# How many operas have you seen?



## Amara (Jan 12, 2012)

How long have you been listening to opera, and how many operas have you seen or listened to?

For clarification's sake, by "operas" I mean opera titles, not productions, so if you've seen Carmen 10 times, just count it once. Also, count the operas that make up the Ring Cycle individually.

I suspect I'm a relative opera newbie compared to the rest of you. I've been an opera fan for almost four years, and have seen or listened to 74 operas.

I'm also curious about your methods of opera consumption. Do you experience most of your opera live, through audio recordings, through video recordings, or through movie theater broadcasts?

Opera is rarely performed where I live in Florida. There are usually two operas a year by the local philharmonic. So, I see most of my opera on DVD/streaming or the Met Live in HD series. I managed to see one ROH movie theater broadcast (Manon Lescaut) before the theater chains around here stopped showing ROH altogether due to poor turnout.

I think I've seen discussion here in the past about whether or not the Met HDs are successful at creating new opera fans. While the statistics may not be great, the HDs did work in my case. I had seen opera only once before the HDs, a DVD of Carmen that a professor showed in a college course when I was 18. My first Met HD was Satyagraha when I was 25. I actually only attended because I had received free passes; at the time, I wanted to watch it more for the production values and the innovative stage puppetry that was advertised rather than the fact that it was an opera.

I was so impressed with the high quality of the production, with the excitement of live theater, and with the live interviews (I think it helped that Eric Owens was a highly charismatic host and made the show really fun to learn about). I enjoyed the live experience so much that I kept attending the HDs. When I first heard Faust, I started buying mp3s of the arias I liked. So, then it became more about appreciating and connecting with the music.

Now I see many more operas in movie theaters than I do actual movies. I don't think many of today's actors and film roles can compete with the stunning acting achievements the Met singers regularly deliver.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your "opera story" and learn what the average # of operas people here have seen, as I suspect I have a long way to go to become as well informed on the topic as many of you. But I look forward to it!


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## Donata (Dec 28, 2013)

I've seen three live operas and ten recorded productions. I consume opera mostly through audio and video recording. I'd like to see more live opera. I saw my first opera when I was ten, a production of Carmen by a local opera company. I didn't see my second one until last year, also a production of Carmen. Over the years since I had mostly forgotten about opera, until I rediscovered it in 2013. It's been an enjoyable journey thus far.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Here are the live Wagners I've seen:

1 x Dutchman
2 x Rheingold
3 x Walkure
2 x Siegfried
2 x Gotterdammitslong
2 x Tristans

Still waiting for the Met/COC/Lyon Parsifal to hit Toronto......

Ive seen some non-Wagners but I'm still trying to forget money wasted on mistakes of my youth.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I can't begin to count, maybe because I'm so old. That said, I saw an awful lot more when I was in my twenties than I do now. I'm always loath to fork out the massive prices for a reasonably located seat at Covent Garden, in case the production or performance turns out to be a dud.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

My preference is very clear. For the *same* performance (I mean, same singers, same conductor, same orchestra) I would prefer:

1.- Live at the theater
2.- DVD/TV/Internet/Movie theater
3.- CD/Radio/Audio file

However, I usually listen to many more CDs than watch DVDs. The reason is, of course, that the particular performance I want, often is not available in visual format.

In terms of opera titles watched live in the theater, I'm well over 300 now. This means basically that 1) I'm an old chap, 2) I started to watch opera very young, 3) I have lived most of my life close to an opera house.

I'm still an avid operagoer, though the last couple of years I have travelled less than in the past, and concentrate mainly in the theaters of my home town, with few exceptions. Even so, this coming season I will add at least two operas to the list: Wagner's "Das Liebesverbot" and a great contemporary piece, "Written on Skin" by George Benjamin.


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## graziesignore (Mar 13, 2015)

I'm a relative newbie also and have seen/heard/experienced roughly 50 operas. I have never seen a full opera in person; just aria recitals, though living just a few hours from venues like Glimmerglass and NYC, I really can't claim a travel hardship excuse. (The prices at the Met put me off and I'm waiting for Glimmerglass to put on something that I can convince my non opera buff friends to attend) 

I am more singer-centered than opera- or conductor-centered, so I will watch/listen to anything in any format that features singers who interest me, which has led me to become quite the "YouTube rat." My individual-opera tally is thus relatively limited, yet I have acquired a specific insight into various singers, recordings and productions after 1970.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Not very many... 

Eight live, and two on video. 
It really depends on what's coming to the Lowestoft Marina, though we did go down to Snape Maltings for a Handel opera, because Fiddle Guru was in the orchestra. 

I'm definitely up for hearing more, however.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Amara said:


> How long have you been listening to opera, and how many operas have you seen or listened to?
> 
> For clarification's sake, by "operas" I mean opera titles, not productions, so if you've seen Carmen 10 times, just count it once. Also, count the operas that make up the Ring Cycle individually.
> 
> ...


Many here will have seen/heard/studied a lot of operas by dint of our average age.

Living in Europe I get more opportunities to see live opera than you folks across the pond. According to my journal I have seen at least* 179 live performances of 111 different operas since 1988. That's maybe more than most, but any regular opera goer over a few decades could easily have seen many more than that. (*Alas there were a few years that I didn't write in the journal and I've had to recreate the entries from other resources.)

Opera-going often informs other activities such as my travel/holiday plans. I like to go to opera houses in other cities/countries, and it's nice to see an opera I've never seen before. I can't think of a better holiday than successive nights in opera houses.

Behind me as I sit is a 'wall' of opera box-sets on vinyl, which I listen to all the time. Karajan/Schwarzkopf Pelleas et Melisande playing right now.

I don't follow particular singers, nor do I have an in-depth knowledge of many works.


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Have lived in London and attended Opera’s for approx. 33 years. With two major houses and numerous other opportunities this has been a fine place to enjoy live performance. I have also been lucky and while on holiday seen productions in various parts of Italy from Verona to Sicily, plus Paris, Vienna and Prague. I have seen 58 of the top 100 from the last forum listing, so I believe about 80-90 different Operas. The total no of performances must be nearly 3x that.
Discovering this forum has brought me back to really listening to CD’s but I can never seem to find the time to watch the few DVD’s I own. If I am typical then this forum should qualify for quantity discounts from the CD producers!
My taste’s are perhaps more mainstream than many on here but I have seen Die Drie Pintos a work left unfinished by Carl Maria von Weber, for which Mahler arranged Weber's sketches and other music from Weber's minor works, and composed a small amount himself.


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

schigolch said:


> In terms of opera titles watched live in the theater, I'm well over 300 now. This means basically that 1) I'm an old chap...


May I congratulate you your continuing interest in new works. You are keeping a fine tradition alive.

I think it's been proven that as one gets older the nerve endings harden and we become more resistant to 'new' sounds. This doesn't happen to a few lucky folk.

At least that's what John Peel told me!


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

361 live, counting all live opera performances (ie 3 Lulus counts as 3). I'm not going through them all to sort out duplicates. 
Far more recordings. But that's the result of a longish life and lots of opportunities, nearly all taken.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I have seen:

Ligeti's Le grand Macabre (and I don't recall a thing, in the late '70s)
Strauss' Wiener Blut (in the late '80s)

Anything else? I'm not sure right now.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I attended operas in the 1980s, but can't remember how many, probably around 10 or so. Since then I did not get into opera until 2013 and now have about 20 opera DVDs (four are Fidelio).


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Maybe 3 or 4 each year for the last 20 years and I'm not even an Opera-Fan, try not re-hear any opera I've heard unless the staging gets rave review's, so perhaps 50 unique events, never watch opera on DVD as the medium don't excite me and rarely listen to Opera on CD as I find the medium pointless without the visual part.

/ptr


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Hello Amara and welcome to the forum!

:tiphat:

I'm so impressed that the opera which got you hooked was _Satyagraha_. Fans are always being asked which opera to suggest to an 'opera virgin' and the same old ones are always trotted out. Tosca, La bohème, La Traviata, Carmen etc and the reasons being "easy to understand" "wonderful story" "fabulous music" etc. I think it's great that you fell in love with something which is quite difficult to get into for many people.

I have a friend who had never been interested in opera and she watched Prokofiev's _L'amour des trois oranges_ from Paris on TV. She couldn't believe that what she was seeing was opera but from that moment she was hooked.

I came to opera very late and I'm trying to make up for lost time so I try to see it live as often as I can. Sometimes it's for a particular opera, (recently Król Roger), sometimes it's because I want to see a particular singer (Simon Keenlyside) and sometimes it's just to go with a friend who doesn't like going on her own. I walk a lot and listen to opera on my mp3 player most days. I do watch DVDs but I don't have a lot of time so it might take me a week to watch one opera!

For me, watching live opera is so exciting that I'll sacrifice most things in order to go and I'm very lucky that I live in Europe and therefore within striking distance of so many opera houses and theatres.

It's such a shame that you only get the chance to see live opera twice a year and that the ROH broadcasts have stopped. Hope you can continue to see Met in HD and enjoy your "journey".


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

sospiro said:


> Hello Amara and welcome to the forum!
> 
> :tiphat:
> 
> I'm so impressed that the opera which got you hooked was _Satyagraha_. Fans are always being asked which opera to suggest to an 'opera virgin' and the same old ones are always trotted out. Tosca, La bohème, La Traviata, Carmen etc and the reasons being "easy to understand" "wonderful story" "fabulous music" etc. I think it's great that you fell in love with something which is quite difficult to get into for many people.


I think the reason for these operas to be trotted out is that these are often the first operas most people have seen and have caused their operatic interest to begin with. They are the most popular operas and they are the most performed and recorded operas.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

sospiro said:


> Hello Amara and welcome to the forum!
> 
> :tiphat:
> 
> I'm so impressed that the opera which got you hooked was _Satyagraha_. Fans are always being asked which opera to suggest to an 'opera virgin' and the same old ones are always trotted out. Tosca, La bohème, La Traviata, Carmen etc and the reasons being "easy to understand" "wonderful story" "fabulous music" etc. I think it's great that you fell in love with something which is quite difficult to get into for many people.


Why is that more impressive than someone getting into opera through seeing *La Boheme* or *Figaro*? I've usually found that if a work is really well performed and directed, then it doesn't make much difference if it's say *Billy Budd* or *Il Barbiere di Siviglia*.

Admittedly it was an excellent production of *La Boheme* with a thoroughly believable young cast that first got me turned on to opera, but it wasn't long before I was enjoying Henze's *Elegy for Young Lovers* and Britten's *The Turn of the Screw*, both of which I remember because the Scottish Opera productions I saw were fantastic.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I have a friend who got hooked on opera by going to see _Gotterdammerung_! That prompted him to persuade me to go to Seattle to see a complete Ring cycle. You never know what will get people interested.

As to me ... a quick count of live performances is 11 operas ... but I think that there must be more.
In the theatre ... 1 that I can remember and that was a long time ago
On TV or video ... I have lost track!


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

I guess what really hooked me were PBS TV broadcasts of Robert Carsen's production of _Mefistofele_ and the David Hockney production of _Turandot_. So when the Chicago Lyric Opera programmed both of these productions for the 1991/92 season, that was just too good to resist and I bought a half season subscription. Since then I've been very, very lucky to see many live performances, first in Chicago, now in New York, and as well several summer festivals in the US and several performances at houses in Europe and elsewhere.

I counted 86 titles I've seen live out the "TC top 272" list, plus a dozen or so more via Met in HD. (Btw, I've been in the audience at Lincoln Center for three Met HD broadcast, and Satyagraha was one of them!) There's probably another dozen+ contemporary and obscure titles that I've seen that are not on the "list", thanks to the adventurous programming of Chicago's "second" house, the Chicago Opera Theater and other companies. As a matter fact, I'll be adding another title tonight with George Benjamin's widely praised _Written on Skin_ at the Mostly Mozart Festival.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Goodness! Loads, I've lost count.

N.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Amara said:


> I think I've seen discussion here in the past about whether or not the Met HDs are successful at creating new opera fans. While the statistics may not be great, the HDs did work in my case. I had seen opera only once before the HDs, a DVD of Carmen that a professor showed in a college course when I was 18. My first Met HD was Satyagraha when I was 25. I actually only attended because I had received free passes; at the time, I wanted to watch it more for the production values and the innovative stage puppetry that was advertised rather than the fact that it was an opera.
> 
> I was so impressed with the high quality of the production, with the excitement of live theater, and with the live interviews (I think it helped that Eric Owens was a highly charismatic host and made the show really fun to learn about). I enjoyed the live experience so much that I kept attending the HDs. When I first heard Faust, I started buying mp3s of the arias I liked. So, then it became more about appreciating and connecting with the music.


My first live opera was La traviata at Arizona Opera in 1999. I didn't really get hooked until I moved to NYC and saw _Satyagraha_ at the Met in 2011 (such a wonderful performance of a lovely piece!) I have now seen 52 different operas in the theater, though 9 of these were less than 90 minutes in length.

I have seen several more different operas in a theater, live streaming over the internet, and other types of simulcasts. I have no count on this. I similarly have no count on operas watched recorded. I have also not kept track of operas listened to live or recorded.

I will watch or listen pretty much any way I can, as much as I can. I am (casually) watching a _Tristan_ now. I would prefer to have been there, or at least have four hours to devote to watching it with full attention now, but I don't. I'd still rather have it on than nothing!


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

I'd guess I've seen between 30 and 40 live operas (in the opera house). Most recent was Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci earlier this year. I very seldom watch on DVD but listen to CD's frequently. One of the very first I saw live was Peter Grimes which blew me away and initiated my love of opera ever since.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

D Smith said:


> I'd guess I've seen between 30 and 40 live operas (in the opera house). Most recent was Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci earlier this year. I very seldom watch on DVD but listen to CD's frequently. One of the very first I saw live was Peter Grimes which blew me away and initiated my love of opera ever since.


What production of Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci was it?


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

Sloe said:


> What production of Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci was it?


At the Metropolitan Opera. Pagliacci was great, loved the set and production and the leads. Cavalleria was drab IMO, but the singing was pretty good.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I've accumulated a vast amount of experience listening to and seeing operas in nearly 50 years since I was about 13 , when I discovered complete recordings of operas in my local library on Long Island ,
which had an extensive collection of complete ones on LP . I became familiar with all the standard operas and many less familiar ones over the years , and by the early 90s, my library switched to CDs ,
even though they still kept some of the old LPs .
I would also go to performances at the Met and the now sadly defunct NYC opera, but not as often as I would have liked to . 
I have no idea how many operas I've heard complete recordings of ; probably at least 700, and this doesn't count the ones I've heard multiple recordings of , on LP, CD and cassettes . 
I listened to the Met's Saturday broadcasts religiously , watched PBS opera telecasts from the Met, NYC opera and elsewhere , and played horn in various smaller opera companies on Long Island , playing operas by Verdi, Puccini, Bizet, Donizetti, Bellini , Lehar , Mascagni and Leoncavallo etc .
The lists of operas I've seen on DVD is growing in leaps and bounds, and I'm delighted that I've been able to see all manner of obscure but interesting operas this way . I've also seen quite a few operas on youtube and complete studio performances I hadn't heard before .
I've seen and heard operas ranging from Monteverdi , Cavalli, Handel, Rameau, Gluck and Mozart 
to recent ones by John Adams, Philip Glass , Unsuk Chin , Kaaia Saariaho and other contemporary composers .
In addition to all the beloved staples of the operatic repertoire, I've seen and heard operatic rarities by such composers as Albert Roussel, Daniel Francois Auber , Zdenek Fibich, Italo Montemezzi , Karol Szymanowski, Anton Rubinstein , Franz Schreker, Franz Schmidt, Howard Hanson , Rued Laangaard , Ernst Krenek, Walter Braunfels, Alberto Franchetti,
Ildebrando Pizzetti, Siegfried Wagner , Ethyl Smyth , Rutland Boughton, Alberic Magnard ,
and so many others . 
Yet such is the incredible diversity of opera today, there are still so many operas I HAVEN'T heard or seen !
So many operas, and so little time !.
Among the little known operas in my CD collection are Roussel's Padmavati, Enescu's Oedipe, Die Vogel by Walter Braunfels , Notred Dame by Franz Schmidt, The Demon by Anton Rubinstein , 
The Devil's Wall, the Kiss, and Libuse by Smetana, The Devil and Kate and Armida by Dvorak, 
Fate and The Excursions of Mr. Broucek by Janacek , Kashchei the immortal, Legend of Kitezh, The Maid of Pskov and Sadko by Rimsky-Korsakov , Riccardo Primo by Handel, Pfitzner's Palestrina,
The Charlatan by Pavel Haas, Flammen by Erwin Schulhoff, Der Vampyr by Henrich Marschner,
Undine by Albert Lortzing , Mazeppa by Tchaikovsky , Friedenstag, Die Liebe der Danae by Richard Strauss , Der Corgidor by Hugo Wolf , Antikrist by Rued Langaard , Il Gurany by Antonio Carlos 
Gomes , Saul & David by Nielsen , Sancta Susanna by Hindemith , Semyon Kotko by Prokofiev , 
and Gwendoline by Chabrier .


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I got hooked on opera with Fidelio and after getting a variety of operas (about 12) I am now amassing Fidelios on DVD. I just ordered #5 today. To think, I have Robert Devereux and Mary Stuart (sung in English) DVDs for a couple months now and have not gotten to them yet. I will though. One can never have too many opera DVDs, eh?


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

superhorn said:


> I listened to the Met's Saturday broadcasts religiously ,


By a happy accident of time these are broadcast live on Saturday evenings in the UK. Whilst I have recorded some I've never sat at home all the way through. But over the years it's become a ritual to tune in and guess the Opera playing. I must have heard excerpts from at least 300 of these as we travelled to see family and friends.Even when my daughter was at her grungiest teenage moment she knew this was something Dad got his way on! Happy days.

About a year ago the BBC announced they were dropping them Live. They seem to have quietly 'revised' that decision.

Finally a note for marketeers. This wil always be associated with Texaco and good things to me.


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