Are there any opera lovers out here?

Question

I'm curious to see if there are any opera lovers out here in Y!A land? I've been classically trained since the age of 12 as an operatic soprano, now I'm 20 & I absolutely adore opera. 5 points if you can give me your favorite opera & 5 extra if you are an opera singer! It's difficult to find young opera lovers nowadays, am I right?

Answer 1

Me!! Lol. I only started loving opera like 1+ years ago, when a beautiful soprano walked into my accompaniment class, opened her mouth and proceeded to make an equally beautiful, gorgeous, full and velvety sound, with my classmates and I on the piano. She literally blew my hair backwards with the sheer amount of sound she managed to generate in that relatively small and echoey room. That soprano is now my vocal teacher, and I'm taking classical lessons - aiming to be an opera singer in the future (so I guess you can say 'opera singer in making'). Previously I was just ok with opera, and preferred to listen to crossover singers like Charlotte Church and Hayley Westenra. Now I wonder how on earth I managed to like that stuff so much last time, after hearing real, professional opera singers - and after learning arias, lieder, Russian romances, etc.



Then I discovered Kiri Te Kanawa, and fell even more in love with the genre. My all-time favourite opera is Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. I know it's so well-known, but I can't help loving it. I love the comedy, the sorrows, joys and whatever else have you in that single opera alone. I love the costumes too! Hahaha. (I'm nuts about vintage stuff, and just watching the singers on stage wear those big, ornate skirts and dresses made me want to try the clothes on someday...another reason why I hope to be an opera singer next time.)

Answer 2

I don't think i qualify as an opera lover .... I've been hearing and seeing it most of my life (in fact I heard Faust so many times as a kid that I knew the libretto in French the first time I saw it as an adult) my older brother and I would execute play prisoners singing the act 3 of Tosca ... I am so much not an opera lover that I am excited to see operas I've never heard of (unfortunately too often it was ZZZZZZZ a Philip Glass opera) but there have great surprises such as Glinka's Russlan & Ludmylla and Shostakovitch's Lady Macbeth of Mtensk currently my favorite opera is Rossini's Il Vaggio a Rheims full of his characteristic ensembles and a plot like a Feydeau bedroom farce ....

as to young people into opera the local small college does an opera every year and I have just read that the Zurich Opera's audience 25% is under 30 and 50% of their new audience is under 25% (they have waging a campaign to expose opera (not the singers silly)

Answer 3

I think there are a LOT of opera lovers here. :-)



My favorite at the moment (could change): Der Rosenkavalier



And I, too, an an opera singer. Dramatic soprano. But I got a much later start than you: I had my first (*EVER*) voice lesson when I was 42 yrs old, and made my professional debut (Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica) a year later. Other roles I've sung professionally: Mercedes in Carmen; Annina in La Traviata; Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro, Azucena in Il Trovatore; The Old Woman in Candide, Przkovia in Merry Widow; and Third Lady in The Magic Flute. I also sang The Witch in Hansel and Gretel at my university after I retired and went back to college to finish my music degree. (I'm what's known as a "non-traditional student" -- a polite way of saying "older than dirt." :-) ) The point is: you're never too old to start singing. I won't ever have a career in opera, but I've sure had a lot of fun!



Finding other "young" opera lovers kind of depends where you are. There are a LOT of younger opera lovers in the San Francisco Bay area (that's where I did most of my work). A lot of opera companies are now making reduced-price tickets available to students, too, so that's helping to gain some new younger fans.

Answer 4

A lot of the top contributors in Classical are big opera fans. Especially Alberich. Just mention Wagner and you'll make his day! Hahaha! Myself, I studied opera in college, (I'm 23 now) but despite that, I've always been more of an orchestra fan. I don't know why. I guess I simply prefer just having music for music's sake.



That being said, I still have a profund and deep respect for opera. And I'm particularlly a fan of Mozart, mainly because I have a voice that seems to have been designed to sing Mozart opera. And although I'm hesitant to say so because it is so well known, I'd hesitantly say that Le Nozze di Figaro is my favorite opera. I just love those finales, the wonderful playfulness, Sull' aria, the count begging Contessa to forgive him, etc.... There's just so much to love.



And to the first answerer:

The key of D# major doesn't exist, but if it did, it would have 9 sharps. Ummm, good luck with that.

Answer 5

You have received lots of company in the Opera lover realm! I, too, love Opera. My favorite is Verdi's "La Traviata". I attended a wonderful performance by the Metropolitan Opera in Atlanta, GA in 1975 (when the Met was on tour).

I do sing Classical compositions in the church arena---e.g. "Requiem" by Gabriel Faure. I sang this for 12 consecutive yrs in KC, MO---every Nov. 2 on the Feast of All Souls.

I am young at heart, and very glad to hear that there are young people such as yourself who are studying Opera.

All the best to you!

Answer 6

Not an opera singer, but an opera lover. Favourite operas? Any of the Mozart 'big 5', Traviata, Tosca, Boheme. Peter Grimes. Problem with your generous marking idea is that you can only give 10 points to one person, you can't spread them around

Answer 7

I enjoy opera, but I'm picky about which operas I like. My favorite is probably Purcell's Dido and Aeneas or Monteverdi's Orfeo.



And I'm not an opera singer, but I'm classically trained.



Ryan: I'm pretty sure the guy was just trying to be a smarta**, but there is a D# Minor key.

Answer 8

I'm an opera singer and opera lover, but I am not so young any more!



I always say my favorite opera is which ever one I am working on right now, but I have always especially loved Verdi's Rigoletto.

Answer 9

Several years ago I go to be in a opera production of Die Kluge="King and the Wise Woman". I was the first vagabond. It is a setting of a Grimm's Fairytale to music by Carl Orff. It has a drunk scene in it that I will never forget. I am not all that young but I found you question interesting

Answer 10

My favorite operas are Don Giovanni and Carmen. And yes, I am a singer: baritone.



Addition:



Yes, the key of D# exists, but you'd have to use double sharps in the key signature. There are some contemporary pieces that do that.

Answer 11

Of course I love the opera very much , among all the different periods.

I love the operas by Mozart , Bizet , Rossini , Verdi , Puccini , & Wagner.

My favorite may be Verdi's "La Traviata".

Sorry , I'm not a singer !! I'm a pianist.

Answer 12

There are many opera lovers onY!A and some are singers, too (though I'm not).



My favorite opera? Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi... Though Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor is right on its heel! :)

Answer 13

My favorite opera is Choruses by Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amaneus Mozart, And Otto Nicolai. I love to do opera.

Answer 14

I don't really love opera but I am performing in the orchestra of one next month which will be really cool.

Answer 15

Verdi's Rigoletto. I saw Pavarotti in it once. Just fabulous.



I miss being able to go to the opera since I moved to a small town in the middle of nowhere. (I used to have seasons tickets)



Sorry don't sing.

Answer 16

My favourite opera is Handel's Acis and Galatea and I'm an opera singer :)

Answer 17

Depends what you mean by "young."

Compared to an eighty year old I'm young.

Favorite opera - first choice Mozart "Don Giovanni"

Close second Puccini "Tosca."



Opera singer ...me? I wish!

Answer 18

nope

Answer 19

Here is my answer in the key of D#. NOOOOOOOOO