Topic: Opera n stuff?

[Wendell_E]

My first trip to New York City was in 1983 to see her in her Met debut role, Cassandre in Les Troyens, with Domingo and Troyanos, Levine conducting. Half a year or so later, when I bought one of them newfangled CD player contraptions, one of the discs I bought on the same day was her Philips recording of Vier Letzte Lieder and other Strauss songs with Masur conducting.

[Handelian]

I very rarely see operate in the flesh for two reasons: first it is very expensive to go to the opera house itself and to travel to London would be extra expensive. Secondly there are too many duff productions around. So you can spend an awful lot of money and have a poor evening out. Far better I think these days to take advantage of modern media and see it at the cinema on a broadcast from the Metropolitan or another opera house. Then at least if the production is inferior you haven’t spent a fortune. Mind you with Metropolitan productions I haven’t had many bad experiences. One bad experience was with Wozzeck but that was the opera. Another was with Tristan but then you can’t win them all and Wagner is better heard rather than seen anyway. I have been listening to the recent free Met broadcasts online quite regularly and I’ve had some really good experiences. Any opera lover should be listening in. There is also the facility of DVD and you can usually get hold of a DVD for less than it would cost you to go to the opera house or even the cinema.
I do agree that opera should be seen as well as heard generally and I think these days we are moving away thankfully from the artists who just stood and sang. I was just watching the Glyndebourne Julius Caesar and how much more we are demanding of singers these days in terms of acting and even dancing! And a very good thing too because it makes for a much better entertainment

[Scion7]

'operate'?
'operation'?

Something's run amok in your speech-to-text, lad.

Read the reviews before buying a ticket - that might solve your troubles.  Wagner must be crying out from the grave about your view that his work shouldn't really be staged!   

[Handelian]

'operate'?
'operation'?

Something's run amok in your speech-to-text, lad.

Read the reviews before buying a ticket - that might solve your troubles.  Wagner must be crying out from the grave about your view that his work shouldn't really be staged!   

Thanks it does someone my age good to be called lad. It was only one word actually but the word opera and the word operation are bound up together anyway.

I do read the reviews before I go. The problem is sometimes the critics are as dotty as the producers. There was an absolute stinker of a Fidelio at ROH which was praised by critics on the TV other week. I’m just glad I didn’t waste my money. At least you can turn the television off. I’m ploughing my way through a misguided Peter Sellars production of Mozart’s Tito which I’m glad I didn’t go to Salzburg to see. I think I would’ve gone and demanded my money back for both of them.