first opera

[sandik]

This comment in a different thread by Helene

"L'Elisir d'Amore: I've only seen this once, when I was comped, because I'm too much of a grump to see a comedy that's not bittersweet."

got me thinking about how to start watching opera, since this was the first one I ever saw. (the local opera company had an education program at the time that went out into the schools with a chamberized version of the work, alongside some other orientation and classroom stuff, then took us all to see a matinee of the actual production). I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Elixer, because of this.

So, what was your first opera, or, in a perfect world, what would you suggest as a first opera for someone just coming to the art form?

[Mme. Hermine]

Carmen, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1973. Carmen was Romanian soprano Viorica Cortez, Don Jose was James King, Escamillo was a wonderful singer named Julian Patrick. In the 2nd act, they had brought in Antonio Gades and dancers from his company.

I read a note in the paper that they were looking for supers for the opera (all you really had to do, I guess, was fit the costumes), so I went there and got in, and we were in the last act, on a balcony, throwing flyers down to the crowd on stage, for the big bull fight, I suppose. So I was in my first opera. I think Carmen might be a good opera since there's a good chance that some of the music is familiar, and it is pretty lively.

[richard53dog]

My first opera was La Boheme at NYCO back in 1967. I was in high school at the time and got interested in going to the opera partially because of all the publicity that the Met got when it opened at Lincoln Center in the Fall of 1966. Life magazine did a big photo spread on the Met Opening Night and it looked just too cool for words...... Actually Life also did a big spread on the closing of the old Met a few months earlier. The two big spreads gave me a snapshot

at what appeared to be a very glamorous (to use a word from another thread) world

I didn't understand that there were two opera companies at Lincoln Center and bought my NYCO ticket assuming I was going to the Met. eventually I figured the whole thing out. (I finally got to the actual Met itself much later in 1967.)

I really enjoyed the opera, I had some background because my mother usually had the Met Saturday broadcasts on so I knew what it sounded like, but it was a real experience to be in the theater and experience the whole visual side.

I still think La Boheme is a great first opera for a newbie. The acts are short and very active so you are not tossed into sitting for an hour and a half at a stretch. The story is easy to follow and not too convoluted and the music is very sparkly.

[bart]

Good question. It surprised me that I couldn't actually remember which was the first. What follows is not a suggestion for a newcomer to opera today. It is just what happened to me.

I DO remember very distinctly going to the old Met with my grandfather when I was a child. We sat in an upper tier. I know that could lean over and look down at the stage and at the auditorium. The vast space, the packed house, the action and color on stage, the energy and complexity of it all: that's what I remember. There were no supertitles, so I'm sure I didn't have a clue about the story.

I suspect that the oepra was something like Trovatore. I know it had gypsies. It was the total experience that captured me, rather than the music per se, or the singing, or the story. I can still visualize the way that vast hall looked like from the upper tiers. I can still feel the sense that everything going on whas being done, in some semse, just for me.

Maybe the moral in all this is: don't worry too much about picking the ideal "first opera." The world is full of people who went to one of the Top Three operas and never went again. I'd say: Go, with people you love, to something being done with passion and skill by the best possible company in your area. Be open to the whole experience, even what is unfamiliar. Don't let preconceptions intimidate you. In other words ... be your inner child?

[dirac]

I still think La Boheme is a great first opera for a newbie. The acts are short and very active so you are not tossed into sitting for an hour and a half at a stretch. The story is easy to follow and not too convoluted and the music is very sparkly.

If richard53dog hadn't suggested Boheme, I would have. I think it's the perfect starter opera and would recommend it to anyone of theatre-going age. Carmen is a good one, too, although maybe not for kids.

Nice topic, sandik, thanks. Any other suggestions out there?

.

[Helene]

For figure skating fans, definitely "Carmen" -- almost every note will seem familiar. Only the order will surprise. Definitely not "Tosca", since "E lucevan le stelle" and the ending are the only excerpts anyone every skates to. Same with "Turandot", because waiting three acts for "Nessun dorma" could be frustrating. (I prefer "Non piangere, Liu".)

My first was "La Boheme", also at NYCO in February 1971. My second was "Aida" at the Met during the 1971 spring festival. Without surtitles, it was a little long for me -- as was #3, "Tristan und Isolde" later that year -- but I think that surtitles (or Met Titles) would make the entire experience a lot different.

I know a woman whose first opera was "Die Meistersinger", without surtitles, and that didn't turn her away from opera.

I think "La Boheme" or "Carmen" are both good first operas for people who tend to like lyrical music, but I know a lot of people who like complex rock and jazz for whom "Elektra" or "Wozzeck" might be a better bet, because they would find Puccini sappy. Sometimes kids like the modern stuff, like "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" or "Salome" better than verismo.

[Kathleen O'Connell]

I still think La Boheme is a great first opera for a newbie. The acts are short and very active so you are not tossed into sitting for an hour and a half at a stretch. The story is easy to follow and not too convoluted and the music is very sparkly.

If richard53dog hadn't suggested Boheme, I would have. I think it's the perfect starter opera and would recommend it to anyone of theatre-going age. Carmen is a good one, too, although maybe not for kids.

An of course La Boheme is the "first opera" that Ronny Cammareri (Nicholas Cage) takes Loretta Castorini (Cher) to in Moonstruck, and we all know how that turned out. My favorite movie line of all time is when the bawling Loretta wails to Ronny, re Mimi, "I knew she was sick but I didn't think she was gonna die!" on their way out of the Met.

La Boheme and Carmen are both good choices. I usually opt for Le Nozze di Figaro if my newbie guest isn't quite ready for the kind of overt emotionality often on display in 19th century Italian opera.

[dirac]

An of course La Boheme is the "first opera" that Ronny Cammareri (Nicholas Cage) takes Loretta Castorini (Cher) to in Moonstruck, and we all know how that turned out. (IMG:http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/style_emoticons/default/wink1.gif) My favorite movie line of all time is when the bawling Loretta wails to Ronny, re Mimi, "I knew she was sick but I didn't think she was gonna die!" on their way out of the Met.

I love that scene.

Another plus for Boheme is that because of its relative simplicity and small cast it’s a great favorite with regional companies and even a subpar performance can still be effective.

[Helene]

I usually opt for Le Nozze di Figaro if my newbie guest isn't quite ready for the kind of overt emotionality often on display in 19th century Italian opera.

That's a great one, especially if the person likes music from the classical period or earlier.

[sandik]

Carmen, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1973. ... In the 2nd act, they had brought in Antonio Gades and dancers from his company.

I read a note in the paper that they were looking for supers for the opera (all you really had to do, I guess, was fit the costumes), so I went there and got in, and we were in the last act, on a balcony, throwing flyers down to the crowd on stage, for the big bull fight, I suppose. So I was in my first opera. I think Carmen might be a good opera since there's a good chance that some of the music is familiar, and it is pretty lively.

Oh my lord, what a fabulous story! What an amazing perspective you would have had, and on such a bravura work too!

I envy you seeing Gades and his ensemble in this context.