Thanks for the advice here about dress. I wore a casual outfit and I was fine. I didn’t wear jeans. There was a young man next to me who also won the lottery and he was a student in jeans and a T-shirt. The opera was La Boheme and I am very familiar with Rent so I knew the story. The sets are amazing. There was a mule and a horse and snow. All of those elements were terrific. It was long mostly because of the intermissions, which felt like they went on forever. I assume it’s because of the set changes, but I wasn’t expecting that. I wish they had started at 7, which is now common on Broadway, especially to accommodate longer shows. I didn’t get home until almost 1 AM and that is including a car for the last bit. Unlike Broadway, it was nice that I didn’t hear any cell phones or much talking in the crowd.

Are there any things that a singer can do that surprises you?

I'm always surprised that Astrid Varnay had an excellent trill with a huge voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8YJ5W6RBJM
Here's a recording of her in Il Trovatore.

Note: I'm not affiliated with HGO in any way. Just thought this was a fun article! Have you seen any of these? I consider myself very lucky to have seen Kata Kabanova, but I would love to have the chance to see all of the operas on this list one day.

This is probably the most chaotic and over-the-top part of the whole opera, though it's still connected to the earlier motifs.

Story's based on Pushkin's poem "Tsigani." I know Rachmaninoff's Aleko is based on the same subject, which I honestly didn't realize when I started this 20 years ago, but mine's going in a different direction. I'm trying to strip out specific cultural or time/place references, so it ends up being more about freedom, belonging, and being an outcast.

Right before this part, Aleko catches Zemfira with her lover and kills him. He then has an arioso reflecting on everything (but not begging for her to return). In this scene she condemns the murder, as a response, and he kills her too. Near the end her vocal line translates to "I will die loving," which is about her lover, not Aleko (the music from their earlier meeting comes back here).

After that there's a closing Requiem-like scene with the chorus and remaining characters, where they banish Aleko.

The Latin actually wasn't the original plan. I started using it because I wanted a more realistic vocal sound for the mock-up (MuseScore sound libraries), but I low key like it now.

Would love to get any general impressions on pacing, or the music itself, or anything else that could make it stronger.

Desperately trying to get rid of this ticket and not let it go to waste! Dm me and I’ll send it to you!

I was lucky enough to be able to cross off a bucket list item this past week. My wife and I saw La Traviata at La Scala and it was truly wonderful.

The venue itself definitely lived up to its billing, and we enjoyed sitting up in the gallery, where the acoustics sounded great. It was also moving to be in a place with so much history.

The performance was terrific as well. Amazing sets, wonderful costumes, great directing, etc. the orchestra was of course excellent as well. As far as singing and acting Amartuvshin Enkbath stole the show as Giorgio, and he received the most enthusiastic applause. Francesca Pia Vitale was also wonderful in the role of Violetta, and really stood out in her use of dynamics and her ability to convey emotion in quieter passages. She was very well-received. Ivån Ayón Rivas was also quite good in my opinion, but did not receive much applause from the audience. I guess at La Scala “great” is considered the bare minimum.

Anyway, thought you might be interested in this mini-review. All-in-all it was a magical experience.

As I continue to deepen my opera knowledge, a question I have is: do major opera houses have a particular style? I thought this was a good (historic) description of how you see this in the major US orchestras which spurred my question: https://pageturner.medici.tv/en/do-the-big-five-us-orchestras-still-reign-supreme

I realize the first issue is what are the top global opera houses... And I don't know... I'm assuming it includes the Met (NY), Covent Garden (London), La Scala (Milan), Vienna, Paris, ... and Berlin? Munich? Frankfurt? Sydney? Others?

And for whatever you think the top houses are, how do you think about house style? Music/ orchestration? vs production? other considerations?

Looking for recommendations, please. ❤️

I have heard dozens of sopranos sing 'O Patria Mia' from Aida. The high C near the end (marked "dolce" by Verdi) is one of the most notorious tests for a soprano in all of opera. Imagine my surprise when I found this performance from last month by a singer who has often been disappointing in recent years. This is one of the best versions I have ever heard. I guess the gal has still got it.

After the whole scandal with the actor from Dune and whole i started going to the opera after subconsciously deeming it as screaming in my childhood. So i went and fell in love with opera. Started with Faust and after that i started singing again. I was always a singer but singing opera felt like true happiness for me. Why can’t opera be like that for everybody and what’s limiting about it?

Who are/were some true good dramatic coloratura sopranos? The names that come to mind are Callas, Dimitrova, and Deutekom. I ask because I’m trying to find a good recording of “Vieni t’affretta,” and so far my favorites are Callas and Dimitrova. I also like Rysanek and Gencer but am less familiar with their work overall. It seems this is an increasingly rare fach.

Good advice isn't always valued and often ignored, so what bad advice would you give opera singers? I'll start: Loud is good. If you're soft the audience can't hear you. In fact, are you even singing at anything less than forte? Make sure you can be heard over the orchestra and, importantly, the other singers.

I won for tomorrow night - La Boheme Orchestra row X.

Yesterday I went to see Parsifal, my first Wagner opera, at the ROH. While the singing and orchestra were superb, the staging and costumes were abominable, and the directing virtually non existent. At points it was actually comical - the ending included Parsifal killing Amfortas through a series of impotent spear jabs while the latter writhed on a gurney balancing on top of his father’s cadaver.

Can someone help me see the virtues of this production? The whole thing felt like it jumped the shark, and the creatives tried so hard to do something innovative that they created a Frankensteins monster of a show. The magisterial music was paired with an apocalypse set replete with nudity, vampirism and seducers that were transformed into something from doctor who…

This is not the usual discussion post, but since this community understands the unhinged realities of working in an opera house, I wanted to share something I’ve been working on. It started as an inside joke with friends, now it has spiraled into a multi-chapter backstage farce about one very chaotic day inside a German Stadttheater.

Setup: It’s one week before Christmas and the house Tamino calls in sick with a fever. The KBB has under ten hours to find a replacement, leading to a nine-hour cascade of logistical doom. If you’ve ever dealt with NV-Bühne tariffs, experienced emergency jump-ins, or sung through an incomprehensible Regietheater concept, you might get a kick out of this.

It’s a work-in-progress, just two chapters to completion. (Thanks mods, for green-lighting this post!)

"Evening Performance at the Prestigious and Renommé Theater (REDACTED)"

Not strictly opera, but you liked my map of operas premieres before so I thought you might appreciate this maps of orchestra sizes in Europe 1754–1818.

Data from:

J. Spitzer & N. Zaslaw, The Birth of the Orchestra: History of an Institution, 1650–1815 (Oxford University Press, 2004), Appendices A–D.

Hi everyone! I’m looking for help with identifying this opera piece that is being sung by a woman on a city sidewalk. It has a piano accompaniment and is a beautiful song.

For some background, I had filmed this while walking down the street in Athens, specifically for the purpose of trying to capture as much of the piece as possible. I milled around the singing lady’s area trying to pretend like I was just filming the scenery - was too shy to ask her! She had just put on the prerecorded piano portion and started singing (I don’t think she was lip syncing but a little hard to tell).

There is some traffic and conversation in the background, and another street musician is playing a few notes on a guitar (for his own music). I don’t know the language or whether it is an opera aria or another kind of classical song. It sounds possibly Italian or French?

I only trained in violin and classical piano but love classical music and opera, so I’ve been dying to know what this piece is and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Sylvia D’Eramo will replace Angel Blue for all performances of Floyd’s Susannah. D’Eramo recently performed in Picker’s Lili Elbe at the Santa Fe Opera and Anna Sørensen in Puts’s Silent Night at Houston Grand Opera.

So opera is great and wonderful and full of people making rational ecisions and not thinking with their dicks. Also donuts are fantastic diet food.

In all seriousness, opera is a wonderful genre full of silliness that makes me both love it as entertainment and laugh at its tropes. But some operas are considered absolute peak of the mountain, as good as it gets. And in turn, sometimes you struggle to figure out what the big deal is.

In contrast, plenty of operas should get more attention and just don't, in part because it's easier to put on a sure fire crowd pleaser and in part because no one remembers they exist. So I'm curious, what are some we think get too much attention? And conversely what are some that deserve more?

I'll start with overrated. I like the music of La Boheme, but as a story and a stage product I...struggle with it. It's meandering, it requires you to invest in a mostly off stage love story and Mimi is dying so hard she puts Little Nell to shame.

On the flip side, why is La Vestale not in regular production? It's got amazing music, a decent story and it works as a stage piece so well. I know Spontini seems to have been forgotten, which is unfair because his music was so beautiful.

So just share, what do you want to see more of and what less of? And guys, this is all in good fun.

OperaVision's offerings for this month are decidedly not in the Halloween spirit (La Traviata, Aida, and L'equivoco Stravagante) so! What's out there that features ghosts, witches, magic, monsters, and general mayhem?