Care to share opera experiences?
Asked by
Sunny2 (
18842
)
October 6th, 2011
I don’t know how many opera fans we have fluthering around, but would you like to share your fantastic experiences?
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7 Answers
I’ll start. Why I became an opera fan: Aida at the Baths of Caracalla in Italy, a warm, moonlit night, vendors calling, “Caffe Calda,“between acts. At the end of Act I, Radames comes on stage in a chariot pulled by four horses going what seemed like full speed, straight downstage, slows to let Radames off, turns and exits stage left. Beginning of Act II, a pyramid stage right, silhouette of a seated camel and turbaned man. As the introductory music comes to an end, the camel and man rise and walk off stage. It was a real camel.
@Sunny2 Oh my goodness, my first opera was at the Baths of Caracalla also, July 1976, a glorious summer night in Rome to see Madama Butterfly.
I’ve been going to the San Francisco Opera the last few years. Natalie Dessay as Lucia going insane was madness personified.
And I was thrilled I could see Angele Gheorgiu in La Rondine.
I’m more of a Firefox and Chrome guy. I don’t think I have ever used Opera.
Carmen. It’s a cliche, but the music is wonderful. I’m not a fan, but it was great to take my daughter.
Madame Butterfly is so incredibly moving, and I’ve had the joy of playing in the pit for it too. Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro is always a hoot, and I particularly enjoyed seeing it with a sign language interpreter at the side of the stage! Gounod’s Faust is a clever work, not performed enough I feel (the only recording I was able to find when I was learning my part for the pit was from the 1940s).
I saw Carmen at Covent Garden last year. That was awesome. I would have loved to see Maria Ewing in the role (I believe she was an incredibly underrated performer) but I was about 20 years to late I think!
Most classical operas are so long I tend to avoid them just for that. But when I’m there I’m always impressed with the incredible sets and production, along with all that fancy singing.
That said, my favorite opera has to be “Einstein on the Beach”, a surreal modern piece by Robert Wilson with Philip Glass music. I saw it in ‘92 and again a couple months ago. Fantastic!
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