Do you remember when you heard your first opera/aria? Bonus points for including the opera and composer! Please tell us—no matter how faint or vivid the memory.
I’ll go first.
My first opera memory is from the movie Moonstruck (1987) with Cher and Nicolas Cage.
Loretta and Ronny go to the Metropolitan Opera to see La Bohème by Puccini. I remember that Loretta cried when the character (Mimì) was singing. It was the first time I felt like opera was reflecting real life - real emotions. In the scene, the character of Mimì shares her love for Rodolfo but the two agree to part because Rodolfo fears he is too poor to care for Mimì given she is sick, echoing the way Loretta in the movie feels about Ronny. You can watch the actual scene from the movie here.
My first opera was Bizet’s Carmen....in 1967- at school in a course I voluntarily took early in the morning before the school day started. It was called Music Appreciation....a wonderful teacher who volunteered his time to teach us at 8:00am before the regular school day started. It was the Callas Carmen. How fortunate was I! It started me on a lifelong love of classical music and opera.
This is amazing Beverly! Was this in high school / college? Do you remember taking to it at first or did that love grow over time? And Callas, what a great singer to start with! I have so many questions 🤩🤩, this is awesome - thank you so much for sharing!
It was in high school at Earl Haig Collegiate in Willowdale (Toronto). There were only a few of us willing to submit ourselves to that early morning torture( grade 13). However it was a wonderful experience. The teacher had us buy a record album which included the lyrics in English as well as French- side by side- so we could follow along. It was transformative and yes my love started then. I went on to see Madame Butterfly at the Okeefe Centre in Toronto but I have struggled since then to find a similar experience with the album, the lyrics and the translation although I must admit I was somewhat distracted by life. We also studied Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A and Beethoven’s 8th symphony. Didn’t know at the time how lucky I was. I’ve never forgotten it. I’m 72 now and still love that music!
I love you sharing your dislike for Rossini! That is the joy of art, no one this is for everyone. Trust me, I have devoted my life to this art form and there is PLENTY I don't love.
Just realised there was an earlier one than Porgy and Bess - Pirates of Penzance, sang that in class when I was about 8 years old - Gilbert and Sullivan - does that one count too?? Come friends who plough the sea....
We loved singing it. Encouraged by our Welsh Music teacher who would also throw in a bit acting with it. It was magical to sing and magical to watch, albeit in a classroom of 8year olds!
Of course G & S counts! Some of the most fun I have ever had is singing G & S! How wonderful that music education was so valued then that you learned it in school! Alas, if only that were the case today.
My first full opera was a free performance of "Tosca" in an outdoor amphitheater. I was more excited about the family outing, the beautiful setting and the snacks at intermission, but the event somehow made a lasting impression on my preteen brain.
btw I love that there were other things that drew you into that experience and then the opera was a pleasant surprise. I think that's how all new experiences happen. You inspired me to go back and listen to one of my favorite Tosca's 🤩https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk5KrlxePzI
Opera outside is the BEST! When I was studying in Italy I saved up my money and saw Tosca and Rigoletto in Verona. It was thrilling! I have performed many times outdoors and am in fact on the board of an opera company in Minneapolis, MN that performs outside during the summer. It's so so wonderful.
My grandfather took me in the early 1940's to the Met in NYC. I believe it was Aida, followed by an aunt taking me to the ballet there ( not exactly Opera, but for a 10 year old kid, about the same experience. ) and my father took me to Porgy and Bess. Not a bad start for first generation North American.
An appreciate of stage art and music. They rounded it out with Broadway musicals and at home, 12 record 78 albums ofD'oyle Carte Mikado and Pinafore. I can still here the thunk of each record falling.
How thrilling! My 6 year LOVES Don G (as we call it). He loves to listen to it on long car rides with me translating what is going on. Do you remember if you were scared at the end?
Yes I was. But I was ok because they were all ok - they all ‘got up’ again for the curtain call. Films don’t have curtain calls and some scare me still
My first memory is my father playing the great Mario Lanza singing The Great Caruso. His favourite aria was from Puccini’s third act of Tosca E Lucevan El Stelle. I just loved the clarinet in this piece. It was so moving and passionate. So the first opera I saw live was of course Tosca, which I’ve seen many times and it remains my favourite along with this aria. I think it bring back good memories of my dad and his love of all times of music from jazz, classical, Reggie, pop, rock and even rap. But for both of us, no one sang this aria better than Mario. What a voice, what a wonderful aria. Both fostered my love of this musical genre.
Oh wow, that is a good one. There have been a couple of Tosca references today I think we might need to focus on the opera next month :) there is really nothing like this aria, couldn't agree more. What a gift. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50afi2Q4a5Y
It's difficult for me to say what was my definitively first opera memory. Since I was a child, my father would play opera records every Saturday morning and often included a mix of Carmen, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Manon Lescaut and Turandot. . .maybe Cavalaria Rusticana and Il Pagliaci. The first time I was conscious of the music of a specific opera was in the mid-seventies when I went to see the original The Bad News Bears starring noted opera devotee Walter Matthau. My father told me all of the music in the film was from the opera Carmen. I loved the film and the music was memorabele and enjoyable. About five years later, a sophmore or junior in high school, I attended my first opera. It was a production of Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera. Although I did not appreciate it at the time, the choreography was by Alvin Ailey, and the scenography was by the great Czech designer Josef Svoboda. Their work would be very much on my radar as I studied theatre craft and theatre history in college. I own several books about Svoboda, written by my college/grad school mentor Jarka Burian. Carmen remains a favorite of mine over 40 years later. When I was first dating my wife, she told me while she loved theatre and ballet, she hated opera. I naively asked "even Carmen?" and my wife said "yuck, that's the one I hate the most," as she stuck out her tongue in a most adorable fashion. I may have fallen in love with her at that moment. I also had a good laugh because if one had to pick the opera one hated the most, I can't imagine how Carmen would be chosen. Clearly that was the only opera she had ever seen. She's walked out of several operas over the years, but I am happy to say she has recently endured a quality production of Carmen at the Met, and not only does she not hate it the "most" (she reserves that distinction for Einstein on the Beach), she actually likes it a lot.
Bonus remark: About half a year after seeing Carmen, I attended my second opera, also at the Met. It was The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagony, directed by John Dexter and starring Teresa Stratas. It was magnificent. My father, strictly a verisimo kind of guy, did not share my enthusiasm. I was already a Brecht and Weill enthusiast and the production was excellent, but what made the night so special, even magical for me, was that Tony Randall, the actor who was the not-so-much-alter-ego of opera-loving Felix Unger, was sitting right behind me. So I can farily claim that I went to the opera with Felix Unger. If only I had run into Jack Klugman at Saratoga Race Track (btw I attended a NYCity Opera touring production of Carmen in Saratoga once upon a time), life would have been perfect.
WOW what VIVID memories! And I love your wife's honesty and clearly your commitment to finding a quality Carmen for her :) Teresa Stratas and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagony - I have not thought about that piece for ages. Thank you for sharing!
That was an outstanding production of Mahagonny. I know it was broadcast on PBS (I even clipped a copy of Al Hirschfeld's superb illustration of it for a print ad), but I wish there was a recording of it. I frequently listen to Lotte Lenya's recording. Kurt Weill's musical abilities are not celebrated enough.
My first exposure to opera was Giordano's Andrea Chenier at the Met in January 1971. It was also my first trip to Lincoln Center. I was taking a class during intersession at Rider College (now University) on Society and the Performing Arts being taught by Dr. Richard Leblond, who later became Director of the San Francisco Ballet. During that January I also saw the Alvin Ailey Dance Company for the first time and an off-broadway show, 'The Last Sweet Days of Isaac.' (I still have the record. LOL) That magical month changed my life.
what a wonderful memory. And Andrea Chenier 😍 good reminder that sometimes you are just in the right place at the right time to experience something new
My parents were serious lovers of opera & classical music. While I can't say for sure exactly which opera is my earliest memory, I can remember them playing records of La Boheme, Turandot (my mom's favorite), La Traviata, Carmen, Marriage of Figaro and others in the early 1950's and all throughout my childhood. Both of my parents knew almost every word, and both sand well enough to make their singing along not be at all unpleasant. They were lovers of many kinds of music, so we also learned all the Gilbert & Sullivan comedic musicals, and all the wonderful musicals like West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and my favorite, Candide. (When Man Of La Mancha came out, it became tied with Candide). Oh - not played in my household ... the heavy Wagnerian operas.
What vivid memories! Did your parents ever think of singing professionally? I am curious where their love of opera came from and if they ever considered it....love to hear this type of passion for this art 🤩 🤩
Mom's voice was like mine - on key, good pitch, decent, but not even close to professional caliber. Dad's voice was powerful, also on key, good pitch and decent (his father had a very nice voice), but he didn't take himself seriously - he also sang for pleasure and joy, but didn't have a professional caliber voice. But if the music was playing, they were singing - and one of my sisters and I grew up with this same zest for singing. The other sister, who also loves music, unfortunately has absolutely no voice whatsoever - she won't even sing Happy Birthday, because she doesn't want to ruin festivities!! LOL!!! Both parents came to classical music, opera, theater, the arts and other cultural loves through curiosity, and the abundance of cultural richness & stimulation growing up in Manhattan (NY City). They had annual tickets to the Met, Lincoln Center, Joseph Papp and other series for years.
I was 15 years old and watching the opening ceremony of the Barcelona Olympic Games on TV in what must have been July or August 1992. I saw Freddy Mercury, whom I thought (and still do) had a pretty great voice, be absolutely consumed by Montserrat Caballe... I was hypnotised by the power and purity of her voice. It was an unexpected revelation in style of music to me 😊
Freddie had an amazing voice and you could tell he had a love for opera by the way he sang and his song choices. This was his opportunity. I remember this moment well. What a wonderful collaboration. Ms. Caballe was amazing as always.
I went on a walking tour of theaters in Detroit in about 2006. I was given a small disc of arias after touring the Music Hall. The disc had Nessun Dorma on it, sung by Luciano Pavarotti, and I fell in love with the aria. When I heard that Turandot was playing at the Detroit Opera House, I bought one box seat ticket for myself and attended just to hear the aria live. I fell in love with opera that afternoon.
I grew up with Sunday opera on the radio, records at home. I saw Carmen and La Traviata as a youth with my parents, performed by the Met’s touring company at Northrop Auditorium at the University of MN. But MY first opera was La Boheme, at Northrop in the Spring of ‘83. The ticket was $25, my grocery money for the week, and took place the night before my last, most important final in my senior year. Of course I went! By then, I knew the opera, I had my first love and loss, but his was my first live performance of La Boheme. I learned the truth of my mother’s favorite quote: “We love opera because it is almost life sized”! I wept openly, as I always do, during most of the 4th act. When Mirella Freni died last year, I wept again. I realized that I had been falling in love with and losing Mirella’s Mimi for 40 years!
The first time I heard opera was in the womb! My parents are both professional musicians. My father is a tenor and a choral conductor (now retired), my mother a pianist, organist and music teacher and my grandfather was also a tenor so opera comes "honestly" to me. I was surrounded by all classical music, including lots of opera, from birth. That being said, I definitely have some early memories of opera in specific. I remember thinking when I was really young that all singers stood with their chests out and their head up like Joan Sutherland. I also remember we had an album of Victoria de Los Ángeles and she sort of resembles my mom. I would show all my friends when they came over the album and tell them that it was my mom. I also knew ALOT about tenors from Gedda to Björling to Domingo to, of course the God in our house...Pavoratti and would get in discussions with my father about each of them. Last but not least, I have always loved Marilyn Horne.
All of that being said, the first full opera I saw was Hansel and Gretel when I was about 5 and it wasn't even my parents to took my brother and me, it was some family friends. To this day I still remember how magical it was. I would pretend to be Gretel at home after seeing it. Little did I know that I would actually play HANSEL many times in my career.
I have known you for over 20 years and I've never heard some of these memories. They warm my heart ❤️❤️❤️❤️ (and your mother DOES look like Victoria de Los Ángeles!
I was in Bulgaria at a resort called Sunny Beach. It is a collection of hotels around the sea. Few of the locals spoke English. I had noticed an outdoor theatre. One day there was someone selling tickets. I bought 2 tickets for about 30p each (Soviet era) and went with my partner to the performance which could have been absolutely anything. Turned out to be an opera called Carmen. I was hooked. Have spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe since. Opera and ballet are still cheap and appeal to all classes
Mario Lanza, who was from my old neighborhood in South Philly, sang Pagliacci in a movie, "The Great Caruso." I cried my eyes out as a kid listening to him sing that aria.
Since I'm somewhat obsessed with him, your comments inspired me to look up excerpts from "The Great Caruso" (1951) on YouTube. I think the movie is available on the IMDb channel (www.imdb.com).
Meanwhile, Tom Frøkjær created a website that celebrates the life and art of Enrico Caruso (1873-1921). On http://www.enricocaruso.dk (English) he has managed to post all of his recordings and some truly beautiful photos. 🎵
I wanted to add that the neighborhood I grew up in, was made of of Italian immigrants and their older children. In nice weather, the windows were all thrown open and Italian Opera was heard throughout South Philly. So I was young, remembering around age 5+. Great pride that Mario Lanza was from there as well as non-opera rock and roll singers of the late 1950's.
Wow just WOW! I got chills reading your comment. That sounds wonderful. Perfect actually. Let's bring these moments back when we all get back to normal 😊 Thank you for sharing this wonderful memory
Field trips for elementary school students were still taken in Los Angeles in 1960. I remember that I was the third alternate student to be allowed to go to a daytime performance of Mozart’s Magic Flute at Shrine Auditorium near USC. Six students that were scheduled to go that day were absent, so I got to go. I admit to not being too impressed with the opera that day; I was more impressed with the interior of the Shrine, and its’ chandelier; as an excuse, I was eight years old. It took me a few more years to appreciate opera.
I was drawn to symphonic music by the time I was 10, but opera took a little longer. I took a music appreciation class in college in 1972 to satisfy a requirement, and I was taken by the Cujas Animam from Rossini’s Stabat Mater. I bought a copy of it at Wallach's Music City in Canoga Park, a long extinct record store. I didn’t know anything about singers or conductors, but I happened by pure dumb luck to buy the version with Pavarotti in peak form. The next year, I saw a record at Wallach’s from RCA Victor called A Golden Age Christmas, that included religious songs and hymns sung by opera singers including Caruso, Ponselle, Schumann-Heink, McCormack, Crooks, Homer, and Martinelli. That record hooked me, and I began to listen to opera.
My dad loves opera and musicals so he used to play them on his reel-to-reel tapes when he was fixing the car in the garage (1970s). The earliest I remember recognising was Carmen. Or Camelot or Annie Get Your Gun! (Do they count??) But then it was the music in the movie Amadeus.
Mine would have been grade 7 in 1972 went to the opera Carmen, with my whole music class. We also got to go to watch the movie Jesus Christ Superstar, starring Ted Neely based on the rock opera album, of Andrew Lloyd Webber, 1973. I owned both the original album by Andrew Lloyd Webber and the movie version that was produced. My favorite was the original. I used to sing along to it at home. Loved it.
That's incredible. You are not the first person in this community to share that you were introduced to the opera via a music class when you were very young. Seems like we need to figure out how to bring more of this back into the world. 🙏(I also LOVED JCS!:)
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California was my first opera. Bizet ‘s Carmen but I don’t remember who was singing. I was 12 years old. Since then I have been to the Met in New York and
Madam Butterfly! Puccini ! Butterfly was played by Bidu Sayou, hope I. spelled it right ! I was about 12 . She had very Long, black hair and when she knelt to take her bow, her hair hung way down into the orchestra pit!! A memory I’ll never forget!!
Oct 2, 2022·edited Oct 2, 2022Liked by Opera Daily
Well, it was in early 70s when I was 8 or 9 ( I got a brand new tape recorder then) There were so called Philharmonic Mornings on Polish TV. There I heard Intermezzo of Cavalleria Rusticana and immediately fell in love with as I said "Pure Perfection" However, I didn't catch the title and my parents Verdi's and Strauss's people didn't know it either. So I started hunting that masterpiece to record it but without success. At last Raging Bull with Robert de Niro discovered my beloved opera Cavalleria Rusticana to me🥰♥️ Since then I have been to many Cavallerias, mainly in Italy or Sicily and this summer I had a pleasure to meet Pietro Mascagni's great granddaughter Francesca, get her book Le donne di Pietro Mascagni with her autograph and watch Cavalleria on Mascagni Terrazza at Mascagni Festival in Livorno. So it can be said that I've been obsessed with Cavalleria almost 50 years, the only opera I listen to every single day ♥️♥️♥️
Arias from The Merry Widow and Rusalka. My mother sang them around the house with the old record on the record player. I'm almost 70 now, went into opera because of singing with my mother. I miss her every day still.
I can’t remember the first time I heard opera, because my parents, and especially my father, listened to opera. My dad loved Puccini, and Turandot and Boheme were in heavy rotation. I CAN, and always WILL, remember the first opera I heard live: Turandot with Birgit Nilsson/San Francisco Opera at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. I don’t recall who sang Calaf, but when La Nilsson embraced him at the end of Act III, it was like watching the meeting of a bug and a Venus flytrap.
First opera memory: My parents took me to see Sophia Loren (visuals) and Renata Tebaldi (vocals) in the 1953 film, "Aida." My mom liked SL's hair, make-up, and outfits. My dad liked SL. I liked the music.
First opera attended: "Der Freischütz." I was in high school and had to go alone. Yup, couldn't even get a family member to go with me. (I think they were still upset about attending SL's "Aida.")
The Ed Sullivan show on Sunday nights often featured opera singers and it was there that I first heard an aria. That would be in the 1950's and I was quite young. I was fascinated by it from that time on. My first opera was a production of La Boheme by Puccini in the 1970's in Toledo Ohio. One of my favorite films is by a German dire
I'm from Philadelphia. There's a film called Philadelphia with Tom Hanks. There's a scene where he's listening to la mama morta by callas. I was astonished by how beautiful her voice was. Than I saw photos and I was stunned at her amazing transformation. I followed her and opera ever since.
Apr 25, 2023·edited Apr 25, 2023Liked by Opera Daily
Caruso on RCA LP 60 years of Music with Caruso when I was 7 or 8; unforgettable. My first Opera at Symphony Hall about 1965 w/Rigoletto or Aida under Alfredo Sili[igni. Not very good and Jerome Hines etc.
2017, Singapore Lyric Opera, Verdi's Aida. My school choir brought me there, and we weren't too impressed since I could remember some singers had visible issues. The next time was just last year at the Hong Kong Opera and they did a pretty good Trovatore with a Mainland Chinese and European cast.
Marriage of Figaro by Motzart. 5th grade. Began my love of opera at age 11. My elementary school hosted the local Opera and philharmonic orchestra to come on Saturdays to our auditorium to give kids exposure to the fine arts. I cried, age 11, because the music so so beautiful. The other kids laughed, but I didn't care
My first opera was Bizet’s Carmen....in 1967- at school in a course I voluntarily took early in the morning before the school day started. It was called Music Appreciation....a wonderful teacher who volunteered his time to teach us at 8:00am before the regular school day started. It was the Callas Carmen. How fortunate was I! It started me on a lifelong love of classical music and opera.
This is amazing Beverly! Was this in high school / college? Do you remember taking to it at first or did that love grow over time? And Callas, what a great singer to start with! I have so many questions 🤩🤩, this is awesome - thank you so much for sharing!
It was in high school at Earl Haig Collegiate in Willowdale (Toronto). There were only a few of us willing to submit ourselves to that early morning torture( grade 13). However it was a wonderful experience. The teacher had us buy a record album which included the lyrics in English as well as French- side by side- so we could follow along. It was transformative and yes my love started then. I went on to see Madame Butterfly at the Okeefe Centre in Toronto but I have struggled since then to find a similar experience with the album, the lyrics and the translation although I must admit I was somewhat distracted by life. We also studied Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A and Beethoven’s 8th symphony. Didn’t know at the time how lucky I was. I’ve never forgotten it. I’m 72 now and still love that music!
Thank you - your description made me feel like I was there with you on that classroom 😌
Thank you for listening ...and caring.☺️
Not too sure if this counts as an opera - Porgy and Bess - Gershwin? Watched the film and loved the powerful singing and music
Absolutely counts! That’s a great first one 😌🥂
Oh course Porgy is opera, it is one of the greats in the American canon.
A school performance of The Barber of Seville. I can't say I enjoyed it. Happily it didn't put me off for good! I still don't care for Rossini though.
I love your honesty. Do you remember which opera or operas changed your mind after the Barber?
I love you sharing your dislike for Rossini! That is the joy of art, no one this is for everyone. Trust me, I have devoted my life to this art form and there is PLENTY I don't love.
Just realised there was an earlier one than Porgy and Bess - Pirates of Penzance, sang that in class when I was about 8 years old - Gilbert and Sullivan - does that one count too?? Come friends who plough the sea....
Yes counts!!! operetta, perfect! :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9XFn7Bkw0k
What did you think when you heard the Gilbert and Sullivan? Did you take to it right away?
We loved singing it. Encouraged by our Welsh Music teacher who would also throw in a bit acting with it. It was magical to sing and magical to watch, albeit in a classroom of 8year olds!
Of course G & S counts! Some of the most fun I have ever had is singing G & S! How wonderful that music education was so valued then that you learned it in school! Alas, if only that were the case today.
My first full opera was a free performance of "Tosca" in an outdoor amphitheater. I was more excited about the family outing, the beautiful setting and the snacks at intermission, but the event somehow made a lasting impression on my preteen brain.
Ahhhh opera outdoors with snacks(!) so good....and Tosca 🤩 🤩 🤩
btw I love that there were other things that drew you into that experience and then the opera was a pleasant surprise. I think that's how all new experiences happen. You inspired me to go back and listen to one of my favorite Tosca's 🤩https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk5KrlxePzI
Opera outside is the BEST! When I was studying in Italy I saved up my money and saw Tosca and Rigoletto in Verona. It was thrilling! I have performed many times outdoors and am in fact on the board of an opera company in Minneapolis, MN that performs outside during the summer. It's so so wonderful.
My grandfather took me in the early 1940's to the Met in NYC. I believe it was Aida, followed by an aunt taking me to the ballet there ( not exactly Opera, but for a 10 year old kid, about the same experience. ) and my father took me to Porgy and Bess. Not a bad start for first generation North American.
Wow! Do you feel like your appreciation of opera started then?
An appreciate of stage art and music. They rounded it out with Broadway musicals and at home, 12 record 78 albums ofD'oyle Carte Mikado and Pinafore. I can still here the thunk of each record falling.
WOW! how fun!
What a gift!
Mozart's Don Giovanni. I was about 8 years old and I was transfixed. Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. I can still hear it 56 years later!
8 years old, amazing!!!!
so you feel like your appreciation for opera started then?
How thrilling! My 6 year LOVES Don G (as we call it). He loves to listen to it on long car rides with me translating what is going on. Do you remember if you were scared at the end?
Yes I was. But I was ok because they were all ok - they all ‘got up’ again for the curtain call. Films don’t have curtain calls and some scare me still
The Untouchables Pagliacci's 'Vesti la Gubbia' when Malone (Sean Connery) is killed.
Incredible to hear it in the cinema
OHHH yes!! I had forgotten about this moment and had to go back and find it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7h9cW_ZJMg#t=3m49s
Such a great use of the that aria!
My first attending an opera was a dress rehearsal of Macbeth, Montreal, Place des arts. My friend was in scenery and got me in!
Oh wonderful - gotta love those friends that can sneak us in 🤩 - what did you think?
It impressed me. I was surprised to see a story that I knew transposed to the opera stage. Unfortunately, I don't have a friend like that now!
Wow, Macbeth is so exciting! I do alot of sneaking people into dress rehearsals....sometimes even performances ;)
I wish I knew someone to sneak me in. This was quite a while ago. Luckily I did go and didn't miss an opportunity.
My first memory is my father playing the great Mario Lanza singing The Great Caruso. His favourite aria was from Puccini’s third act of Tosca E Lucevan El Stelle. I just loved the clarinet in this piece. It was so moving and passionate. So the first opera I saw live was of course Tosca, which I’ve seen many times and it remains my favourite along with this aria. I think it bring back good memories of my dad and his love of all times of music from jazz, classical, Reggie, pop, rock and even rap. But for both of us, no one sang this aria better than Mario. What a voice, what a wonderful aria. Both fostered my love of this musical genre.
Oh wow, that is a good one. There have been a couple of Tosca references today I think we might need to focus on the opera next month :) there is really nothing like this aria, couldn't agree more. What a gift. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50afi2Q4a5Y
Corrections— it should read “I think it brings . . .” “and his love of all kinds of music . . .”
Mario Lanza was from my old neighborhood in South Philly and I loved him in the movie "The Great Caruso"
It's difficult for me to say what was my definitively first opera memory. Since I was a child, my father would play opera records every Saturday morning and often included a mix of Carmen, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Manon Lescaut and Turandot. . .maybe Cavalaria Rusticana and Il Pagliaci. The first time I was conscious of the music of a specific opera was in the mid-seventies when I went to see the original The Bad News Bears starring noted opera devotee Walter Matthau. My father told me all of the music in the film was from the opera Carmen. I loved the film and the music was memorabele and enjoyable. About five years later, a sophmore or junior in high school, I attended my first opera. It was a production of Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera. Although I did not appreciate it at the time, the choreography was by Alvin Ailey, and the scenography was by the great Czech designer Josef Svoboda. Their work would be very much on my radar as I studied theatre craft and theatre history in college. I own several books about Svoboda, written by my college/grad school mentor Jarka Burian. Carmen remains a favorite of mine over 40 years later. When I was first dating my wife, she told me while she loved theatre and ballet, she hated opera. I naively asked "even Carmen?" and my wife said "yuck, that's the one I hate the most," as she stuck out her tongue in a most adorable fashion. I may have fallen in love with her at that moment. I also had a good laugh because if one had to pick the opera one hated the most, I can't imagine how Carmen would be chosen. Clearly that was the only opera she had ever seen. She's walked out of several operas over the years, but I am happy to say she has recently endured a quality production of Carmen at the Met, and not only does she not hate it the "most" (she reserves that distinction for Einstein on the Beach), she actually likes it a lot.
Bonus remark: About half a year after seeing Carmen, I attended my second opera, also at the Met. It was The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagony, directed by John Dexter and starring Teresa Stratas. It was magnificent. My father, strictly a verisimo kind of guy, did not share my enthusiasm. I was already a Brecht and Weill enthusiast and the production was excellent, but what made the night so special, even magical for me, was that Tony Randall, the actor who was the not-so-much-alter-ego of opera-loving Felix Unger, was sitting right behind me. So I can farily claim that I went to the opera with Felix Unger. If only I had run into Jack Klugman at Saratoga Race Track (btw I attended a NYCity Opera touring production of Carmen in Saratoga once upon a time), life would have been perfect.
-Martin Blanco
WOW what VIVID memories! And I love your wife's honesty and clearly your commitment to finding a quality Carmen for her :) Teresa Stratas and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagony - I have not thought about that piece for ages. Thank you for sharing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeozviowUGo
That was an outstanding production of Mahagonny. I know it was broadcast on PBS (I even clipped a copy of Al Hirschfeld's superb illustration of it for a print ad), but I wish there was a recording of it. I frequently listen to Lotte Lenya's recording. Kurt Weill's musical abilities are not celebrated enough.
Cosi at Glynbourne... hooked for life. Thought names were strange Never met Fordiligi!
😂 😂 Cosi and Glynbourne - amazing!
My first exposure to opera was Giordano's Andrea Chenier at the Met in January 1971. It was also my first trip to Lincoln Center. I was taking a class during intersession at Rider College (now University) on Society and the Performing Arts being taught by Dr. Richard Leblond, who later became Director of the San Francisco Ballet. During that January I also saw the Alvin Ailey Dance Company for the first time and an off-broadway show, 'The Last Sweet Days of Isaac.' (I still have the record. LOL) That magical month changed my life.
what a wonderful memory. And Andrea Chenier 😍 good reminder that sometimes you are just in the right place at the right time to experience something new
My parents were serious lovers of opera & classical music. While I can't say for sure exactly which opera is my earliest memory, I can remember them playing records of La Boheme, Turandot (my mom's favorite), La Traviata, Carmen, Marriage of Figaro and others in the early 1950's and all throughout my childhood. Both of my parents knew almost every word, and both sand well enough to make their singing along not be at all unpleasant. They were lovers of many kinds of music, so we also learned all the Gilbert & Sullivan comedic musicals, and all the wonderful musicals like West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and my favorite, Candide. (When Man Of La Mancha came out, it became tied with Candide). Oh - not played in my household ... the heavy Wagnerian operas.
What vivid memories! Did your parents ever think of singing professionally? I am curious where their love of opera came from and if they ever considered it....love to hear this type of passion for this art 🤩 🤩
Mom's voice was like mine - on key, good pitch, decent, but not even close to professional caliber. Dad's voice was powerful, also on key, good pitch and decent (his father had a very nice voice), but he didn't take himself seriously - he also sang for pleasure and joy, but didn't have a professional caliber voice. But if the music was playing, they were singing - and one of my sisters and I grew up with this same zest for singing. The other sister, who also loves music, unfortunately has absolutely no voice whatsoever - she won't even sing Happy Birthday, because she doesn't want to ruin festivities!! LOL!!! Both parents came to classical music, opera, theater, the arts and other cultural loves through curiosity, and the abundance of cultural richness & stimulation growing up in Manhattan (NY City). They had annual tickets to the Met, Lincoln Center, Joseph Papp and other series for years.
“if the music was playing, they were singing.” Beautiful!
I was 15 years old and watching the opening ceremony of the Barcelona Olympic Games on TV in what must have been July or August 1992. I saw Freddy Mercury, whom I thought (and still do) had a pretty great voice, be absolutely consumed by Montserrat Caballe... I was hypnotised by the power and purity of her voice. It was an unexpected revelation in style of music to me 😊
Oh my goodness - how did I miss this collaboration! ! What a memory!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksNoe8W2jTc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPGCmxA-Hmc
This was the one that really hit me....
https://youtu.be/7icIbZYvEtk
Freddie had an amazing voice and you could tell he had a love for opera by the way he sang and his song choices. This was his opportunity. I remember this moment well. What a wonderful collaboration. Ms. Caballe was amazing as always.
I went on a walking tour of theaters in Detroit in about 2006. I was given a small disc of arias after touring the Music Hall. The disc had Nessun Dorma on it, sung by Luciano Pavarotti, and I fell in love with the aria. When I heard that Turandot was playing at the Detroit Opera House, I bought one box seat ticket for myself and attended just to hear the aria live. I fell in love with opera that afternoon.
What an incredible memory. I just checked out a photo of the opera house - I had never seen it before. Gorgeous 😃 😃
I grew up with Sunday opera on the radio, records at home. I saw Carmen and La Traviata as a youth with my parents, performed by the Met’s touring company at Northrop Auditorium at the University of MN. But MY first opera was La Boheme, at Northrop in the Spring of ‘83. The ticket was $25, my grocery money for the week, and took place the night before my last, most important final in my senior year. Of course I went! By then, I knew the opera, I had my first love and loss, but his was my first live performance of La Boheme. I learned the truth of my mother’s favorite quote: “We love opera because it is almost life sized”! I wept openly, as I always do, during most of the 4th act. When Mirella Freni died last year, I wept again. I realized that I had been falling in love with and losing Mirella’s Mimi for 40 years!
Beautiful memory ❤️
The first time I heard opera was in the womb! My parents are both professional musicians. My father is a tenor and a choral conductor (now retired), my mother a pianist, organist and music teacher and my grandfather was also a tenor so opera comes "honestly" to me. I was surrounded by all classical music, including lots of opera, from birth. That being said, I definitely have some early memories of opera in specific. I remember thinking when I was really young that all singers stood with their chests out and their head up like Joan Sutherland. I also remember we had an album of Victoria de Los Ángeles and she sort of resembles my mom. I would show all my friends when they came over the album and tell them that it was my mom. I also knew ALOT about tenors from Gedda to Björling to Domingo to, of course the God in our house...Pavoratti and would get in discussions with my father about each of them. Last but not least, I have always loved Marilyn Horne.
All of that being said, the first full opera I saw was Hansel and Gretel when I was about 5 and it wasn't even my parents to took my brother and me, it was some family friends. To this day I still remember how magical it was. I would pretend to be Gretel at home after seeing it. Little did I know that I would actually play HANSEL many times in my career.
I have known you for over 20 years and I've never heard some of these memories. They warm my heart ❤️❤️❤️❤️ (and your mother DOES look like Victoria de Los Ángeles!
➡️ https://ibb.co/g4WymHn)
I was in Bulgaria at a resort called Sunny Beach. It is a collection of hotels around the sea. Few of the locals spoke English. I had noticed an outdoor theatre. One day there was someone selling tickets. I bought 2 tickets for about 30p each (Soviet era) and went with my partner to the performance which could have been absolutely anything. Turned out to be an opera called Carmen. I was hooked. Have spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe since. Opera and ballet are still cheap and appeal to all classes
Wonderful memory thank you for sharing - amazing how so many first memories are Carmen! 💃💃💃
Mario Lanza, who was from my old neighborhood in South Philly, sang Pagliacci in a movie, "The Great Caruso." I cried my eyes out as a kid listening to him sing that aria.
Since I'm somewhat obsessed with him, your comments inspired me to look up excerpts from "The Great Caruso" (1951) on YouTube. I think the movie is available on the IMDb channel (www.imdb.com).
Meanwhile, Tom Frøkjær created a website that celebrates the life and art of Enrico Caruso (1873-1921). On http://www.enricocaruso.dk (English) he has managed to post all of his recordings and some truly beautiful photos. 🎵
Thank you, Gracias!
I wanted to add that the neighborhood I grew up in, was made of of Italian immigrants and their older children. In nice weather, the windows were all thrown open and Italian Opera was heard throughout South Philly. So I was young, remembering around age 5+. Great pride that Mario Lanza was from there as well as non-opera rock and roll singers of the late 1950's.
Wow just WOW! I got chills reading your comment. That sounds wonderful. Perfect actually. Let's bring these moments back when we all get back to normal 😊 Thank you for sharing this wonderful memory
Field trips for elementary school students were still taken in Los Angeles in 1960. I remember that I was the third alternate student to be allowed to go to a daytime performance of Mozart’s Magic Flute at Shrine Auditorium near USC. Six students that were scheduled to go that day were absent, so I got to go. I admit to not being too impressed with the opera that day; I was more impressed with the interior of the Shrine, and its’ chandelier; as an excuse, I was eight years old. It took me a few more years to appreciate opera.
Amazing memory. Do you remember what drew you back in to opera after that experience?
I was drawn to symphonic music by the time I was 10, but opera took a little longer. I took a music appreciation class in college in 1972 to satisfy a requirement, and I was taken by the Cujas Animam from Rossini’s Stabat Mater. I bought a copy of it at Wallach's Music City in Canoga Park, a long extinct record store. I didn’t know anything about singers or conductors, but I happened by pure dumb luck to buy the version with Pavarotti in peak form. The next year, I saw a record at Wallach’s from RCA Victor called A Golden Age Christmas, that included religious songs and hymns sung by opera singers including Caruso, Ponselle, Schumann-Heink, McCormack, Crooks, Homer, and Martinelli. That record hooked me, and I began to listen to opera.
Carmen. Fabulous music & a good starter for anyone.
💃💃💃
My dad loves opera and musicals so he used to play them on his reel-to-reel tapes when he was fixing the car in the garage (1970s). The earliest I remember recognising was Carmen. Or Camelot or Annie Get Your Gun! (Do they count??) But then it was the music in the movie Amadeus.
Yes it counts!! I can picture your garage - what a nice memory 🤩🤩
Mine would have been grade 7 in 1972 went to the opera Carmen, with my whole music class. We also got to go to watch the movie Jesus Christ Superstar, starring Ted Neely based on the rock opera album, of Andrew Lloyd Webber, 1973. I owned both the original album by Andrew Lloyd Webber and the movie version that was produced. My favorite was the original. I used to sing along to it at home. Loved it.
That's incredible. You are not the first person in this community to share that you were introduced to the opera via a music class when you were very young. Seems like we need to figure out how to bring more of this back into the world. 🙏(I also LOVED JCS!:)
1965 w/AIDA at Symphony Hall in Newark as a child. Especially memorable when the tenor stopped signing Celeste Aida in mid-aria on stage.
La mamma morta.
Vissi d'arte sung by Maria Calles. I grew up listening to my parents albums of her and Renata Tebaldi
What a great one!👏🏼👏🏼
The movie Philadelphia- La momma morta. Been in love ever since! I bought a Maria Callas cd and that was it!
that's a good one! :)
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California was my first opera. Bizet ‘s Carmen but I don’t remember who was singing. I was 12 years old. Since then I have been to the Met in New York and
have enjoyed the productions there by
Zeferelli and others.
amazing!
Madam Butterfly! Puccini ! Butterfly was played by Bidu Sayou, hope I. spelled it right ! I was about 12 . She had very Long, black hair and when she knelt to take her bow, her hair hung way down into the orchestra pit!! A memory I’ll never forget!!
there is nothing better than reading these memories - thank you for sharing! I am picturing it now!
La Boheme Puccini
Perfect! A classic!
Well, it was in early 70s when I was 8 or 9 ( I got a brand new tape recorder then) There were so called Philharmonic Mornings on Polish TV. There I heard Intermezzo of Cavalleria Rusticana and immediately fell in love with as I said "Pure Perfection" However, I didn't catch the title and my parents Verdi's and Strauss's people didn't know it either. So I started hunting that masterpiece to record it but without success. At last Raging Bull with Robert de Niro discovered my beloved opera Cavalleria Rusticana to me🥰♥️ Since then I have been to many Cavallerias, mainly in Italy or Sicily and this summer I had a pleasure to meet Pietro Mascagni's great granddaughter Francesca, get her book Le donne di Pietro Mascagni with her autograph and watch Cavalleria on Mascagni Terrazza at Mascagni Festival in Livorno. So it can be said that I've been obsessed with Cavalleria almost 50 years, the only opera I listen to every single day ♥️♥️♥️
❤️
Arias from The Merry Widow and Rusalka. My mother sang them around the house with the old record on the record player. I'm almost 70 now, went into opera because of singing with my mother. I miss her every day still.
I can’t remember the first time I heard opera, because my parents, and especially my father, listened to opera. My dad loved Puccini, and Turandot and Boheme were in heavy rotation. I CAN, and always WILL, remember the first opera I heard live: Turandot with Birgit Nilsson/San Francisco Opera at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. I don’t recall who sang Calaf, but when La Nilsson embraced him at the end of Act III, it was like watching the meeting of a bug and a Venus flytrap.
Thank you for sharing :-)
First opera memory: My parents took me to see Sophia Loren (visuals) and Renata Tebaldi (vocals) in the 1953 film, "Aida." My mom liked SL's hair, make-up, and outfits. My dad liked SL. I liked the music.
First opera attended: "Der Freischütz." I was in high school and had to go alone. Yup, couldn't even get a family member to go with me. (I think they were still upset about attending SL's "Aida.")
The Ed Sullivan show on Sunday nights often featured opera singers and it was there that I first heard an aria. That would be in the 1950's and I was quite young. I was fascinated by it from that time on. My first opera was a production of La Boheme by Puccini in the 1970's in Toledo Ohio. One of my favorite films is by a German dire
German director Werner Herzog entitled Burden of Dreams with opera as it's main theme
I'm from Philadelphia. There's a film called Philadelphia with Tom Hanks. There's a scene where he's listening to la mama morta by callas. I was astonished by how beautiful her voice was. Than I saw photos and I was stunned at her amazing transformation. I followed her and opera ever since.
What a scene! It pulled on my heartstrings, that's for sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b0p9mTJOJI
Caruso on RCA LP 60 years of Music with Caruso when I was 7 or 8; unforgettable. My first Opera at Symphony Hall about 1965 w/Rigoletto or Aida under Alfredo Sili[igni. Not very good and Jerome Hines etc.
Tenor stopped singing Celeste Aida
on stage,,,
And Franco Corelli's farewell recital !!!
And Beverly Sills too !!! all in Newark Symphony Hall
2017, Singapore Lyric Opera, Verdi's Aida. My school choir brought me there, and we weren't too impressed since I could remember some singers had visible issues. The next time was just last year at the Hong Kong Opera and they did a pretty good Trovatore with a Mainland Chinese and European cast.
thank you for sharing!
Marriage of Figaro by Motzart. 5th grade. Began my love of opera at age 11. My elementary school hosted the local Opera and philharmonic orchestra to come on Saturdays to our auditorium to give kids exposure to the fine arts. I cried, age 11, because the music so so beautiful. The other kids laughed, but I didn't care