# What opera star, past or present, would you like to have dinner with?



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

singers only, no composers, conductors.


----------



## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

Itullian said:


> *What opera star, past or present, would you like to have dinner with?*


Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient.:devil:


----------



## Grosse Fugue (Mar 3, 2010)

Grammy award winner-Joyce Didonato


----------



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Callas of course


----------



## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

*Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient*

Yeah... she might be a fun date:

*Schröder was born in Hamburg, the daughter of the actress Sophie Schröder and the tenor Friedrich Schröder.[1]
Her first role was at the age of 15 as Aricia in Schiller's translation of Racine's Phèdre, and in 1821, aged 17, she was received with so much enthusiasm as Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute that her future career in opera was assured.

Richard Wagner claims to have seen her as Leonore in Fidelio when he was 16, but this is almost certainly fanciful. He did hear (and conduct) her in numerous roles after 1834, however, and continued to laud her stage artistry right up until his essay "On Actors and Singers" (1872) which is dedicated to her memory. She created several roles for Wagner - Adriano in Rienzi, Senta in The Flying Dutchman and Venus in Tannhäuser. Had Wagner's political profile not been compromised by his involvement with the Dresden uprising in May 1849, Schröder-Devrient would have created Elsa in Lohengrin which was advertised in 1849 as a forthcoming production in Dresden.

After her death a two volume work entitled Aus den Memoiren einer Saengerin, purporting to be her erotic memoirs, was published in two parts in 1868 and 1875. The first volume is a plausible account of her sex life, though various discrepancies with known facts have led many to doubt its complete veracity. The erotic adventures contained in the second volume, however seem to descend into complete sexual fantasy. These include the authoress indulging in lesbian sadomasochism, group sex, sodomy, bestiality, scatology, necrophilia, prostitution and vampirism: all before she had reached the age of 27. Whether true or not, this work is Germany's most famous work of erotic literature, many times reprinted, and translated into English as Pauline the Prima Donna.*

-excerpted from Wikipedia

My initial thought was Maria Callas... but then on second thought I just might find Julie d'Aubigny aka Mademoiselle de Maupin more interesting:

*Julie d'Aubigny was born 1670 to the family of Gaston d'Aubigny, who was a secretary to Louis de Lorraine-Guise, comte d'Armagnac, the Master of the Horse for the king Louis XIV. Her father trained her in dancing, literacy, drawing and fencing, possibly for self-defense. In her teens she became a mistress of the Count d'Armagnac and through him was introduced in the court. The count had her married to Sieur de Maupin of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Soon after the affair ended, her husband received an administrative position in the south of France but she decided to stay in Paris.

In the following years, d'Aubigny gathered a reputation as a wild woman who hit shopkeepers and fought duels with young aristocrats. She became involved with an assistant fencing master named Serannes. In about 1688, when lieutenant-general of the police Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie tried to apprehend Serannes for killing a man in an illegal duel, the pair fled the city to Marseille.

Eventually she grew bored of Serannes and became involved with a young lady. When the girl's parents put her away in a convent in Avignon, d'Aubigny followed, taking on holy vows in order to entering the convent as a novice and seduce the young girl. There she stole a body of a dead nun, placed it in the bed of her lover and set the room afire to cover their escape. Their affair lasted for three months before the young lady returned to her family. D'Aubigny was charged in absentia-as a male-with kidnapping, body snatching, arson and failing to appear before the tribunal. The sentence was death by fire.

D'Aubigny left for Paris and again earned her living by singing. Near Poitiers she met an old musician named Marechal, who began to teach her until his alcoholism got worse and he sent her on her way to Paris. Along the way, she continued to earn her living singing dressed as a man.

In Villeperdue she fought a victorious duel against three squires and drove her blade through the shoulder of one of them. The next day she asked about his health and found out he was Louis-Joseph d'Albert Luynes, son of the Duke of Luynes. The next evening one of his companions came to offer his apologies and she appeared in his room in female clothing. They became lovers. After the Count d'Albert recovered and had to return to his unit, d'Aubigny continued to Rouen. There she met Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard, another singer and began a new affair with him. They continued together towards Paris. In Marais she contacted Count d'Armagnac for help against the sentence hanging over her and he convinced the king to nullify it.

In Paris she began to use the name of Mademoiselle Maupin. The Paris Opéra hired Thévenard in 1690, but initially refused her. She befriended an old singer Bouvard who convinced Jean Nicolas Francin, master of the king's household, to accept her in the opera. She debuted at the Paris Opéra as Pallas Athena in Cadmus et Hermione by Lully the same year.

Due to both her beautiful contralto voice and her flamboyance, she became quite popular with the audience. Her relationship with her fellow actors and actresses was tempestuous. From the first she was enamoured with Marie Le Rochois, at the time the Opera's star. This quickly embroiled her in arguments and even duels with other members of the troupe. One fellow male singer made the mistake of publicly criticizing her abilities. In response, d'Aubigny waylaid the singer in the street and thrashed him. She also fell in love with another female singer, Fanchon Moreau, who was the mistress of the Great Dauphin, and tried to commit suicide when Moreau rejected her.

On the side, she became a professional duelist. At a ball at the court of Louis XIV' s brother, dressed once again in a man's clothing, she was challenged by three different noblemen to a duel for having the impertinence to have insulted a countess. She dispensed with all three challengers and walked back into the ballroom where she obtained an immediate pardon from the king... although an alternative version of this event suggests that as a result of this particular duel, d'Aubigny fell afoul of the king's law that forbade such duels in Paris and she was forced to flee to Brussels to await calmer times and a royal pardon.

D'Aubigny was rumored to have briefly been the mistress of Maximilian Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria. Shortly thereafter she reconciled with her husband and lived with him until his death. D'Aubigny retired from the opera in 1705 and entered a convent in Provence, where she died in 1707 at the age of 37.

Théophile Gautier, when asked to write a story about d'Aubigny, instead produced the novel Mademoiselle de Maupin, published in 1835, taking aspects of the real La Maupin as a starting point, and naming some of the characters after her and her acquaintances. The central character's life was viewed through a Romantic lens as "all for love". D'Albert and his mistress Rosette are both in love with the androgynous Théodore de Sérannes, whom neither of them knows is really Madeleine de Maupin. A performance of Shakespeare's As You Like It, in which La Maupin, who is passing as Théodore, plays the part of Rosalind playing Ganymede, mirrors the cross-dressing masquerade of the heroine. The celebration of a purely sensual, yet unconsummated love was found deeply troubling to the 19th-century critics and press.*

-excerpted from Wikipedia and _The Story of Opera_ by Richard Somerset-Ward


----------



## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Andrew Richards. I love his blog and I find him refreshingly down to earth.

At the very bottom of my dinner date list are René Pape (rude) and Angela Gheorghiu (self-regarding).


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

From the past, Giorgio Ronconi, to hear his thoughts on what it was like to sing at the première of _Nabucco_ & what the life of an opera singer was like in those days.

From the present it has to be Simon Keenlyside to discuss the birds & the bees.


----------



## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Maria Callas... mmmmmmmmm...

For a much less perverted evening; I'd choose Donald McIntyre, he seems like such a nice guy.


----------



## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

Chi_townPhilly said:


> Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient.:devil:


:lol: :lol: :lol:


----------



## rsmithor (Jun 30, 2011)

*A Lulu of a dinner choice...*

*Teresa Stratas...*









Years ago I tore out this article, along with various reviews over the years of Met Opera's Lulu (NYPost, NYTimes, etc). I saw Stratas twice as Lulu... and of course, other roles at the Met. I kept ticket stubs and the Met Opera Playbills... all placed lovingly inside DG's Lulu LP libretto.

PEOPLE magazine... 
January 21, 1980
Vol. 13
No. 3

Teresa Stratas Is a Lulu, a Soprano Siren Who Wowed the Met and Mehta (Among Many Men)

By Joseph Roddy

At 5' and 104 pounds, she doesn't seem to be of diva dimensions, but the blunt-speaking Teresa Stratas wasn't called "the Baby Callas" for nothing. "Most opera singers are fat because they have to put a lot into their mouths to make up for all that comes out of them-they are very oral," theorizes Teresa. "But I'm not-I'm very sexual." Yet one wonders when the petite Greek-Canadian would have time for lust in her life. At 40, Stratas has emerged as one of the most versatile and sought-after sopranos in the business. Even with tickets scaled up to $55, there are rarely empty seats at the Met these nights-but when Teresa sings there are none.

Her roles of late included both Marenka, the virginal catch in Smetana's The Bartered Bride, and Jenny, the hard-hearted harlot in the Brecht/Weill opera Mahagonny. On TV, Stratas keeps turning up as the court temptress in Strauss' Salomé and as the pious mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors. In last year's Paris premiere of Alban Berg's horror opera Lulu, she appeared in the title role of the rich, sadistic mistress who winds up a low ****, stabbed to death by Jack the Ripper. On that occasion, a flu-ridden Stratas sang full of antibiotics and anxieties. "The director insisted that I be Lulu, and not act her," she recalls. "He knew there is a lot of her life in mine. That filled the performance with borderline schizophrenia."

She was born Anastasia Strataki on a dining room table in a Toronto tenement. "My mother tried to get rid of me," she has said, referring to the family's poverty. Teresa did the first singing she can remember at 5 for an audience of three sewer rats in the basement of the diner run by her immigrant parents. Pistol Packin' Mama was her aria until her mother broke up the show and whipped her. As a teenage torch singer in Toronto clubs, Teresa learned to hold the center of attention in rooms filled with drunks, a skill which still works for her, she notes, in opera houses. At 20, after studying three years at the Toronto Conservatory, Stratas sang Smoke Gets in Your Eyes on Arthur Godfrey's talent show, and a listener phoned to tell her she should try the Met. She did later that year.

At her audition Met manager Rudolf Bing asked her to do some Mozart, and she told him she didn't know any. That seemed odd, and Bing asked if she could sing Isolde. Nope. "Ask her to sing Tristan. She won't know the difference," she heard one of Bing's aides suggest. "At the time, of course, I didn't," she laughs. But she was an unusually fast study. The Met rushed her onstage one night to replace an ailing soprano as Liù in Turandot with Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli. "I was too dumb to be terrified," she said. The reviews were too good to believe.

In the mid-'60s she teamed up with conductor Zubin Mehta, after he left his first wife. The affair was stormy, and in time Stratas said he asked her to give up singing. "I just couldn't see myself going through life as Mrs. Conductor," she says. They split around 1967 and a couple of years later he married TV actress Nancy Kovack.

British poet Tony Harrison is Teresa's current amour, and his framed manuscripts now outnumber Mehta's gift icons in her Upper West Side study. Even before she fought off a mugger on a New York street, she was a recluse. "I make my own dresses; I never go to the hairdresser; I never go to parties," she sums up. "With my background I find it very hard to justify the privileged life I have. It takes all my energy to do this very elitist thing. So why don't I channel these energies and be something like Mother Teresa?" she asks rhetorically. Versatile as Stratas is, that would seem an impossible role. But Stratas can't drop the thought. "Mother Teresa's really doing something that matters with her life," she says. "I'm just trying to justify mine."

....

That is why Teresa Stratas is my choice for a 7 course meal at NYC's "THE FOUR SEASONS RESTAURANT"


----------



## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Itullian said:


> Callas of course


Did yuu feel obliged to say that?


----------



## Desiree (Feb 11, 2012)

Ghena Dimitrova, who is now one of the principals in the Royal Opera House of the great beyond

To find out if she really was aloof or just shy. I'd have a lot of questions. I would ask whatever possessed her to make her debut of Abigaille in Nabucco at 26 years old! I'd also ask why she never studied Wagner, when she could have been another Brunhilde or Isolde for the record books. Oh and we'd be hanging out on the top bleachers of an empty Arena di Verona just munching on a box of fresh cherries and throwing the pits at random people on Plaza Bra, then evade the Polizia or actually get caught and sent to jail. Then she can sing "In questa reggia" and we'd be set free without charge out of fear by the police that all other people in jail might become deaf.

A relatively benign dinner.


----------



## AndyS (Dec 2, 2011)

Nilsson - reckon she would be hilarious!


----------



## Desiree (Feb 11, 2012)

AndyS said:


> Nilsson - reckon she would be hilarious!


She might make Swedish meatballs for you too. But you better be punctual or she'll be upset.


----------



## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

*Danielle de Neise
*
Danni has that mischevious sparkle in her eyes, interviews I have seen she seems very charming with fun personality

(yankee diva Joyce di Donato is next on dinner list)


----------



## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

I'll go with Mario Lanza. Early in his disintegration, but far enough along to be detectable. Curiosity trumps pleasure there.


----------



## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

For a singer from the past, I'd like Anna Milder Hauptmann as a dinner companion. She was Beethoven's Leonore in all three versions of his opera, and I'd like to find out what it was like to work with him.

For a singer from the present, it has to be Jonas Kaufmann.


----------



## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

I certainly would not invite Maria Callas to dinner. With her working career record she would probably a) cancel at the last minute or b) have a row with the management.
But the great coloratura soprano Luisa Tetrazzini (1871-1940) would be a different prospect altogether. Chubby and jolly she loved her food and champagne and was a good cook herself. She was very charming and vivacious and much loved by her contemporaries and lit up every gathering she attended. She would also probably burst into song which would be great fun especially for the other diners. She, like Melba and Pavlova, had a dish named after her---Chicken Tetrazzini.


----------



## CameraEye (Nov 18, 2011)

Giuseppina Strepponi, a soprano and G.Verdi´s second wife. It would be a wonderful chance to know at first hand about the life and work of someone I admire.


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Of the guys, it would be *Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau *or *Placido Domingo*, esp. in terms of them doing a good deal of contemporary song repertoire & also doing work in conducting. I'm not much interested in opera, but they've gone beyond opera.

Of the ladies, would probably be* Kiri Te Kanawa*, as I've enjoyed her recordings & she's also done art-songs of many kinds, and also crossover things...


----------



## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf When she was in her prime...Of course I would probably be thrown out of the Restaurant and arrested to boot!


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I agree about Fischer-Dieskau . He's not only a great singer ,but a very bright an dinteresting guy .


----------



## CountessAdele (Aug 25, 2011)

Out of the men I'd pick Pavarotti, the man knew good food so he would pick the best restaurant, and from all I've read he would be absoultely charming.

Out of the women I'd pick Diana Damrau in a heart beat, because she's so bright and positive, not to mention she's my girl-crush :lol:. Also as an aspiring singer I would have endless questions for both of them!


----------



## Desiree (Feb 11, 2012)

CountessAdele said:


> Out of the men I'd pick Pavarotti... absoultely charming.


Careful, Countess! You know how he is with beautiful women! 

I think Diana Damrau, too, will be fun.


----------



## Yashin (Jul 22, 2011)

Giacomo Aragall my favourite tenor of all time


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Alessandro Corbelli. I think he'd be a good dinner companion.


----------



## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

I would second the Corbelli, for the men, and third or fourth the Damrau (evidently I'll be standing in line for THAT date). She just looks so STRAIGHTFORWARD, and you know she's got a heck of a sense of humor. Not to mention that little thing she does with her hips ... :lol:


----------



## Bix (Aug 12, 2010)

Cecilia Bartoli, Joyce DiDonato, Diana Damrau


----------



## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> The erotic adventures contained in the second volume, however seem to descend into complete sexual fantasy. These include the authoress indulging in lesbian sadomasochism, group sex, sodomy, bestiality, scatology, necrophilia, prostitution and vampirism: all before she had reached the age of 27.


:lol: *and* vampirism! and she somehow found the time to sing. This is one of the funniest loops of fantasy I've ever read about a real life character (likely only bettered by the stories about Mademoiselle de Maupin (hilarious book) and Rasputin). If I could go back in time I wouldn't mind watching her perform in Bellini's I Capuleti to see just how good her Romeo was.

dinner with... not sure, I don't read enough about singers' private lives to form an opinion about them as people. I'd go with whoever is reputed to be witty and an adventurous eater.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

From the past I'd choose Birgit Nilsson and for the present Renee Fleming.


----------



## Bas (Jul 24, 2012)

Magdalena Kozena or Emma Kirkby.


----------



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

None if obvious glances at the wristwatch or potential flunky-embarrassing starry hissy-fits were likely to happen. Otherwise Lucia Popp as she seemed great fun and Natalie Dessay as she has great legs.


----------



## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

I've seen a programme on Waltraud Meier and I think she would be an interesting dinner companion. And she certainly likes food so you could let her choose the restaurant.


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Guythegreg wrote:

*I would second the Corbelli*

I'm glad to see that people here know who Alessandro Corbelli is! I've always gotten the sense he's not that well-known in the US due to the relative infrequency of his Met appearances. I've loved his voice and artistry since 1998 when I saw the video of the Houston Grand Opera LA CENERENTOLA production with him as Dandini. He is without a doubt my favorite "buffo" singer.


----------



## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Bellinilover said:


> I'm glad to see that people here know who Alessandro Corbelli is! I've always gotten the sense he's not that well-known in the US due to the relative infrequency of his Met appearances. I've loved his voice and artistry since 1998 when I saw the video of the Houston Grand Opera LA CENERENTOLA production with him as Dandini. *He is without a doubt my favorite "buffo" singer*.


Me too. He is brilliant. Have you ever seen his Leporello (when he was much younger)? And Don Pasquale, Gianni Schicchi and roles in short comic Rossini operas.


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

mamascarlatti said:


> Me too. He is brilliant. Have you ever seen his Leporello (when he was much younger)? And Don Pasquale, Gianni Schicchi and roles in short comic Rossini operas.


I remember his Met Gianni Schicchi when it was broadcast and then telecast in (I think) 2007. I've seen clips of the _Don Pasquale_. He seems perfect in that role (though I don't know the opera at all). I've never seen his Leporello.

I do have a number of his CDs, including the three Rossini comedies he made for Teldec -- IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, LA CENERENTOLA, and L'ITALIANA IN ALGERI. (By the way, he's Don Magnifico on the Teldec CENERENTOLA but Dandini on the Houston Grand Opera video.) I'm going to get his COSI FAN TUTTE soon, because I need a recording of that opera. He sings Guglielmo on that one.

I was able to see him "live" as Don Magnifico in 2009 when the HD transmission took place. That was a wonderful experience. He's got a great voice (critics often seem to overlook that fact, but it's true) and brilliant verbal facility and acting ability. He's the very definition of a complete artist.


----------



## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

Mmm, good thread question!

For a genuinely serious conversation, I suppose Placido Domingo, with his wide experience, brains, and well-known decent humanity. Second for conversation might be Bryn Terfel.

I've had longterm crushes on Kiri Te Kanawa and Renee Fleming, however. That may trump the brainy end of the meetup.

By the way, if you ever DO meet someone famous in music and have an opportunity for a genuine sit-down chat, my advice would be to soft-pedal the music-related questions "What was your most embarrassing moment on stage?" etc and focus on general topics. In other words, give the singer a break from being constantly "interviewed". This is of course unless you're actually doing an interview.

This comes from my having met and spent time with a couple of fairly famous people: Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Jack Elam, Robert Parker (creator of the PI "Spenser"), SF writer Roger Zelazny, movie special effects genius Roy Arbogast, AJ Foyt, and William F Buckley. Great times were enjoyed so long as you stayed away from their specialty and just talked about other things.


----------



## musicphotogAnimal (Jul 24, 2012)

Actually met Kiri Te Kanawa in Vancouver at one point (for those of you Vancouverites...remember when the Magic Flute record store was still open...the OLD one...that is...). She made everyone she met feel at home in her presence. Not a DIVA (in the modern sense of the word) at all. An absolutely classy but very down to earth person.









The autograph that Dame Kiri signed on my copy of "The Essential Kiri" CD.

In comparison her signature on what appears to be a post-it note at an auction house. ~laughable really~ but they're wanting a pretty penny for it. http://www.autographauctions.co.uk/bidcat/SearchResults.asp?keywords=autograph&status=A&offset=1140



> 635 OPERA: Two autograph albums containing over 130 signatures by various opera singers including Thomas Allen, Jessye Norman, Janet Baker, Alfreda Hodgson, John Tomlinson, Peter Glossop, Lilian Sukis, Kiri te Kanawa, Hermann Prey, Richard Van Allan, Alfredo Kraus, Jack Brymer, Felicity Lott, Jill Gomez, Geriant Evans, Eva Randova, Joan Sutherland, Elisabeth Soderstrom, Ryland Davies, Edita Gruberova, Dennis O'Neill, Rosalind Plowright, Gwyneth Jones, Thomas Allen, Sherrill Milnes, Michael Langdon, Jose Carreras, Giacomo Aragall, Agnes Baltsa etc. A little duplication. Most of the pages are neatly annotated in ink at the base by a collector, identifying the signatures and the date and place where they were obtained. VG, 2
> 
> Autograph Auction
> 16 July 2011
> ...


No bloody way I'm letting this CD out of my hands.

I would actually like to spend some time with Natalie Dessay. A very funny and warm person from the videos that I've seen. And her Morgana (Alcina) was absolutely hilarious.


----------



## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Bellinilover said:


> Guythegreg wrote:
> 
> *I would second the Corbelli*
> 
> I'm glad to see that people here know who Alessandro Corbelli is! I've always gotten the sense he's not that well-known in the US due to the relative infrequency of his Met appearances. I've loved his voice and artistry since 1998 when I saw the video of the Houston Grand Opera LA CENERENTOLA production with him as Dandini. He is without a doubt my favorite "buffo" singer.


Oh, God - and WHAT a sense of humor! I'll never forget his Gianni Schicchi - dancing around on the bed, waving his arm like a madman - just hilarious.


----------



## jhar26 (Jul 6, 2008)

Renée Fleming, Kiri Te Kanawa, Mirella Freni or Anna Netrebko. Or all of them.  I would be much too strarstruck to get a bit through my throat though. I would just spend the evening staring at them with my mouth wide open and making a fool of myself whenever I attempted to say something. If I didn't faint before it was time to go home I would consider the evening a success on my part. :lol:

Of the men I'd say Rolando Villazon. He seems like an uncomplicated fun loving character who can make anyone feel at ease.


----------



## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

jhar26 said:


> Renée Fleming, Kiri Te Kanawa, Mirella Freni or Anna Netrebko. Or all of them.  .


Goodness, you wouldn't have to worry about not fainting. That amount of divadom in one place would make the room explode.


----------



## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

musicphotogAnimal said:


> Actually met Kiri Te Kanawa in Vancouver at one point (for those of you Vancouverites...remember when the Magic Flute record store was still open...the OLD one...that is...). She made everyone she met feel at home in her presence. Not a DIVA (in the modern sense of the word) at all. An absolutely classy but very down to earth person.


That's what I've heard about her, a genuinely nice person. Another was Beverly Sills, so sad she's gone.


----------



## Operafocus (Jul 17, 2011)

From the past: Mario Lanza (just because), Jerome Hines (I can imagine he'd have a million stories to tell, from talking about singing technique with all his fellow singers - ref. his book "Great singers on great singing") or Mario del Monaco (to ask how it feels to know that your voice has the ability to make skin peel off people's faces if he sings too close - etc).

Current: Ferruccio Furlanetto (because he's interesting and engaging) or Samuel Ramey (because judging by his Facebook feed, he's hilariously upfront and makes no excuses for it).


----------



## Zabirilog (Mar 10, 2013)

Maybe the Kupfer Ring cast like Tomlinson, Jerusalem, Evans and W. Meier. I'd really love to talk about it with them.
And for present Kaufmann and Netrebko


----------



## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Operafocus said:


> Samuel Ramey (because judging by his Facebook feed, he's hilariously upfront and makes no excuses for it).


he's on facepalm?! it's kinda funny realising somebody who appeared on stage before I was born is on it and I'm not :lol:


----------



## Operafocus (Jul 17, 2011)

deggial said:


> he's on facepalm?! it's kinda funny realising somebody who appeared on stage before I was born is on it and I'm not :lol:


He is indeed! https://www.facebook.com/samlindseyguy


----------



## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

Operafocus said:


> Current: Samuel Ramey (because judging by his Facebook feed, he's hilariously upfront and makes no excuses for it).


Never met him but a mezzo whom I dated once had her butt pinched by him. She was awfully cute so I really don't form a judgment either way on that, except of course for a breach of general good manners.


----------



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Thought i'd bump this and see what more folks say


----------



## TrevBus (Jun 6, 2013)

Grosse Fugue said:


> Grammy award winner-Joyce Didonato


I will see if I can set it up for you.:tiphat:


----------



## TrevBus (Jun 6, 2013)

First and foremost; Nicolai Ghiaurov. For me the finest Bass ever. Mirella Ferni, would have to come as well. Then, Elena Suliotis, Grace Bumbry,Marilyn Horne and Elina Garanca. That would be a wonderful evening or two.


----------

