A co-worker told me she went to see Phantom of the… recently saying, “You know, Bill, I never thought I would like opera, but I really liked that one!”
I had to smile.
My cat’s favorite opera is Deflate-A-Mouse.
Kidding.
I heard Die Fledermaus (The Bat) today on NPR, and thought it was funny hearing it done in the Bavarian accent. I just finished a vaction in the Bavarian town of Rothenburg of der Tauber and the Bavarian accents brought back fond memories.
I guess I’ve never made time to listen to much opera, though I do enjoy classical music. Really, the only operas I’ve been to are Carmen and Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) and of the two, I liked Mozart the best.
No wait … in college I saw a short opera entitled The Face on the Barroom Floor. It was in English and set in the wild, wild west, I think. Anyone know anything about it?
Oh, I had to answer my own question. I found this about it –
*The Face on the Barroom Floor
Music by Henry Mollicone; Libretto by John S. Bowman
This mini-opera opens in Central City, Colorado as Isabelle, a young
opera singer and her beau, Larry, meet at the Teller House Bar for a
drink before an upcoming rehearsal. The two are struck both by the
Old West atmosphere of the tavern, and by the face of a beautiful
woman painted on the old, wooden floor. When Isabelle looks up, she
is shocked to see that a former lover, Tom, is the bartender, but says
nothing about her history with this man to her current flame. When
Larry asks Tom about the significance of the face on the floor, the
three characters are transported back to the late nineteenth century
and to the Old West boom town Central City once was. Past love,
passion and untimely death spin from the past into the present as the
tale of the Face on the Barroom Floor unfolds. *
I remember liking it because it had familiar American themes. Though opera is universal, it’s often hard for the average person to get past the foreign language.
Puccini’s Tosca has been my favorite since I first saw it on TV in the mid-seventies. I really enjoy watching Floria stick it to the evil Scarpia, even though she doesn’t get away with it. And the music is grand. I get spine tingles at the finale.
I’ve also taken a liking to The Ring cycle. The whole leitmotif thing just facinates me.
For comedies, I like The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro.
I have been to a grand total of two operas in my life: Porgy and Bess and Lohengrin. I enjoyed both, but I actually enjoyed the latter more, even though its subject matter was far less accessible than the former.
But I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Wagner’s music. And it didn’t seem long despite it being a four-hour long performance.
“The Marriage of Figaro” and “Falstaff” are my two favorite comic operas.
But, I think that “The Consul” has to be my favorite tragedy. (Even though, God forbid, it is written in English) There is a quartet in the middle of it that is absolutly wonderful.
I also have a thing for the Ring Cycle. Somewhere I still have the tapes I made of the Mets’ version that was on PBS.
Of course if you have notice my sig, you know what another of my favorites is.
I saw the spectacular production of San Francisco Opera’s 1985 “Der Ring Des Niebelungen”,and I can say that it was everything it was cracked up to be.The atmosphere was electric.When the curtain fell on act two the audience sprang to their feet and roared their approval.
James Morris was singing Wotan for the first two operas,and he was absolutely without question the best "Walkure Wotan"I have ever heard.*
My best recollection of the “Walkure” cast follows:
I am somewhat of a philistine with respect to opera. Still, there is no doubt about my favorite opera. That would be: Billy Budd by Benjamin Britten. I loved everything about it - the music, the storyline, the underlying morality play, and, in the version I attended, the maginficent set.
I am not too knowledgable about opera, but I loved the Ring Cycle (I saw the same version you did, Forbin! Ah, that Peter Hoffman!) I also LOVE “The Magic Flute”, particularly Igmar Bergman’s version. (Have that on tape.) Just love love love it.
I saw Billy Budd quite by accident.
Outside the San Francisco Opera I bought tickets from a scalper once.Two tickets for “Un Ballo in Maschera”.Or so I thought.The scalper knew that was what I wanted,so he held them in such a way as to hide one behind the other,took my money,and left quickly.
When I found out that I had one ticket to "Ballo"and one to “Billy Budd”,I was chagrined.Can’t take a date to the one I really wanted to see and also now I have to see a modern opera.
“Billy Budd” was excellent.It is a taut drama.I was spellbound.Luckily(once again)the role of Claggart,the villian,was sung by James Morris.
"Ballo"couldn’t have been worse.I won’t name the very famous tenor who sang the lead,out of respect for his long and illustrious career,but this production was literally dead on arrival.Awfull!
This was many years ago.That season I attended most of the productions of SFO,and had good seats all the time.It helped me to develop a perspective on the level of performances to see so many in such a short period of time.These days I haven’t seen many at all.I don’t even know any of the new crop of singers at all.
I do however have a new way of seeing operas that I greatly prefer to my old “get great seats” philosophy.
Fisher Queen take note
Standing room only!This is a great way to see opera,and it’s cheap too!The time spent standing in the opera house(at SFO at least)is a thousand times more comfortable than in one of their "Spanish Inquisition"seats.I am easily tall enough to see over anybody’s head though,so this may not work for you.Other favorites,by the way,include:
Rigoletto
Aida
Der Fliegende Hollander
La Traviata(hey!I SANG in that one once!Yaaaay!)
Sampson et Dahlila
I was never too into opera, but I did see La Boheme when it was touring a few years ago. I liked it much more than I thought I would. I guess that is my favorite by default, since I’ve never seen another one.
It has a rather incoherent libretto concerning the 12th century Sicilian monarch and his indecision about whether to follow the dictates of Apollo or Dionysus, but the music is spooky and shimmery and bathed in moonglow all at once.
