# The breakthrough opera, which made you like the genre or worked that way for your friends.



## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Which opera was your first, which made you like the genre ?
Also, do you have stories about operas which worked well for "recruiting" your friends or loved ones, otherwise new to opera ?
And finally, do you have a story about an opera, which renewed your interest after a longer period of time, when you did not care ?


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

My first and beloved opera: The Bartered Bride, by Smetana, at the age of 7.

The opera, which made my friend interested: La Gioconda by Ponchielli. She started to listent to other operas after she became familiar with this one. We were both at our twenties.

After years of not caring much, my renewed interest in opera was reborn due to Bellini's Il Pirata, it happened last year.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

For me it was a gradual process. I had been taken to the opera from quite a young age, but it didn't become a passion until I reached my late teens. My father bought a recording of *Cavalleria Rusticana *(the Varviso recording with Souliotis) which I nearly wore out. We also had the score and I would play the overture and intermezzo on the piano.

I remember, though, a particular night when everything clicked. By this time I was a student at the university in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Glyndebourne Touring Opera were visiting and I tried to get tickets for *La Bohème*, but it was completely sold out. I didn't know the opera at all, nor did I know anyone else who wanted to go to an opera, so I decided to go down and queue for returns one night. It wasn't looking very hopeful until someone came out and told the queue that there was a box available, so I and others in the queue agreed to share. That night I was totally transported. It was a traditional production with a totally believable young cast (I can't remember the whole cast but Mimi was LInda Esther Gray, who would have been in her early twenties then). I think I started crying in the first act and hardly stopped until the end. From that day on I would see every touring company that came to Newcastle and try and see every opera they brought. This way I got to see a wide range of repertoire, taking in Italian, French, German, Russian and British repertoire, from the Baroque to contemporary. 

At about the same time I discovered the voice of Maria Callas and I started collecting all her recordings, most of which had unaccountably been deleted at that time, EMI presumably thinking that they had been superseded by stereo versions. (How wrong they were!). Although I have come to appreciate and love other singers, none has had the effect on me that Callas had, and she remains my touchstone for most of the roles she sang.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I can't really speak for myself as memories go back too far to be certain, but I can give one for a friend of mine ... His first opera was going to a performance of ... <drum roll> ... _Gotterdammerung_! He loved it so much that he persuaded me to join him in a trip to Seattle to see a complete Ring cycle!


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

A single aria from Verdi’s *Macbeth *caused me to investigate opera while still in my teens. The singer was Maria Callaa and the aria was the Sleepwalking Scene (_Una macchia è qui tuttora_).


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## Aerobat (Dec 31, 2018)

I grew up with Opera in the house, so there was no real 'breakthrough' for me, just a gradual appreciation. 

My first 'in theatre' Opera was a production of La Traviata in Birmingham (UK), where I remember my parents being utterly thrilled that a very elderly Tito Gobbi was sitting in one of the boxes. I'd have been 7 or 8 years old at the time, so probably 1978-79. I was far more interested in the music than some old bloke sitting in one of the boxes though!


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

The last twenty minutes of Tannhäuser, the Decca Solti version, BBC Radio 3 one Saturday evening. It had just been released and BBC were broadcasting excerpts. Caught it by accident and it was a lightbulb moment for me. I never looked back and the world of opera has been a constant joy since that fateful night.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

A high school buddy of mine was an opera fanatic and one day he said "I want you to hear a guy sing a really high note and tell me what you think."
He put on "Che gelida manina" from _La Boheme _and Richard Tucker was Rodolfo . As he began the high note "la speranza" I was absolutely entranced with him and the entire idea of opera (although my mother ws a soprano and constantly sang "Depuis le jour" all around the house.) 
By that time Mario Lanza entered my world with _The Great Caruso_ and I was hooked forever.

In trying to inculcate my grandchildren (friends too), I played them a scene, "The Poker Scene" from _La fanciulla del west,_ and their expressions were enough to assure me that I had struck gold. From there Tosca grabbed many of them because of the Scarpia murder scene.

There really was no time that I was ever sick of opera, only sick of hubristic, talentless directors which left me bereft of much opera-going as a result.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I can't remember my first opera, but It probably came via TV in the '50s when there were fine productions made for the medium. I recall vividly how creeped out I was as a teenager by a TV production of _Bluebeard's Castle_, which eventually became one of my favorite operas. There was never a time when I wasn't absorbed by music, and I loved to sing and listen to great singing, so any opera recording I could find at school or public libraries I listened to.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

MAS said:


> A single aria from Verdi’s *Macbeth *caused me to investigate opera while still in my teens. The singer was Maria Callaa and the aria was the Sleepwalking Scene (_Una macchia è qui tuttora_).


OMG! That same aria had quite an effect on me too. I was already a Callas fan, but the Verdi Arias disc was no longer available and a friend lent it to me. Even knowing Callas as I did, I was staggered and I've never heard anyone else realise that scene with anything like her insight. Verdi's setting itself was quite a revelation, but it was Callas's incredibly detailed interpretation that stunned me. She has a different colour for every single thought that flits through Lady Macbeth's fractured mind. Close inspection of the score reveals that it is all there in Verdi's instructions but how many other singers have carried them out so brilliantly? I can't think of a single one. Part of the miracle is that, even with all the detail she reveals, there is no artifice and the end result sounds totally spontaneous. This really is the art that conceals art and it is one of the arias I would play to friends if they doubted Callas's pre-eminence as a vocal actress. 

A friend of the critic John Steane once said to him about Callas, "Of course you had to see her," to which he replied, "Oh, but I can! And I do!" I know exactly what he meant.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

IIRC (it was early nineties) it was Puccini's La Boheme - about 7-8 years after I started to explore classical music.

By the end of the nineties I had bought and listened to the major Puccini, Bellini, Donizetti and Britten operas, Wagner's Ring, Mozart's Zauberfloete, Verdi's Aida, Rossini's William Tell, Strauss' Salome, Debussy's P&M, and assorted highlights form the Italians (Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Boito).

In 1999 I was going to move to Singapore for my work, and I decided I would not bring all these opera boxes with me. I found I was not too crazy about the genre anyway, and my nephew showed interest in opera (he was still in university at the time) so I gave him my opera collection.

Around 2010 I started exploring operas again, and much wider than before. Still not my favourite genre (I prefer concertos, chamber music, symphonic works and Lieder), but I enjoy it a lot.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I was wary of opera for a long time and avoided it. Then somewhere in my late teens I started listening to the Met Opera broadcasts. Just listening on the radio with no libretto to a long work sung in a foreign language was tough, although the announcers in that day did a good job of summarizing the plot. The opera that sank in, that made me go out and buy a copy: Richard Strauss *Salome*. I don't remember who conducted the Met that day, but the power of the music and the grim story was electrifying. The then new Karajan recording I still have.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> OMG! That same aria had quite an effect on me too. I was already a Callas fan, but the Verdi Arias disc was no longer available and a friend lent it to me. Even knowing Callas as I did, I was staggered and I've never heard anyone else realise that scene with anything like her insight. Verdi's setting itself was quite a revelation, but it was Callas's incredibly detailed interpretation that stunned me. She has a different colour for every single thought that flits through Lady Macbeth's fractured mind. Close inspection of the score reveals that it is all there in Verdi's instructions but how many other singers have carried them out so brilliantly? I can't think of a single one. Part of the miracle is that, even with all the detail she reveals, there is no artifice and the end result sounds totally spontaneous. This really is the art that conceals art and it is one of the arias I would play to friends if they doubted Callas's pre-eminence as a vocal actress.
> 
> A friend of the critic John Steane once said to him about Callas, "Of course you had to see her," to which he replied, "Oh, but I can! And I do!" I know exactly what he meant.


At the time I had no idea of what I was hearing or been capable of recognizing what Callas was doing. I just knew it sounded “right.” It was later that I learned more about her singing and musicianship and how much other singers suffered in comparison. In retrospect, the years that I was learning about opera and attending performances, I was looking for another Callas, in vain.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Barbebleu said:


> The last twenty minutes of Tannhäuser, the Decca Solti version, BBC Radio 3 one Saturday evening. It had just been released and BBC were broadcasting excerpts. Caught it by accident and it was a lightbulb moment for me. I never looked back and the world of opera has been a constant joy since that fateful night.


They had me at the Overture! 😂


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Others in our group are much more knowledgeable about opera than me but I have been a good witness for opera. I have given at least 15 introduction to opera speeches at Toastmasters and have taken about 10 members of my clubs to their first operas. I did it again this past week with a doctor friend who likes opera but doesn't know much about it. He has a fabulous stereo and I took over my historic vinyl set of Rosa Ponselle, who he had never heard of. In the middle of the second aria he got his notebook and ordered the same vintage lp of hers on Amazon. My best friend liked opera but didn't know much about it. After playing opera for her almost every week for our car rides she has become quite a fan! The Baptist church made me into a great witness. I had one notable failure. I tried to play Callas singing Armida for a young four wheeling jock I saw for a good while and he said can you please turn that off NOW LOL.


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

I had three Wagner 'bleeding chunks' album in the 1980s which at the time amounted to all the classical I had. Circa 1998 I took the plunge and acquired Solti's _Ring_ cycle, not least because it was massively reduced in price as an inducement to join a mail order company. I enjoy opera but will admit that it is not my favourite genre - maybe buying the _Ring_ in one fell swoop was too much of a good thing for a classical greenhorn like me but at least its sheer scale and awesome reputation didn't intimidate me to the point where it put me off listening to other operas after that.

As regards giving suggestions to others, that is something of a n/a in my case as collecting and listening to my classical music has always been a solitary pastime - a situation I have always been content with.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

MAS said:


> At the time I had no idea of what I was hearing or been capable of recognizing what Callas was doing. I just knew it sounded “right.” It was later that I learned more about her singing and musicianship and how much other singers suffered in comparison. In retrospect, the years that I was learning about opera and attending performances, I was looking for another Callas, in vain.


And do you know now, what Callas was doing ? I mean, sure, she apparently thought a lot about what the words and feelings are, and constantly adjusted her singing accordingly - piano or loud, deep or light. But don't many singers try to do it ? I have a favourite singer, she has the vocal range like Callas, and she claims to study the background of every aria, even at concert. But she still is not convincing like Callas. What is the trick ?


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

BTW I am new in Callas fandom. Years ago, in my teens or twenties, she did not strike me as so special. But since cca October last year, I had my opera restart triggered by Bellini, and in his operas, she really shines, especially as Norma.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

BBSVK said:


> And do you know now, what Callas was doing ? I mean, sure, she apparently thought a lot about what the words and feelings are, and constantly adjusted her singing accordingly - piano or loud, deep or light. But don't many singers try to do it ? I have a favourite singer, she has the vocal range like Callas, and she claims to study the background of every aria, even at concert. But she still is not convincing like Callas. What is the trick ?


Callas strict adherence to the composer’s markings is surely no “trick.” Another singer claims Callas’s singing is “like taking dictation.” She has the instinctive gift of choosing just the right color to convey the emotions of the words she sings, and her acting is done _within _the music, not _appliquéd _to it. For example, she conveys that the Lady is sleepwalking by starting with a somnolent sound in _“una macchia è qui tuttora,” _then expanding out of it at “_via ti dico.” _ She goes beyond the requirements and is unique in doing so. In “_o vergogna” _ she stresses the words without exaggeration. She makes “_Arabia intera” _sound plaintive and the following phrase pitiful just by following the rhythm. There are a myriad of details that her musicianship allows her to effect that other singers miss, which is why they are not as convincing. She has genius.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Maybe I will start the separate thread about Callas, so that we stay on the topic here, i.e. the operas which made us like operas


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

BBSVK said:


> Maybe I will start the separate thread about Callas, so that we stay on the topic here, i.e. the operas which made us like operas


We are discussing *Macbeth *Sleepwalking Scene and Callas, which started me on opera!


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

MAS said:


> We are discussing *Macbeth *Sleepwalking Scene and Callas, which started me on opera!


There is a thread on Callas’s Recorded Legacy, in Opera on DVD Blu-ray and CD


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## AlexD (Nov 6, 2011)

The first opera where opera made sense to me was The Rise & Fall of Mahogany - and this was a broadcast from The RoH.

I think the reason for this was the fact that I'd seen and read Brecht's plays. So, this opera allowed me to see how opera and drama were similar, and different.

It was also more relevent. I'd struggled with Wagnarian dragons and dwarves and god's, and The Magic Flute had me baffled (it still does).

Operas that have got friends and relatives into the genre were a modern version of Don Giovanni, where DG -enters- in a car with a rocking suspension, and the update if Marriage of Figaro to the 1930's.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

I wasn't fascinated by opera in my childhood, but classical music attracted me. Finally I came to opera and the most of non classical music seemed too shallow. 
There were two very different operas watched live in several days during the tour in my town: Macbeth and The love to the three oranges. I was chuffed but didn't become a regular opera-goer, rather began reading and listening more. 
I was intrigued who was that dazzling beautiful woman - Maria Callas and couldn't stop listening to her singing.
Than more you listen and watch, than more you discover and want to know. 
When I removed to another city I started to visit the theater regulary and since that became familiar to the most of repertoire. One of the first was Onegin in good traditional production, well sung and played (otherwise Tchaikovsky isn't possible). I also began traveling, my first experience of that kind was Falstaff in La Scala. Now it's not so easy, but I hope that nothing lasts forever.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

In the last ten years, I was able to introduce to Opera quite a few people, using "Die Tote Stadt" to entice them.


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

Even when I started to listen classical music seriously around the age of 19 with Tchaikovsky symphonies, opera most definitely didn't feature. However at school, I sang in and completely fell in love with Iolanthe, finding it a great tragedy and didn't understand that G&S was only supposed to be witty light entertainment. A few years later, a friend played me a recording of a strange opera which was mainly about animals. Listening to the "Cunning Little Vixen" was probably the first time I had ever listened to an opera all the way through from a record. It soon became my favourite work and has remained by far the most influential on my own composing. Although this developed into a great love of Janacek, I remain rather sceptical of mainstream opera in general and have relatively few works by non-Slavonic composers in my collection (the two greatest operas for me not written by Janacek are Weinberg's "The Passenger" and Shostakovich "Lady Macbeth").


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Beethoven's Fidelio, the Bernstein DVD. That tipped the scales and I became an operaholic from there on out.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Rigoletto
Not the first opera I saw or heard, but it's the one that sealed it for me. I think ROH and ENO had productions around the same time in 1988. The emotion, drama and combination of arias, duets and of course the quartet.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> OMG! That same aria had quite an effect on me too. I was already a Callas fan, but the Verdi Arias disc was no longer available and a friend lent it to me. Even knowing Callas as I did, I was staggered and I've never heard anyone else realise that scene with anything like her insight. Verdi's setting itself was quite a revelation, but it was Callas's incredibly detailed interpretation that stunned me. She has a different colour for every single thought that flits through Lady Macbeth's fractured mind. Close inspection of the score reveals that it is all there in Verdi's instructions but how many other singers have carried them out so brilliantly? I can't think of a single one. Part of the miracle is that, even with all the detail she reveals, there is no artifice and the end result sounds totally spontaneous. This really is the art that conceals art and it is one of the arias I would play to friends if they doubted Callas's pre-eminence as a vocal actress.
> 
> A friend of the critic John Steane once said to him about Callas, "Of course you had to see her," to which he replied, "Oh, but I can! And I do!" I know exactly what he meant.


I've said this before, but there are quite a few new posters and so it's worth repeating. I am familiar with most of Callas' recordings, both in the studio and live (although some of the live material I have only heard once) and her complete recording of Butterfly has long been a favourite of mine. I never saw Callas live and have never been to Chicago and her only run as Cio-Cio San was over twenty years before I was born. However, when some footage of her as Butterfly from one of the rehearsals in Chicago was released in colour a few years ago, I had the sensation that I had seen it before, despite knowing that it was totally new for me (it was known to exist and was probably on YouTube in black and white, but I hadn't seen it). I then realised that the reason it felt so familiar was that the _way _that Callas sang the part, could only be accompanied by _those _movements. There really was a totality to her art whereby the drama of the opera was expressed as an organic whole made up of both movement and vocal delivery seamlessly fused together.

N.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

SixFootScowl said:


> Beethoven's Fidelio, the Bernstein DVD. That tipped the scales and I became an operaholic from there on out.


An operaholic and Fidelioholic if we go by your posts on TC!

Fidelio was the first complete opera I saw and whilst I enjoyed it, it's never been a work to sweep me off my feet. The reason why I asked my parents to take me to see it was that I had an old 45 rpm record (remember those?) which had the overture and Prisoners' Chorus on it.

What really got me into it though, was Il Trovatore on the radio, which was closely followed by the chance to see a performance of the opera at a small, local theatre. There were no surtitles back then and whilst knowing the story, I didn't know Italian or the opera well enough to understand the words that were being sung. Azucena had me transfixed though. You didn't need to know what the words were, it's all there in the music.

N.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

The Conte said:


> I've said this before, but there are quite a few new posters and so it's worth repeating. I am familiar with most of Callas' recordings, both in the studio and live (although some of the live material I have only heard once) and her complete recording of Butterfly has long been a favourite of mine. I never saw Callas live and have never been to Chicago and her only run as Cio-Cio San was over twenty years before I was born. However, when some footage of her as Butterfly from one of the rehearsals in Chicago was released in colour a few years ago, I had the sensation that I had seen it before, despite knowing that it was totally new for me (it was known to exist and was probably on YouTube in black and white, but I hadn't seen it). I then realised that the reason it felt so familiar was that the _way _that Callas sang the part, could only be accompanied by _those _movements. There really was a totality to her art whereby the drama of the opera was expressed as an organic whole made up of both movement and vocal delivery seamlessly fused together.
> 
> N.


This isn't a thread about Callas, but we are talking about our operaratic breakthroughs and it would appear that for many the voice of Callas was one of those breakthrough moments. Many of Callas's contemporaries would no doubt agree that she was known for her acting skills, but the point they often make is that she was her acting was musically conceived. It was the way she interpreted the music. She needed music to inspire her. I often think her equivalent in the dance world would have been Margot Fonteyn, who was a wonderfully musical dancer, her acting coming as a response to the musical impulse.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> This isn't a thread about Callas, but we are talking about our operaratic breakthroughs and it would appear that for many the voice of Callas was one of those breakthrough moments. Many of Callas's contemporaries would no doubt agree that she was known for her acting skills, but the point they often make that she was only an acting was musically conceived. Her acting was the way she interpreted the music. I often think her equivalent in the dance world would have been Margot Fonteyn, who was a wonderfully musical dancer, her acting coming as a response to the musical impulse.


Callas was also an influence on my opera listening too, although she came after the live Fidelio and Trovatore I saw. I think the first thing I heard her sing was Un bel di from Butterfly, heard on the radio and then I had a cassette I made from random arias. The first complete opera I heard her in was either Cav (I got the Cav/Pag complete LPs out of the library) or Rigoletto (heard on the radio). The first of her recordings I actually owned was the first complete opera I had on CD: The De Sabata Tosca.

Funnily enough I was thinking about Callas' unique talent earlier after posting and thinking that there must be an actor or actress with a similar way (their interpretation is so vivid that if you hear them you can also see them). However, I too thought first of a dancer, Lopatkina. Her Odile in Swan Lake was something superhuman. Every movement of the leg meant something, in a similar way that Callas shaped coloratura so that it became part of the character's emotive state. 

N.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

It is interesting, that Callas was a factor for you guys in liking opera. I am glad I "discovered" her recently on youtube and she is the best Norma ever. But she played no role for me in getting to like the opera. Maybe the problem was availability. I was born in 1976 (now you know ;-) ) and in an Eastern European country. We did not have her recordings at home, nor do I remember seeing them in the stores, although there must have been some. But not many, I guess.


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## ThaNotoriousNIC (Jun 29, 2020)

First real exposure to opera for me was as a pit musician in my school's production of The Merry Widow by Franz Lehar. Began to develop an appreciation for it but didn't go beyond a slight curiosity.

I did not listen to opera for years until I finally decided to do a 2-week binge to get through Wagner's Ring Cycle. That was the set of operas that set in motion for my love and appreciation of opera. Haven't been the same since lol.


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## Aerobat (Dec 31, 2018)

BBSVK said:


> It is interesting, that Callas was a factor for you guys in liking opera. I am glad I "discovered" her recently on youtube and she is the best Norma ever. But she played no role for me in getting to like the opera. Maybe the problem was availability. I was born in 1976 (now you know ;-) ) and in an Eastern European country. We did not have her recordings at home, nor do I remember seeing them in the stores, although there must have been some. But not many, I guess.


I have a similar experience, albeit born in 71. I grew up with Opera and other classical music generally. I had my first violin by the time I was 5, and have been playing instruments of one form or another ever since. My parents had no Callas recordings, although I do recall quite a lot of Sutherland, Tebaldi, and Schwarzkopf. I still have quite a fondness for Schwarzkopf's voice now, as you can tell if you see my poll votes! Sadly they binned all of their Vinyl after I moved out and they changed to a CD system! 

I have a bit of a love / hate thing with Callas though. When she's good, and the recording is good, she's great. My own preference from that era is undoubtedly Virginia Zeani, although there are sadly too few recordings of her and I don't think she ever truly received the recognition that she deserved.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Aerobat said:


> My own preference from that era is undoubtedly Virginia Zeani, although there are sadly too few recordings of her and I don't think she ever truly received the recognition that she deserved.


Like it or not, it is difficult to be recognized Internationally without the imprimatur of the Metropolitan Opera and/or a major recording contract. Zeani was not well reviewed at her 1966 debut (*La Traviata*) at the Metropolitan, a surprising development given her long experience in that role. She repeated that opera and then had one more role - on the tour - in
*I Vespri Siciliani*.

Most of her performances were limited to Italy possibly by choice. Though there were forays into the rest of Europe, South America and Africa, these were probably nibbles and mostly as Violetta, Mimi, or in exotic fare, such as *Il Piccolo Marat*, *Thais*, *Giulio Cesare *or a _bel canto _work like *Maria di Rohan *or even *Lucia di Lammermoor *which had more well-known interpreters. These were successful but of a momentary nature. I think versatility might have worked against her in a way, except for Violetta.

I think she received well-deserved recognition, but when it mattered most, which was during her long career.

I read somewhere that there are close to sixty “pirated” performances besides the two studio operas (*La Traviata *and *Tosca*).


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## Andjar (Aug 28, 2020)

Seeing Domingo singing "Vesti La Giubba" on TV when i was a kid .It made me realise i might enjoy opera someday.
It's Puccini's Turandot that really inflicted the addiction.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

BBSVK said:


> Which opera was your first, which made you like the genre ?
> Also, do you have stories about operas which worked well for "recruiting" your friends or loved ones, otherwise new to opera ?
> And finally, do you have a story about an opera, which renewed your interest after a longer period of time, when you did not care ?


Manon Lescaut (Puccini). 

I don't remember the reason I decided one day to investigate opera, but it was probably an outgrowth of my strong interest in Broadway musicals. I was living in NYC at the time and checked out dozens of LP sets from the library and taped them (which I retained long after I'd replaced them with CDs). My wife and I began with a subscription to the New York City Opera, and then graduated to The Met.

All of Puccini's operas remain favorites, as well as a the major works by Verdi, and last year I had a breakthrough with Der Ring.

But my interest goes in spurts, i.e. listening to opera everyday for weeks then not at all for months.


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## znapschatz (Feb 28, 2016)

When I first got interested in opera, I had no trouble with it, thanks largely to the announcers translating/explaining the plot in between the intermissions. With "Turandot"under my belt, the rest were quite easy, although I probably missed out on the texts. But it was the music that captivated me. and that's what mattered most.


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## Otis B. Driftwood (4 mo ago)

For me it began with "Il trovatore". 
Since then I've watched every opera in the core repertoire at least once.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

For me it was La Boheme followed by The Great Caruso.
As for inculcating my friends -- Tosca definitely!!!


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## OffPitchNeb (Jun 6, 2016)

Madame Butterfly for me. Butterfly's entrance _"Ancora un passo or via" _showed me how opera could be addictive.


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## Bernamej (Feb 24, 2014)

For me it was Goyescas by Granados. This is the opera that made go crazy on the genre ever since.


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## Philidor (11 mo ago)

As a children, I listened to the Zauberflöte with my parents.

The first opera that I bought on my own was Rheingold, I think ... I turned it off after half an hour or so and was bored.

Next was Don Giovanni with Harnoncourt. Addictive. Figaro with Marriner followed. La Bohème with Karajan. I don't remember the rest ... you know, the usual stuff between Rigoletto and Wozzeck.


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## Verdilover (4 mo ago)

When I was ten years old, my parents took me to a performance of Madama Butterfly (now one of my favorite operas) at the local opera house. I didn't dislike it, but it wasn't memorable, either.

A little over a year later, at the age of 11, my parents decided to take me to a performance of Turandot at the Met while we were in New York for unrelated reasons. Although the performance had a no-name cast, I was absolutely enchanted. Everything — Puccini's exquisite music, Zeffirelli's beautiful production, the magic of the experience, the beauty of the singing — absolutely enchanted me. I remember having a choral melody from Act I stuck in my head. Probably about seven months after that performance, I realized that opera would be something that I would love for the rest of my life. Less than seven years later, I had seen over 65 performances of more than 40 different operas.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

SanAntone said:


> I don't remember the reason I decided one day to investigate opera, but it was probably an outgrowth of my strong interest in Broadway musicals.


Same with me. Circa 1980. It was like I switched from rock concerts to Broadway shows.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

BBSVK said:


> *The breakthrough opera, which made you like the genre*


Einstein on the Beach. (it also confused me, lol)


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## Amara (Jan 12, 2012)

First opera: Carmen on DVD for a college course.

Opera that made me fall in love with the genre: Satyagraha, the Met HD. It intrigued me enough to keep going to the HDs. Rodelinda followed, then Faust, which was the first opera where I started listening to the music on its own.

First opera in person was Rigoletto in 2012 by the Orlando Philharmonic, with Russell Thomas as the Duke. I'm so glad to see he has become a big star since then. His voice was really something else.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Amara said:


> First opera: Carmen on DVD for a college course.
> 
> Opera that made me fall in love with the genre: Satyagraha, the Met HD. It intrigued me enough to keep going to the HDs. Rodelinda followed, then Faust, which was the first opera where I started listening to the music on its own.
> 
> First opera in person was Rigoletto in 2012 by the Orlando Philharmonic, with Russell Thomas as the Duke. I'm so glad to see he has become a big star since then. His voice was really something else.


You should participate in the contests. You can learn a lot from reading what some of our smarties write.


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## Lisztianwagner (2 mo ago)

Mozart's_ Le Nozze di Figaro_ was the first opera I've ever listened and that one which made me like the genre; I was very new to classical music at that time, but I was immediately captured by its beauty, brilliance and energy; I've listened to it so many times to almost learn the libretto by heart.
I've never got tired of opera, so I've never taken pause from the operatic genre.
I have never had the chance to make friends of mine fans of opera, but some friends of mine tried more than once to make me a lover of Verdi's melodrama; this hasn't worked, I'm afraid.....


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Lisztianwagner said:


> some friends of mine tried more than once to make me a lover of Verdi's melodrama; this hasn't worked, I'm afraid.....


How about Bellini or Donizetti ? Would you say it is the music or bizarre plots that prevent you from loving Verdi ?


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Lisztianwagner said:


> Mozart's_ Le Nozze di Figaro_ was the first opera I've ever listened and that one which made me like the genre; I was very new to classical music at that time, but I was immediately captured by its beauty, brilliance and energy; I've listened to it so many times to almost learn the libretto by heart.
> I've never got tired of opera, so I've never taken pause from the operatic genre.
> I have never had the chance to make friends of mine fans of opera, but some friends of mine tried more than once to make me a lover of Verdi's melodrama; this hasn't worked, I'm afraid.....


Do as I do: just listen to Verdi's glorious music and ignore the words. Tell no one! Verdi is very dependent on great singers. Listen to Ponselle or Callas sing Verdi.


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## Lisztianwagner (2 mo ago)

BBSVK said:


> How about Bellini or Donizetti ? Would you say it is the music or bizarre plots that prevent you from loving Verdi ?


I'm sorry, I don't like either Bellini or Donizetti very much; despite a lot of attempts, I can hardly love Italian Opera, apart from some Puccini and Verdi's _Falstaff_ and _Otello_. It isn't a matter of plots, because many of Verdi's operas are inspired to great literature, to authors like Shakespeare, Hugo or Dumas; I'm afraid it's the music that fails to attract me; anyway, I don't certainly deny the greatness as well as the importance in the history of music of Italian Opera composers like Verdi, Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti, Leoncavallo or Mascagni. 



Seattleoperafan said:


> Do as I do: just listen to Verdi's glorious music and ignore the words. Tell no one! Verdi is very dependent on great singers. Listen to Ponselle or Callas sing Verdi.


Thanks for the suggestion; but I can't usually enjoy an opera (or a composition with vocal parts) ignoring the words, otherwise I have the feeling to miss an important part of what the composer wanted to express.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Lisztianwagner said:


> I'm sorry, I don't like either Bellini or Donizetti very much; despite a lot of attempts, I can hardly love Italian Opera, apart from some Puccini and Verdi's _Falstaff_ and _Otello_. It isn't a matter of plots, because many of Verdi's operas are inspired to great literature, to authors like Shakespeare, Hugo or Dumas; I'm afraid it's the music that fails to attract me; anyway, I don't certainly deny the greatness as well as the importance in the history of music of Italian Opera composers like Verdi, Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti, Leoncavallo or Mascagni.
> 
> 
> Thanks for the suggestion; but I can't usually enjoy an opera (or a composition with vocal parts) ignoring the words, otherwise I have the feeling to miss an important part of what the composer wanted to express.


I have a problem with Mozart, which is more embarassing . But it is not a completely zero enjoyment on my side. And I love Italian opera.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BBSVK said:


> I have a problem with Mozart, which is more embarassing . But it is not a completely zero enjoyment on my side. And I love Italian opera.


You are no longer my friend 🤣 I really enjoy listening to Mozart in the car as it is very soothing and always pleasant and of course dependent on there being good singers. I find his operas way too long for performance unless I am watching a video. I saw a Marriage of Figaro in a tiny tiny tiiiiiiiny theater in NYC with maybe 250 seats and it was wonderful but too long and I left before it was over. They had a large black woman with a very opulent tone like Meade that I was crazy about and who's voice flooded that space. I felt like I was at a court performance. Wagner's operas are of course long but their music is so arousing it keeps my interest.


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## Hoffmann (Jun 10, 2013)

I've told my story elsewhere, however, since almost all my friends loathe opera and don't understand its appeal and for me, my first experience really was like someone flipped a switch, I like to tell my story, even if a bit longer than most posts here, so hope you will bear with me:

On Saturday afternoons in the winter, my dad sometimes would turn on the Met opera broadcast in the car - to my two sisters and I howling in distress until he turned it off. We had a "stereo" at home, but my folks' musical taste really ran only to broadway musicals. I had a bit of exposure to classical music from music class in junior high school (which still was a thing in those days), which opened up that world to me but, aside from a class trip to NYC in 8th grade to see Leonard Bernstein conducting a "Young Peoples' Concert", nothing else worth mentioning.

In college, listening was pretty much what you would expect - lots of Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and the like. I was a German Literature major and left the U.S. to do my junior year abroad in Heidelberg, Germany. I went to a small American school that had a strong cultural program that provided a flow of tickets to concerts and events and also included a couple of week long trips - once each to Prague and Berlin, in 1971-72, close to the height of the Cold War.

On the trip to Berlin, I signed up for the Berlin Philharmonic (I don't remember what else, but Rudolf Kempe conducted La Mer - yawn), a performance of the very depressing Georg Büchner play "Wozzeck" in East Berlin and "Hoffmann's Erzählungen" (Tales of Hoffmann, sung in German) at the Komische Oper, also in East Berlin. My story of crossing the Berlin Wall at night by myself at age 21 for those two performances is a story for another time.

At dinner just before the opera with my professor who led the Berlin trip, I told him I really wasn't interested in doing an opera and that I had decided not to go. This led to an extended exchange about the nature of signing a contract - which, of course, couldn't be broken, and I lost the argument. Since we were at a restaurant only a few blocks from the Komische Oper, he and the others at dinner escorted me to the opera house to make sure I followed through.

At the opera house, my professor exchanged the leftover tickets and got me an orchestra seat. As I left the group to enter the building, he looked at me and said "You will never regret this". I sat in the orchestra alone, in a sea of East German apparatchiks, sort of terrified. At 21, I looked like I was 14 and was surrounded by very stern-looking middle aged adults. At intermission, a woman I was seated next to asked me, none too sweetly, in German, who I was (she probably was Stasi...). When I told her that I was a student in Heidelberg, she just looked at me and told me she hadn't been to Heidelberg in 25 years. It was a very sad moment as I knew she couldn't leave East Germany.

The opera was a revelation. It was a Walter Felsenstein production (and, as I found out years later, famous among opera professionals). At the end of the first act, when Olympia sings her famous aria, the production, in something out of David Copperfield, had somehow switched out the soprano when she had emerged from the wing in an upholstered chair to sing the aria. Just as the aria finished, her head exploded from her body and rolled across the stage with her arms and legs on huge springs that dangled from her body. The likeness of the puppet's head was so realistic a likeness to the soprano that Madame Tussaud's should weep in shame. Years later, I found out (during a chat with Martin Feinstein of the Washington Opera) that the Komische Oper production was so specific to the soprano, that another opera had to be substituted if she was unavailable. The singing was spectacular. Nothing in the remaining two acts of the production was as stunning, but I remember emphasized the surreal. When I walked out of the opera that night, I understood why opera was popular. I wasted no time in starting to see productions at the Kennedy Center after moving there after graduating.

That professor who insisted on me seeing the opera gave me a lifetime of pleasure.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Hoffmann said:


> I've told my story elsewhere, however, since almost all my friends loathe opera and don't understand its appeal and for me, my first experience really was like someone flipped a switch, I like to tell my story, even if a bit longer than most posts here, so hope you will bear with me:
> 
> On Saturday afternoons in the winter, my dad sometimes would turn on the Met opera broadcast in the car - to my two sisters and I howling in distress until he turned it off. We had a "stereo" at home, but my folks' musical taste really ran only to broadway musicals. I had a bit of exposure to classical music from music class in junior high school (which still was a thing in those days), which opened up that world to me but, aside from a class trip to NYC in 8th grade to see Leonard Bernstein conducting a "Young Peoples' Concert", nothing else worth mentioning.
> 
> ...


Thanks for sharing this great retelling of your experience.


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