# Opera Speeches on Youtube



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I have done about 13 opera appreciation speeches on Youtube but don't know if I am allowed to post them to this site. I spoke to 2 Toastmaster clubs to people ignorant about opera and persuaded 7 people to attend their first opera.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Sounds fine to me. As long as you post them in one thread and they don't link to anything commercial.:tiphat:

You might be preaching to the converted here though!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

http://www.youtube.com/user/nwdixieboy/videos
Here is the link. I make no money off of showing these. Some younger opera fans might find out about some great singers from the Golden Age of Opera.


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## RobertoDevereux (Feb 12, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I spoke to 2 Toastmaster clubs to people ignorant about opera and persuaded 7 people to attend their first opera.


Yeah!!! Well done! I can totally relate to that - I've introduced more than 10 people to opera in the past couple of years, and they've all come to see various operas with me at the Royal Opera House in London. Spread the word! :tiphat:

RD


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

RobertoDevereux said:


> Yeah!!! Well done! I can totally relate to that - I've introduced more than 10 people to opera in the past couple of years, and they've all come to see various operas with me at the Royal Opera House in London. Spread the word! :tiphat:
> 
> RD


I'm jealous... London! Is London following the Continent's lead in doing gimmicky, post modern topless productions of operas or do they show more respect for the traditional stagings of operas?


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I'm jealous... London! Is London following the Continent's lead in doing gimmicky, post modern topless productions of operas or do they show more respect for the traditional stagings of operas?


London was doing Regie in the 80s, when I used to go regularly. Dave Alden's Mazeppa (eewww) and Jonathan Miller's 50s little Italy Rigoletto (brilliant, compelling, wonderful). So that's 30 years ago, old enough for those productions to now be called traditional.


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## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

Congrats and thanks.


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## RobertoDevereux (Feb 12, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I'm jealous... London! Is London following the Continent's lead in doing gimmicky, post modern topless productions of operas or do they show more respect for the traditional stagings of operas?


It happens every once in a while, but all in all, I'd say that over the past decade, the Royal Opera has been pushing boundaries carefully and with a lot of taste. I think it still remains a superb opera house, where you could be watching a modern production and still feel you are part of centuries-long tradition. God knows how they do it!..

The one that's a real "hit and miss" is the English National Opera just a couple of blocks West of the Royal Opera House. That sometimes puts on some really weird stuff. In fact it was at the ENO that I for the first time saw Parental Advisory "18+" for an opera!!! Gory stuff with stage blood gushing down the stage (Raskatov's "A Dog's Heart). Or Britten's "Midsummer Night's Dream" set in an abandoned orphanage with students passing a joint to each other in place of Shakespeare's magic potion. Add to that the fact that they sing everything in English and.... I stopped going there years ago! 

RD


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## anmhe (Feb 10, 2015)

Scratching my head about what the production was trying to say, but the music is as beautiful as it should be. I'd be a little more confused, but the staging Wagner specified also makes little sense.


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