My Love of Opera

I had never been to an opera until I went to college.  My exposure to “opera” was via Ed Sullivan whose show had a wide variety of performers.  Dorothy Kirsten was a perennial performer on his show.  I’ve mentioned before that I was fortunate enough to live with a group of fellows who were exceptionally well versed in classical music.  David had a special fondness for the Baroque, particularly Bach.  Juri liked Wagner, Bruckner et al and was incredibly knowledgeable about all classical music.  Richard was a Russian major and obviously liked all of the Russian composers, many of whom I never knew before.  Jeffrey especially loved opera.  From the first year he had a series to the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

These friends decided I needed to broaden my horizons and see an opera and a classical ballet.  The first ballet was the Bolshoi production of Swan Lake.  My first two operas were Met productions on tour in Chicago, Tosca and Turandot.  Tosca starred Tito Gobbi as Scarpia and Franco Corelli as Mario. I don’t remember who sang Tosca.  This production was outstanding.  Gobbi was costumed in late 18^thC garb with white wig and black shoes with gold buckets and red heels.  The first act was spectacular, particularly in the final moments.  As Scarpia sings about his lust for Tosca, the clergy enter to sing a Te Deum.  The Cardinal arrives at the climax of the music and blesses Scarpia to the final crescendo as the curtain falls.  It was spectacularly timed and the effect was stricking!  Turandot starred Birgit Nielson and Franco Corelli.  This too was a stellar production and I have the recording of that production.

I decided to join Jeffrey at the Lyric with a subscription.  The first opera that season was Prince Igor with Boris Christoff.  A recent émigré’ from the Soviet Union performed the Polovtsian  dances, Rudolf Nureyev!  It was the first of many times I was privileged to see him perform.  Christoff stayed for the season singing in La Boheme, The Barber of Seville and a couple of others.  Fernando Corena also was there for the season, appearing in Tosca, La Boheme, The Barber of Seville, and Don Pasquale among others. 

I continued to attend the Lyric until I graduated from Medical School in 1967.  I was able to see a lot of great opera and wonderful performances.  Boris Godunov is a spectacular opera.  I saw an excellent production at the Lyric.  Other operas over the 6 or 7 years, included Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, Nabucco, Le Nozze di Figaro, The Magic Flute, Cenerentola , Samson et Delialal and so many more that I can’t even remember.  In those days, we went backstage and were allowed in to obtain autographs of the great ones.  Richard Tucker was especially nice to his fans.  He was not an actor but he had a beautiful voice and sang many of the Italian tenor roles at the Lyric.

We were able to have subscriptions to the NY City Opera until tickets became too expensive.  We were also able to attend the Met from time to time.  The Met has Franco Zefferelli productions of La Boheme and Turandot that are wonderful.   His Boheme is the only production that makes sense.  During the entire first act the characters complain about how cold it is on Christmas Eve.  Every other production has them sitting outside the café in the second act which follows immediately in time.  That makes no sense.  Zefferelli solved the problem with a two tier set with the café inside the lower level.  His Turandot is visually beautiful.  (It is on You Tube!). 

The City Opera has done some interesting productions.  They like modern operas.  Their productions of Evangeline and of Dead Man Walking were wonderful.  Regina was interesting but not as powerful as Lillian Hellman’s play.  They had great fun with The Italian Girl in Algiers and with The Love of 3 Oranges.   I also finally saw Mourning Becomes Electra  and Der Rosenkavalier at the City.

I think that Puccini’s operas are the most accessible.  La Boheme, Tosca, Turandot, Girl of the Golden West, and La Rondine are not far from American Musical Theater.  If someone asks which opera to see first, I usually tell them, La Boheme.  The music is lush and the story is delightful and sad.

However, based on the volume of diverse works, I think that Verdi is my favorite composer.  His Otello is one of my favorite operas.  Iago’s  “Credo” and Desemona’s Willow Song are wonderful.  La Traviata is another favorite.  Add to these his operas Aida, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, Nabucco, Falstaff, Macbeth, and all the others and his volume of work and the diversity of his work is unmatched.

I am not a fan of Wagner’s operas.  I do like the orchestral music from Siegfried, Die Walküre, and Die Meistersinger.  I do not like the Germanic mythology of the Ring.  To me it is dumb and lacks the elegance of the Greeks.  Tannhauser is Ok.  His comedy, Die Meistersinger, was not funny, though I did see it at the old Met.

Mozart’s Don Giovanni is another favorite of mine.  I actually saw a production in Prague at the opera house in which Mozart conducted the premier.  The production of Le Nozze that I saw was so static that it was boring.  I did enjoy The Magic Flute.  Oddly, I have never seen Cosi Fan Tutti.

One of the fun things about seeing various productions is not just the good ones, but the stupid or badly done productions as well.  The Met’s Macbeth was stupid.  The witches were forced to hang upside down over the fire pit and sing.  It was acrobatic but distracting.  Lady Macbeth (Renata Scotto) entered wearing an 1880’s riding habit complete with top hat decorated with a sash down her back.  She was a cross between the Empress Cisi and Auntie Mame in the hunt sequence but did not belong in 13^th C Scotland.  The costumes for the Chorus were whatever they had used in other productions from Aida to Nabucco.

The recent Met production of Rigoletto set in Las Vegas worked well.  Finding Gilda in the trunk of a car was very effective.  Their bare minimum production of La Traviata was not effective.  The bare set forced her to lay on the floor for the last act as she was dying from tuberculosis.  It was terrible!

Vanessa by Virgil Thompson is reported to be one of the great operas of the 20^th C.  We heard Laura Flanagan in the title role.  The story is so stupid however, that we walked out!  The modern opera, Little Women,  by Mark Adamo did not separate the sisters by theme music or by vocal range.  One could not tell which soparno was singing.  Was it Meg, Jo, Amy, Beth or Marmie?  The musical theater version was much better.

Dead Man Walking was a powerful version of the movie of the same name.  It was as devastating as the film and had good music. Evangeline is based on a book by Judy Blum and may be a true story.  Another opera I like is the Dialogue of the Carmelites by Poulenc.  The story is interesting.  It is set during the French Revolution.  The old mother superior dies a horrible death.  Her death did not “fit her.”  Sister Blanche is told that someone else will find death an easily worn and fitting role.  Blanche runs and hides when the sisters are arrested but as they walk to their death, she joins them peacefully.  Some people find it horrible but for some reason I don’t.

The most popular opera supposedly is Carmen.  So much depends on the mezzo singing the role.  With slimmer sopranos now in fashion it can be a wonderful experience and I have seen some beautiful and talented singers play the role. 

Unfortunately, obesity was common among opera singers, less so now.  Jan Vickers did sing the first act of Otello bare-chested successfully.  The Lyric’s Samson and Delilah, however, had two morbidly obese singers in the title roles and it was more funny than seductive.  A recent Otello starred the beautiful Rene Fleming as Desdamona.  Otello, however was over 300 pounds and in his “flowing” robes looked like more than the Berlin wall than a seductive Moor.

The Barber of Seville is a comic opera that is truly funny.  The last two productions shown on TV were total delights.  The first time I saw it, Tito Gobbi sang Dr. Bartola, Christoff was Don Basilio, Teresa Strata was Rosalinda and I think Alfred Kraus was the Count.  I’m not sure who sang Figaro.  Gobbi and Christoff were delightful and Kraus had a ball impersonating Don Basilio.