting show for the holidays. Looking around the audience was like the audience in Springtime for Hitler in The Producers. A smattering of applause, murmurs of "That's IT?" or "Everyone DIES?" and so forth. And I'm up the aisle like a shot to the hot cider stand in the lobby because I'm freezing even in my sheepskin bomber jacket. It definitely was a night to remember...

And this weekend is the annual spring opera at the college Paul teaches at. The first half features short scenes from various operas, but the highlight is always the second half - one of his colleagues does an amazing job of distilling a full opera down to about 45-60 minutes, she adds some funny bits and they always have the kids throw in some melodrama-style acting & singing and general hamming it up a little. Last year was Fleidermaus, year before was Tales of Hoffman, this year is Merry Widow (I think). Runs tonight, tomorrow and Saturday.