# It's your DREAM NIGHT at the opera, so..............................



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Pick your "to die for" opera experience.

The limo is ordered so..........

1. Pick your most want to see opera. 
2. Pick your opera house. 
3. Pick your cast. 
4. And pick your conductor.

Any performers from any time. They'll come this one night to perform for you.

And DREAM..............:angel::angel::angel:


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

Probably something like this!

[Though... with the addition of the visual element, I'd have to recast Sieglindedevil...
likely with Regine Crespin.]

And yeah- with the "one evening" limitation, I'd likely go for _Walküre_ over _Götterdämmerung_, *not* because I'd prefer it, but because I think posterity's still searching for that one immortal _Die Walküre_ performance.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Anyone else?


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

1. Pick your most want to see opera. "Mefistofele"
2. Pick your opera house. The Met
3. Pick your cast. Olivero/Shicoff/Siepi
4. And pick your conductor. Luisi

Second choice:

1. Pick your most want to see opera. "Madama Butterfly"
2. Pick your opera house. The Met
3. Pick your cast. Callas/Kaufmann/Simionato/Bastianini
4. And pick your conductor. Levine


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Verdi - Il Trovatore (non stop collection of great arias/music)

Pappano/ROH orchestra (EMI Karajan far too restrained)

La Scala opera house (where legends once roamed)

Leonora - Maria Callas
Manrico - Franco Corelli 
Azucena - Fiorenza Cossotto
Di Luna - Ettore Bastianini


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## Blue Miasma (Oct 17, 2014)

1. Pick your most want to see opera.

Le Nozze di Figaro 

2. Pick your opera house.

I was thinking La Scala or Bayreuth but because it's a dream I'm gonna have to go bigger and have it at Il Colosseo, Rome 

3. Pick your cast.

(If this doesn't sound as good as I think I'll have to change the roles around, perks of lucid dreaming) 

Count Almaviva - Giuseppe Di Stefano 
Countess Rosina - Birgit Nilsson 
Susanna - Maria Callas 
Figaro - Juan Diego Flórez 
Cherubino - Elisabeth Schawzkopf 
Marcellina - Christa Ludwig 
Dr. Bartolo - Samuel Ramey 
Basilio - Simon Keenlyside 
Don Curzio - Mario Lanza 
Barbarina - Joyce DiDonato 
Antonio - Franz Crass 

4. And pick your conductor.

Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano / Tullio Serafin


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

1. Pick your most want to see opera. *La Traviata*
2. Pick your opera house. The Metropolitan 
3. Pick your cast. The young *Joan Sutherland* and *Carlo Bergonzi *and Milnes as Germont 
4. And pick your conductor. Richard Bonynge.


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## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

Don Carlo in 5 Acts in Italian.
Covent Garden in the sixties with Karajan
Callas as Elizabeth
Bjorling as Carlo
Bastianini as Posa
Pinza as Philip II
Christoff as the Grand Inquisitor
Christa Ludwig as Eboli


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## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

Pugg said:


> 1. Pick your most want to see opera. *La Traviata*
> 2. Pick your opera house. The Metropolitan
> 3. Pick your cast. The young *Joan Sutherland* and *Carlo Bergonzi *and Milnes as Germont
> 4. And pick your conductor. Richard Bonynge.


Sorry Pugg, you can't have this because it actually happened.
MET 27 October 1970, with Sutherland Bergonzi and Milnes conducted by Bonynge.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

So I can't have one that actually happened. *Norma* from La Scala in 1955 (Callas, Simionato, Del Monaco, Zaccaria). I doubt this performance will ever be bettered. I'll just have to imagine I was actually there.

So I'll go for *Les Troyens* at Covent Garden, but we'd need more than one performance.

Maria Callas and Janet Baker alternating as Cassandre and Didon 
Jon Vickers as Aeneas
Fritz Wunderlich as Hylas
Arthur Endreze as Chorebe
Vanni Marcoux as Narbal
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson as Anna
Frederica Von Stade as Ascanius
Tito Schipa as Iopas

Colin Davis conducting (who else?)
And in a production by Luchino Visconti.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

*Beatrice di Tenda*.

La Fenice, Venice.

Conductor: Carlo Felice Cillario

Beatrice di Tenda ---> Maria Callas

Filippo Maria Visconti ---> Riccardo Stracciari

Agnese del Maino ---> Montserrat Caballé

Orombello ---> Luciano Pavarotti


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## perempe (Feb 27, 2014)

I love Mefistofele too. I would have liked to see the San Francisco production with Ramey in his prime.

Recently I become a fan of Tosca (attended 3 performances in 6 months). I would have liked to attend a performance with Callas.

or any Wagner premiere, but I don't have a DeLorean.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Pip said:


> Sorry Pugg, you can't have this because it actually happened.
> MET 27 October 1970, with Sutherland Bergonzi and Milnes conducted by Bonynge.


That's not fair! For all we know Pugg wasn't even born yet in 1970. Plus Itullian didn't say you couldn't have what already happened. You're just making up the rules now 

I'm going to have to give this one some serious thought, although I've always wanted to be transported back in time to the premiere of Verdi's Otello. Trouble is, that wouldn't give me the chance to hear most of the singers I wish I'd heard in the flesh. It would have to be given with a very large and very overqualified chorus!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Pip said:


> Sorry Pugg, you can't have this because it actually happened.
> MET 27 October 1970, with Sutherland Bergonzi and Milnes conducted by Bonynge.


My parents weren't even dating at that time :lol:


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Pugg said:


> My parents weren't even dating at that time :lol:


Mine were, just. I feel ancient!


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

...going to a need a séance for some of these ensembles.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Couac Addict said:


> ...going to a need a séance for some of these ensembles.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Pip said:


> Don Carlo in 5 Acts in Italian.
> Covent Garden in the sixties with Karajan
> *Callas as Elizabeth*
> Bjorling as Carlo
> ...


My dream Don Carlo would also have Callas, but as Princess Eboli not the queen.......she gets all the intense dramatic action :angel:


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

DarkAngel said:


> My dream Don Carlo would also have Callas, but as Princess Eboli not the queen.......she gets all the intense dramatic action :angel:


But would you ever get Callas to play _seconda donna_?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Couac Addict said:


> ...going to a need a séance for some of these ensembles.


I think that's kind of the point!


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

GregMitchell said:


> But would you ever get Callas to play _seconda donna_?


In real life no, but Itullian said we can forget reality and create dream cast......

I can just imagine the pyrotechnics in the act 3 evening garden scence when DC meets Eboli and rejects her romantic offer then Posa enters escalating the dispute, heated threats are exchanged, a tigress like Callas should not be angered, bad things can happen......


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> But would you ever get Callas to play _seconda donna_?


Only if she could play both roles simultaneously.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

My head nearly exploded doing this but it could happen Yes!?

Ravel L'enfant et les sortilèges

Theatre Royal Newcastle

Conducted by Colin Davis?


L'enfant, the child Alice Coote

Maman/The Owl Patricia Petibon

Le fauteuil/ a tree Bryn Terfel

La bergère Louis XV chair Angela Gheorghiu

L'horloge comtoise, a clock broken by the child Jonas Kaufmann

Le théière, Wedgwood teapot/the tree frog Roberto Alagna

La tasse chinoise, a broken china cup Joyce DiDonato

Le feu, the fire in the fireplace/ widower bat Danielle de Niese

La princesse,a Nightingale the princess torn out of a storybook Natalie Dessay

Une pastourelle/a dragonfly Maria Riccarda Wesseling

Un pâtre Joyce DiDonato

Le petit vieillard, the small old man representing the torn math book Laurent Naouri

Le chat Jean-Paul Fouchécourt 

La chatte/Squirrel Renee Fleming


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

DarkAngel said:


> Verdi - Il Trovatore (non stop collection of great arias/music)
> 
> Pappano/ROH orchestra (EMI Karajan far too restrained)
> 
> ...


I almost have my "dream" Trovatore with this live 1962 La Scala version, just need Callas to replace Stella

So many great moments there is literally stoppage for applause every 10 minutes, I am not complaining........


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> So I can't have one that actually happened. *Norma* from La Scala in 1955 (Callas, Simionato, Del Monaco, Zaccaria). I doubt this performance will ever be bettered. I'll just have to imagine I was actually there.
> 
> So I'll go for *Les Troyens* at Covent Garden, but we'd need more than one performance.
> 
> ...


Endreze, Vanni-Marcoux and Schipa- I like your thinking!


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

You can pick one that actually happened if you like


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

I might start with one that actually happened and make some improvements! I have this programme for Les Huguenots at the Paris Opéra, August 1899:









I would keep Agustarello Affre as Raoul and Maurice Renaud as Nevers, but for the rest of the cast:

Pol Plançon as St. Bris
Edouard de Reszke as Marcel
Emma Calvé as Valentine
Eugenia Mantelli as Urbain
Adelina Patti as Marguerite de Valois (she was pretty much retired by this time but maybe she could sing some of the music, then appear with a piano at the end and sing 'Home, Sweet Home.' She did that sort of thing.)

Perhaps if nobody minds staying up past their bedtime, we could then have Act 2 of Verdi's Otello with the following cast:

Francesco Tamagno as Otello
Victor Maurel as Iago (who wouldn't want to hear him sing the 'credo'?)
Albert Vaguet as Cassio
Gemma Bellincioni as Desdemona
Eugenia Mantelli again as Emilia

If time is short, we can cut out the ballet (boring!) and the massacre scene at the end of Les Huguenots. All these poor guys already died once for real, no point making them relive the ordeal on stage!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

The dream opera for me would be Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment the 1996 La Scala production I have on DVD, featuring Mariella Devia as Maria:





I want to see my dream opera at the Detroit Opera House because it is a small venue and it is where I saw about a dozen operas years ago. Here is an inside shot of the Detroit Opera House which is the venue for the Michigan Opera Theater.


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## tgtr0660 (Jan 29, 2010)

1. Boris Godunov
2. The Bolshoi or the Kirov (Mravinksy)
3. Their staff. Chaliapin. Or Ivan Petrov. 
4. Yevgeny Svetlanov


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Can I choose a coach and four rather than a limo in case I want to see Fyodor Chaliapin sing Boris at the Bolshoi?


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## Rangstrom (Sep 24, 2010)

Toss up between Vickers/Nilsson/Solti Tristan (so close) or Vickers/Muller/Giulini Lohengrin (which is much more of a stretch given Vicker's disdain for the role and Guilini narrow repertoire).


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> So I can't have one that actually happened. *Norma* from La Scala in 1955 (Callas, Simionato, Del Monaco, Zaccaria). I doubt this performance will ever be bettered. I'll just have to imagine I was actually there.
> 
> So I'll go for *Les Troyens* at Covent Garden, but we'd need more than one performance.
> 
> ...


Dear man, how _do_ you cope with the real world?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Dear man, how _do_ you cope with the real world?


I don't. Reality is a condition we should all strive to rise above.


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> I don't. Reality is a condition we should all strive to rise above.


'Realness' bores me.

'Fabulous' animates me.

'Absolutely fabulous' is me, a credit card, and a dressing room.

_;D_


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Itullian said:


> Pick your "to die for" opera experience.
> 
> The limo is ordered so..........
> 
> ...


1. Pick your most want to see opera. 
Der Ring Des Nibelungen

2. Pick your opera house.
Bayreuther Festspielhaus

3. Pick your cast.
Franz Betz, Karl Hill, Amalie Materna, Georg Unger, Albert Niemann, Josephine Schefsky, etc.

4. And pick your conductor.
Hans Richter

August 13, 14, 16 and 17, 1876
Just ordered my time machine (instead of the limo)

Just dreaming.....


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Florestan said:


> The dream opera for me would be Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment the 1996 La Scala production I have on DVD, featuring Mariella Devia as Maria:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Your DREAM is a DVD?! At least that has the advantage of being easily fulfilled I suppose- whereas I dream of raising the dead, yet I can't even post a photo so that it displays the right way up!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Figleaf said:


> Your DREAM is a DVD?! At least that has the advantage of being easily fulfilled I suppose- whereas I dream of raising the dead, yet I can't even post a photo so that it displays the right way up!


Yes, the DVD is great, but to see it live with a front row seat would be 100 times better.


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> I don't. Reality is a condition we should all strive to rise above.


This quote is just too great.

I'm rolodexing it for future reference-- giving full credit to the author of course. _;D_


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

deleted as wrong post


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

Pip said:


> Don Carlo in 5 Acts in Italian.
> Covent Garden in the sixties with Karajan
> Callas as Elizabeth
> Bjorling as Carlo
> ...


_YEAH-yuh. _

Live-sixties operatic Karajan with Divina?-- God help us.


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## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

Marschallin Blair said:


> _YEAH-yuh. _
> 
> Live-sixties operatic Karajan with Divina?-- God help us.


Why not?, they did work together during the fifties on stage and in the studios.


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## BaronScarpia (Apr 2, 2014)

1. Pick your most want to see opera. 
2. Pick your opera house. 
3. Pick your cast. 
4. And pick your conductor.

Mozart's *Le nozze di Figaro* for its rich palette of human emotion and FABULOUS casting opportunities 

La Scala for its incredible acoustics, and also for the fact that it's not HUGE like the Met, and nor is it tiny like La Fenice!

CAST:
Count - Mariusz Kwiecień
Countess - Renée Fleming
Figaro - Bryn Terfel
Susanna - Ileana Cotrubaș
Cherubino - Frederica von Stade
Marcellina - Tatiana Troyanos
Barbarina - Julia Lezhneva

I'm not so fussy about the other, smaller roles  But I would like Jean-Paul Fouchécourt as either Basilio or Don Curzio

I _think_ I'd have Charles Mackerras conducting.

If I can say the orchestra too, it would be the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, but with the Glyndebourne Chorus.


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## BaronScarpia (Apr 2, 2014)

I'll have to do a second one, soz folks. Still Mozart, but cette fois it's Don Giovanni.

I'd like to hear it at *Covent Garden*, with *Karajan* conducting. I'd have *Ildebrando d'Arcangelo* as the Don, *Ferruccio Furlanetto* as Leporello, *Edda Moser* as Donna Anna, *Topi Lehtipuu* as Don Ottavio, *Leontyne Price* as Donna Elvira, *Luca Pisaroni* as Masetto and *Elizabeth Watts* as Zerlina. And maybe *Kurt Moll* as the Commendatore?


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

BaronScarpia said:


> I'll have to do a second one, soz folks. Still Mozart, but cette fois it's Don Giovanni.
> 
> I'd like to hear it at *Covent Garden*, with *Karajan* conducting. I'd have *Ildebrando d'Arcangelo* as the Don, *Ferruccio Furlanetto* as Leporello, *Edda Moser* as Donna Anna, *Topi Lehtipuu* as Don Ottavio, *Leontyne Price* as Donna Elvira, *Luca Pisaroni* as Masetto and *Elizabeth Watts* as Zerlina. And maybe *Kurt Moll* as the Commendatore?


I thought you were going to sing for us?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I have a *Don Giovanni* cast as well

Donna Anna - Maria Callas
Donna Elvira - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Zerlina - Victoria De Los Angeles
Don Giovanni - Ezio Pinza
Leporello - Giuseppe Taddei
Don Ottavio - Fritz Wunderlich
Masetto - Tito Gobbi
Commendatore - Boris Christoff

Conductor Carlo Maria Giulini
Producer Luchino Visconti

Opera House - Covent Garden


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

GregMitchell said:


> I don't. Reality is a condition we should all strive to rise above.


Works for me. Reality for the most part is mediocrity.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

It does seem badly designed at the best of times! 
Otherwise I would jumping in my time machine to bring Kathleen Ferrier back to my country retreat for a concert of personal requests.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Badinerie said:


> It does seem badly designed at the best of times!
> Otherwise I would jumping in my time machine to bring Kathleen Ferrier back to my country retreat for a concert of personal requests.


Don't get me started on the 'personal requests'. Though in my case not from Ms Ferrier, LOL!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

The most impossible opera: _Tristan und Isolde_

Place and time: Bayreuth, ca. 1930

The cast:

Tristan - Lauritz Melchior
Isolde - Frida Leider
Brangaene - Karin Branzell
Kurwenal - Friedrich Schorr
King Mark - Alexander Kipnis
Shepherd - Joseph Schmidt
Steersman - Franz Volker
Melot - Max Lorenz

Conductor - Wilhelm Furtwangler

This performance never happened, but what is enough to make me weep is that all these great artists were active at the time and, given the right circumstances, could have realized the _Tristan_ that haunts my imagination. It couldn't be duplicated now, needless to say. Melchior and Leider did sing the opera together, though, and here's a bit of what they left us:


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

That would be amazing.


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## BaronScarpia (Apr 2, 2014)

Figleaf said:


> I thought you were going to sing for us?


Ah, if only! Forget Lehtipuu!


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## BaronScarpia (Apr 2, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> I have a *Don Giovanni* cast as well
> 
> Donna Anna - Maria Callas
> Donna Elvira - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
> ...


HOW could I have forgotten Wunderlich?? You think I'd remember my supposed favourite tenor!


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

BaronScarpia said:


> HOW could I have forgotten Wunderlich?? You think I'd remember my supposed favourite tenor!


I can recommend some less forgettable ones if you like! :lol:


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

This can no longer happen anymore but if I could turn back the clock to say 1975, I would love to see Jon Vickers singing Peter Grimes with Benjamin Britten conducting the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at the Met.

I am getting a bit greedy since I already heard Vickers sing Peter Grimes twice at the Met, back in the day, but not with the composer conducting.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

From what I've read, Britten didn't care for Vickers' way with Grimes, though I've never read his objections to it. Maybe a sense of loyalty to Peter Pears was behind it, but it seems that your ideal Britten/Vickers team wouldn't have materialized even back then. Sad!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> From what I've read, Britten didn't care for Vickers' way with Grimes, though I've never read his objections to it. Maybe a sense of loyalty to Peter Pears was behind it, but it seems that your ideal Britten/Vickers team wouldn't have materialized even back then. Sad!


Translation: Vickers must have been heterosexual.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

hpowders said:


> Translation: Vickers must have been heterosexual.


Surely most of the musicians Britten worked with were heterosexual. That didn't seem to bother him.

But yes, he may have felt a certain loyalty to his partner Peter Pears, for whom he expressly wrote the role.

Personally I think both approaches are valid. The best Grimes of my experience was Philip Langridge, who seemed to me, to have some of the best qualities of both singers.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Elektra in Vienna in the early 50's with Asrid Varnay as Elektra, Nilsson as Chrysthotemis, Christa Ludwig as Klytemnestra.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

hpowders said:


> Translation: Vickers must have been heterosexual.


Whoops- I just re-read that and it could be interpreted, wrongly I'm sure, as implying that gay composers or conductors are more likely to behave in a questionable way towards performers. I originally read your comment as rightly drawing attention to the fact that some performers are favoured over others for personal, political or otherwise non-musical reasons, including but not limited to sexual availability. (Women have of course suffered more historically from the 'casting couch' system.)

That's the trouble with excessive pithiness- it can be misinterpreted!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

GregMitchell said:


> Surely most of the musicians Britten worked with were heterosexual. That didn't seem to bother him.
> 
> But yes, he may have felt a certain loyalty to his partner Peter Pears, for whom he expressly wrote the role.
> 
> Personally I think both approaches are valid. The best Grimes of my experience was Philip Langridge, who seemed to me, to have some of the best qualities of both singers.


Yes. Vickers and Pears had different interpretations of the role. Pears was probably closer to the composer's intention-the misunderstood loner-dreamer.
When he sings about the stars, it seems more plausible than the brutish Peter of Vickers.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Figleaf said:


> Whoops- I just re-read that and it could be interpreted, wrongly I'm sure, as implying that gay composers or conductors are more likely to behave in a questionable way towards performers. I originally read your comment as rightly drawing attention to the fact that some performers are favoured over others for personal, political or otherwise non-musical reasons, including but not limited to sexual availability. (Women have of course suffered more historically from the 'casting couch' system.)
> 
> That's the trouble with excessive pithiness- it can be misinterpreted!


Yes. Never said my pithiness was simple. I enjoy ambiguity.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Elektra in Vienna in the early 50's with Asrid Varnay as Elektra, Nilsson as Chrysthotemis, Christa Ludwig as Klytemnestra.


Hells teeth yeah! Where are all the Quantum Physicists and Mathematicians on this forum...surely between them we can get this Temporal nonsense sorted out...wait though, I forgot...my cousin Peter is Dr Who..."Hey Pete!"


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## tgtr0660 (Jan 29, 2010)

It would be a dream night at the opera also to experience a performance of Wagner's Ring with a good orchestra, conductor and soloists SET LIKE WAGNER WANTED


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## Zabirilog (Mar 10, 2013)

Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Bayreuth Festspielhaus.
Daniel Barenboim.
Wotan - John Tomlinson
Brünnhilde - Anne Evans
Siegfried - Wolfgang Windgassen
Alberich - Gustav Neidlinger
Hagen - Matti Salminen
Siegmund - Jonas Kaufmann
Sieglinde - Waltraud Meier


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## Posie (Aug 18, 2013)

Figleaf said:


> Whoops- I just re-read that and it could be interpreted, wrongly I'm sure, as implying that gay composers or conductors are more likely to behave in a questionable way towards performers. I originally read your comment as rightly drawing attention to the fact that some performers are favoured over others for personal, political or otherwise non-musical reasons, including but not limited to sexual availability. (Women have of course suffered more historically from the 'casting couch' system.)
> 
> That's the trouble with excessive pithiness- it can be misinterpreted!


Please. I know you were all thinking... "Heterosexual! Heeehehe! ... Hey, that's not nice!"


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## Posie (Aug 18, 2013)

My Dream Opera: Le Nozze di Figaro

Opera House: It can be anywhere, as long as I sit near the front!

Figaro - Simon Keenlyside

Susanna - Kathleen Battle

Count Almaviva - Sam Ramey

Countess Rosina - Diana Damrau

Cherubino - Philippe Jaroussky

Dr. Bartolo - Bryn Terfel

Don Basilio - Juan Diego Florez

Marcellina - tbd (It seems like an insult to assign any great soprano to that role.)

Babarina - tbd, some cute novice

Antonio - tbd

Conductor - Who cares! With all of these performers on stage, the conductor/orchestra could be a group of unrehearsed amateurs and I'd still be bouncing in my seat squealing "I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die!"

If I brought a date, that would likely be our last.


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## Dongiovanni (Jul 30, 2012)

It seems most here are looking to riase the dead, let me join in. Let's reinact the premiere of Le Nozze di Figaro!


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Dongiovanni said:


> It seems most here are looking to riase the dead,


That is kind of the point of the thread, isn't it?


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Opera: Parsifal
Opera house: Met of course

Characters:

Parsifal: Jon Vickers
Kundry: Waltraud Meier or controversially Magdalena Kožená or controversially Joyce DiDonato
Gurnemanz: Rene Pape
Amfortas: Hans Hotter
Klingsor: Walter Berry
Titurel: Nicolai Ghiaurov
Two Grail Knights: Jonas Kaufmann and John Tomlinson
Four Esquires: understudies would be fine here
Six flower maidens: understudies would be fine here
Voice from above: understudy would be fine here
Knights of the Grail, boys, flower-maidens: understudies would be fine here
Conductor: Guiseppe Sinopoli


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

albertfallickwang said:


> Opera: Parsifal
> Opera house: Met of course
> 
> Characters:
> ...


Add Elina Garanca as a potential Kundry choice for me.


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## perempe (Feb 27, 2014)

I saw Parsifal with Alejandro Marco-Buhrmester & Matti Salminen last season. there are 2 performances in the season (Good Friday and Easter Monday) in our opera house, I saw both last season. great performances.


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## xpangaeax (Oct 1, 2013)

Honestly my knowledge of singers/Opera conductors isn't too well developed yet, so maybe I'll just say I want to see Hvorostovsky sing Eugene Onegin in St. Petersburg. Luckily, that's not even out of the realm of possibility.


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## Camillorf (Jul 18, 2014)

1. Pick your most want to see opera - La Donna del Lago (Rossini)
2. Pick your opera house - The Met
3. Pick your cast - Elena: Joyce DiDonato, Malcolm: Marilyn Horne, Uberto: Juan Diego Florez, Rodrigo: Rockwell Blake, Douglas: Samuel Ramey
4. And pick your conductor - Don't have enough knowledge to choose one.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Lulu production...

1) soprano-- Barbara Hannigan
2) Jonas Kaufmann as the Painter
3) Joyce DiDonato as the Countess
4) conductor-- Sinopoli


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> 1. Pick your most want to see opera. "Mefistofele"
> 2. Pick your opera house. The Met
> 3. Pick your cast. Olivero/Shicoff/Siepi
> 4. And pick your conductor. Luisi
> ...


Did I really say Luisi instead of Muti? Bad girl, bad girl!


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

I like the idea of this but some help would be appreciated.

I don't know enough about voices to fit the parts so I'd choose on the basis of singer first and then try and find a favourite Opera to fit them all into.

When you lend me the time machine I will send for those I wish I'd heard live (alphabetical order)

Callas, Caruso, Ferrier, Gobbi, Lablache, Lind, McCormack, Robeson(!) Strepponi,Tamburini, Tibbett, Pinza, Ponselle (and they could bring a few friends)


and to Conduct Mahler.


We will meet to discuss what to perform at a place I've never been to but with a small and historic Theatre..San Carlo, Napoli.

The Orchestra will be waiting, Staatsoper Unter den Linden circa 2013 (taking no chances here - best I've ever heard).

I will of course be present at all rehersals and to 'advise' the Director Peter Brook, Designer Ken Adams! and Choreographer Busby Berkely!!!!! and of course have my name on the programme as Producer (sorry getting carried away). My main role would be to keep all those ego's under the same roof!

But what opera to fit these talents?

Don Carlos? All 5 acts with Ballet, but perfomed in Italian (would help some of the singers)
or 
Hoffman?

Of course the composer would be present.


I have a significant birthday Easter 2018 - can I rely on one of you to arrange this?


(I suspect I'm cheating and should save this for a thread on who would you most like to have dinner with and then see in performance)


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Actually Don Carlos seems to fit rather well. After early rehersals my new best friend Gustav and I might decide to switch the roles about a bit.


Philippe II bass Gobbi

Don Carlos tenor Caruso

Rodrigue baritone Tamburini

Le Grand Inquisiteur bass Tibbett

Élisabeth de Valois soprano Callas

Princess Eboli mezzo-soprano Ferrier

A monk bass Robeson

Thibault soprano Ponsellle

A Voice from Heaven Soprano Lind

The Count of Lerma, tenor Bjorling 

Royal Herald tenor MacCormack

Countess of Aremberg, Silent Greta Garbo 

See you all in Naples.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

How about a cross generational Norma with Ponselle, Marilyn Horne, Caruso and Ebe Stignani at the Met??? Can you imagine?


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

So I bring a pillow and dream a better production.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> How about a cross generational Norma with Ponselle, Marilyn Horne, Caruso and Ebe Stignani at the Met??? Can you imagine?


To have heard Ponselle and Caruso together in _anything_...


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## SalieriIsInnocent (Feb 28, 2008)

Opera: Le Nozze Di Figaro
Venue: Burgtheater
Conductor: Jos van Immerseel
Orchestra - Anima Eterna Brugge 
Director: Franco Zeffirelli
​Figaro - Ferruccio Furlanetto
Count Almaviva - Ruggerro Raimondi
Countess Almaviva - Felicity Lott
Sussana - Dawn Upshaw
Cherubino - Edith Mathis
Bartolo - Alexander Malta
Marcellina - Arleen Auger
Basilio - David Rendall
Don Curzio - Placido Domingo
Barbarina - Cecilia Bartoli
Antonio - Richard Stilwell

Keep in mind, all singers are at the age in which these roles would've suited them perfectly in this fantasy cast.


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## Dongiovanni (Jul 30, 2012)

Gardiner conducting a semi staged Don Giovanni with his orchestra and choir like be did before in the 90-ies.


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## Ramiste (Nov 4, 2015)

SalieriIsInnocent said:


> Don Curzio - Placido Domingo


Which reminds me of his lovely recording of Don Basilio's aria:






A souvenir of a never-to-happen career as a tenor comprimario!


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## Ramiste (Nov 4, 2015)

I've dreamt of this many many many times!

Mascagni: Parisina

At La Scala

Conductor: Giuseppe Sinopoli

Parisina Malatesta: Renata Scotto
Ugo D'Este: Luciano Pavarotti
Stella dell'Assassino: Fiorenza Cossotto
Niccolò D'Este: Leo Nucci
La Verde: Lucia Valentini Terrani

if only...


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## ma7730 (Jun 8, 2015)

Verdi, Otello
Conductor - Georg Solti
Met Opera

Otello - Placido Domingo
Desdemona - Reneé Fleming, or Renata Scotto, or (maybe) Anna Netrebko
Iago - Sherrill Milnes
Emilia - Shirley Verrett
Cassio - Luciano Pavarotti (I know people don't like his Otello, but I think this role would suit him)
Rodrigo - Jonas Kaufmann
Montano - Feruccio Furlanetto, or René Pape


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## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

Let's go with Ring of the Nibelung with Lauritz Melchior as Siegmund and Siegfried, Lotte Lehman as Sieglinde, and Maria Callas as Brünnhilde; Friedrich Schorr as Wotan.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

gardibolt said:


> Let's go with Ring of the Nibelung with Lauritz Melchior as Siegmund and Siegfried, Lotte Lehman as Sieglinde, and Maria Callas as Brünnhilde; Friedrich Schorr as Wotan.


Great choices. Can't wait to hear Brunnhilde addressing Wotan as "Mio Padre."


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## alan davis (Oct 16, 2013)

Korngolds "Die Tote Stadt"..... Preferrably at the Adelaide Festival Centre, a wonderful theatre with excellent acoustics and the added advantage of being close to home.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> Great choices. Can't wait to hear Brunnhilde addressing Wotan as "Mio Padre."


It's your dream night at the opera, so Callas sings in perfect German... or whichever other language you might prefer.

N.


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## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

Precisely. German, Maria, German.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

gardibolt said:


> Precisely. German, Maria, German.


She'd have done so impeccably, no doubt (but her Italian Kundry is fascinating).


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> She'd have done so impeccably, no doubt (but her Italian Kundry is fascinating).


And of course when she sang the Walkure Brunhilde it was in Italian. Alas, there is no record of it and it is unlikely to surface after such time.

N.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

_Patrie!_
Théâtre de l'Opéra (Palais Garnier) 20 December 1886. 
Cast includes Gabrielle Krauss, Jean Lassalle & Edouard de Reszke.

Because at this time, it's looking like the only chance I have of seeing it!

Otherwise:

_One of..._

_Robert le Diable_
Théâtre de l'Opéra (salle Le Peletier) 21 November 1831. 
With Dorus-Gras, Cinti-Damoreau, Nourrit,Levasseur.

_Les Huguenots_
Théâtre de l'Opéra (Salle Le Peletier) 29 February 1836.
With Falcon, Dorus-Gras, Nourrit, Levasseur.

_Le Prophète_
Théâtre de l'Opéra [Opéra-Théâtre de la Nation] (salle Le Peletier) 16 April 1849.
With Viardot, Castellan, Roger, Levasseur

Conductor: Hector Berlioz

*ACTUALLY! NO! I'VE GOT IT!*

_Les Troyens_
Opera house: Théâtre de l'Opéra, Paris
Cast: 
Cassandre AND Didon: Pauline Viardot
Chorèbe: Jean-Baptiste Faure
Énée: Adolphe Nourrit

*Conductor: Hector Berlioz*


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

SimonTemplar said:


> _Patrie!_
> Théâtre de l'Opéra (Palais Garnier) 20 December 1886.
> Cast includes Gabrielle Krauss, Jean Lassalle & Edouard de Reszke.
> 
> ...


Fabulous! I hope I'm invited!


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Figleaf said:


> Fabulous! I hope I'm invited!


I'll send you tickets when I get my time maxhine working!


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

*Lohengrin in Italian*

Lohengrin .........................Miguel Fleta or Enrico Caruso
Elsa..................................Claudia Muzio
Ortrud...............................Ebe Stignani or Frida Leider
Telramund.........................Feodor Chaliapin

Conducted by Maestro Victor de Sabata 

*Gotterdammerung*

Siegfried...........................Lauritz Melchior
Brünnhilde........................Germaine Lubin
Gunther............................Herbert Janssen
Hagen...............................Emanuel List
Waltraute..........................Kerstin Thorborg

Conducted by Maestro Albert Coates


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

silentio said:


> *Lohengrin in Italian*
> 
> Lohengrin .........................Miguel Fleta or Enrico Caruso
> Elsa..................................Claudia Muzio
> ...


Wagner in Italian?
That's blasphemy


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Pugg said:


> Wagner in Italian?
> That's blasphemy


I heard one production with German leads and an Italian chorus.

What about Wagner in French?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

SimonTemplar said:


> I heard one production with German leads and an Italian chorus.
> 
> What about Wagner in French?


That is also blasphemy


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Pugg said:


> That is also blasphemy


Wagner is Wagner in whatever language. I find Wagner in both French 
and Italian enjoyable.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Sloe said:


> Wagner is Wagner in whatever language. I find Wagner in both French
> and Italian enjoyable.


Sorry I don't, personally I think Wagner would turned in his grave if he knew


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

Pugg said:


> Wagner in Italian?
> That's blasphemy


Blasphemy to whom  ? I read somewhere that Wagner thought his operas should be performed in the language of the audience (some respected Wagnerites on this forum probably will comment on this). And it was Wagner himself who gave the Spanish tenor Julian Gayarre his permission to sing Lohengrin and Tannhauser in Italian.



Sloe said:


> *Wagner is Wagner in whatever language. I find Wagner in both French
> and Italian enjoyable.*


Definitely. I don't mind Wagner's music in Italian, French or Russian at all, as long as it is at this calibre:


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## Diminuendo (May 5, 2015)

Enough said.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Great links, silentio and Diminuendo! My favourite 'Aux bords lointains' is here, near the foot of the page:

http://www.artlyriquefr.fr/personnages/Affre Agustarello.html

But apart from a few bits of Lohengrin in French, my favourite Wagnerian tenor is Francisco Viñas. His were the first Wagner records which made any impression on me at all, and after having luxuriated in that gorgeously ethereal voice and grand yet poetic phrasing, there was no way I could ever listen to the wobblevoiced shouting that usually passes for Wagner singing, so I chose to avoid Wagner in complete recordings until I could find singers I was happy with. Silentio's post mentioning Viñas and Gayarre reminds me of a recent article in The Record Collector about a series of cylinder recordings made by Viñas in Spain in 1900: Marston's 'complete' Viñas makes no mention of them and the writer of the notes claims not to know of any Viñas records made outside of Italy, yet the TRC contributor (whose name escapes me now) writes that two of these cylinders survive and are in his possession. Even more excitingly, he hints strongly that a recent discovery may be a lost recording by Julian Gayarre himself- and no, it wasn't April 1st! One hardly dares to hope that it could be, yet artefacts believed lost or nonexistent for decades do sometimes turn up- bringing that impossible 'dream night at the opera' a step closer!


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

SimonTemplar said:


> I'll send you tickets when I get my time maxhine working!


* goes off to find 'mad inventor' costume, plutonium and a DeLorean *


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## znapschatz (Feb 28, 2016)

Pugg said:


> Wagner in Italian?
> That's blasphemy


Agreed. While I can listen to an opera translated into a language other than its original, what is lost is the musicality and poetry of the libretto. Also, singers are often so intent on vocal production, words are often unintelligible anyway (except from Bryn Terfel and a few others.) Supertitles or the libretto work for me, and better yet, familiarity with the opera. After listening to numerous performances, I don't need translation to know what is going on in the Ring cycle, Boris Godunov, La Boheme, Turandot, La Traviata, Vozzeck, Carmen, Marriage of Figaro et al. Don't even need one for Vanessa  .


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

znapschatz said:


> Agreed. While I can listen to an opera translated into a language other than its original, what is lost is the musicality and poetry of the libretto. Also, singers are often so intent on vocal production, words are often unintelligible anyway (except from Bryn Terfel and a few others.) Supertitles or the libretto work for me, and better yet, familiarity with the opera. After listening to numerous performances, I don't need translation to know what is going on in the Ring cycle, Boris Godunov, La Boheme, Turandot, La Traviata, Vozzeck, Carmen, Marriage of Figaro et al. Don't even need one for Vanessa  .


Hallelujah, you making my day:tiphat:


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## SalieriIsInnocent (Feb 28, 2008)

Considering my tastes have changed a bit, I'll take another crack at it.

Opera: Le Nozze Di Figaro
Venue: Burgtheater
Conductor: Trevor Pinnock at the Fortepiano
Orchestra - The English Concert & Choir
Director: Me

​Figaro - Hermann Prey
Count Almaviva - Richard Stilwell
Countess Almaviva - Kiri Te Kanawa 
Susana - Dawn Upshaw
Cherubino - Rinat Shaham
Bartolo - Ferruccio Furlanetto
Marcellina - Tatiana Troyanos
Basilio/Don Curzio - David Rendall
Barbarina - Janet Perry
Antonio - Giorgio Tadeo

Most of these folks are either gone or from completely different eras, so this is strictly fantasy.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

The short list would be:

Paladilhe's _Patrie!_

Meyerbeer's _Jeunesse de Goethe_

Halévy's _Guido et Ginevra_; _Mousquetaires de la Reine_; _Val d'Andorre_; _Fée aux roses_; _Jaguarita l'indienne_; _Tempête_; or _Juif errant_

Massenet's _Ariane_ and _Bacchus_ (double bill)

Reyer's _Statue_

Salvayre's _Dame de Monsoreau_

Nouguès' _Quo vadis?_

de Lara's _Messaline_

In Paris or Brussels, of course.

With the conductor, cast, and sets of the first performances

Actually, since this is a dream / fantasy, the same night can occur again and again, with a different one each time, thanks to my newfound mastery over the laws of causality.


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## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

1. Pick your most want to see opera. *Götterdämmerung*
2. Pick your opera house. *Vienna State Opera*
3. Pick your cast. *The cast on Solti's recording*
4. And pick your conductor. *Knappertsbusch*


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

gellio said:


> 1. Pick your most want to see opera. *Götterdämmerung*
> 2. Pick your opera house. *Vienna State Opera*
> 3. Pick your cast. *The cast on Solti's recording*
> 4. And pick your conductor. *Knappertsbusch*


Let me know when tickets go on sale.


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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

Don Carlo, five act Italian, house doesn't really matter as long as the acoustics are perfect, conductor: Solti maybe?

And for the cast (everyone in their best years):


Carlo - Carreras
Filippo - Furlanetto 
Rodrigo - Bastianini
Elisabetta - Tebaldi
Eboli - Simionato
Grand Inquisitor - Neri


If I could just get a time machine, I'd see That One Legendary Trovatore with Price/Bastianini/Corelli/Simionato.


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## SalieriIsInnocent (Feb 28, 2008)

Opera: Don Giovanni
Venue: Estates Theater in Prague
Conductor: Jos Van Immerseel from the Fortepiano 
_I've never heard Immerseel perform an opera, but I really like how he handles Mozart's symphonic works, and I think he would give an exciting performance of Don Giovanni. _
Orchestra - Anima Eterna
Director: Me

​Don Giovanni - Richard Stilwell _I debated on putting Hermann Prey or Samuel Ramey in this role, but I really liked Stilwell's vocal performance on the Amadeus soundtrack and I think he would've been a great Don to see. _
Leporello - Ferruccio Furlanetto
Donna Anna - Edda Moser
Donna Elvira - Kiri Te Kanawa
Zerlina - Lucia Popp
Il Commendatore - Kurt Moll
Maesetto - Alexander Malta
Don Ottavio - Luigi Alva

Like my Figaro, most of these singers come from different eras or are gone, so I would want them at ideal ages for each role.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Will need a time machine as I want them at story appropriate ages.

I know, this is going to be stupid and probably would be a failure (because I have no idea what voices are appropriate for what parts), so someone can help fix it if they so desire.

La Sonnambula

Rolando Villazon as Elvino
Anna Moffo as Amina
Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Count Rodolfo
Anna Netrebko as Lisa
Vessilina Kasarova as Teresa
Jonas Kaufmann as Alessio


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## SanyiKocka (May 6, 2020)

1. Pick your most want to see opera. Don Carlo (original 5-act version)
2. Pick your opera house. La Scala
3. Pick your cast.
Don Carlo: Carreras
Posa: Cappuccilli
The queen: Freni
The King: Ghiaurov
Eboli: Cossotto
il Grande Inquisitor: Giulio Neri

4. And pick your conductor.
Abbado


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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

Boccanegra, either sometime in the late 50s or today. Conductor... someone with passion who isn't a jerk to singers. 

Late 50s:

Simon: Bastianini (as far as I know he never got to sing it, but just IMAGINE)
Fiesco: Christoff
Amelia: De Los Ángeles
Gabriele: Corelli (did he ever do it? probably too big a name but he could make Gabriele less annoying)
Paolo: Panerai



Right Now:

Simon: Tézier
Fiesco: Pape
Amelia: Harteros
Gabriele: Castronovo
Paolo: Ruciński

(preferably in the Met or the ROH production)


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

SanyiKocka said:


> 1. Pick your most want to see opera. Don Carlo (original 5-act version)
> 2. Pick your opera house. La Scala
> 3. Pick your cast.
> Don Carlo: Carreras
> ...


Are you aware of this recording? - https://operadepot.com/products/ver...ssotto-carreras-cappuccilli-ghiaurov-karajan?

It's only 4 acts, and it's Karajan instead of Abbado, and Jules Bastin instead of Neri but Bastin is also very good. The rest of the cast is identical to your wishlist though. Better sound than the similar but differently casted Karajan studio recording or the Orfeo from a few years later.


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## SanyiKocka (May 6, 2020)

This recording and other live recordings in the 70s make this group of 4, especially Carreras and Cappuccilli, my first choice for Don Carlo.


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## SanyiKocka (May 6, 2020)

howlingfantods said:


> Are you aware of this recording? - https://operadepot.com/products/ver...ssotto-carreras-cappuccilli-ghiaurov-karajan?
> 
> It's only 4 acts, and it's Karajan instead of Abbado, and Jules Bastin instead of Neri but Bastin is also very good. The rest of the cast is identical to your wishlist though. Better sound than the similar but differently casted Karajan studio recording or the Orfeo from a few years later.


This recording and other recordings in the 70s make this group of 4(Carreras, Cappuccilli, Freni and Ghiaurov) especially Carreras.and Cappuccilli my first choice of Fon Carlo.


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