What was your first opera?

[Dikki]

how old were you and who took you? this was something I've wondered about.Many of us were intro'd to this music somehow I would love to hear our beginnings. Mine was Rigoletto and I was 11.My parents took me.

So you mean the first opera that I actually went to? I think that would be Aida, with my mother. Though I suppose in a way I was taking her to the opera, she had never seen it before. I think I was 21 at the time. My parents didn't listen to it at all, and so it was new to me also.

 

[Lake]

Opera does a kid some good! Just had to add this

 

[DarioDrenton]

Mozarts, Don Giovanni.

 

[Lake]

a fav of mine ^
Hail Mozart!

 

[Rebekka]

I started to listen to opera (solely Mozart, the first years) at age 15 I think. I went to my first opera at age 21. Nobody took me, I took a friend to Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Since then I have season tickets, and while I have seen many non-Mozart operas now, Mozart is still my favourite opera composer (or favourite composer in general). My favourite opera is Le nozze di Figaro. The last time I saw that was a week and a half ago, and I enjoyed it very very much.

 

[Snoofles]

haven't been to one yet....i'm considering going to one next year while i'm in italy, if i have the time.

 

[Ceridwen]

I saw "Marriage of Figaro" at the Lincoln Center.

 

[Lacko]

im not sure how old i was...between 12 and 14 and I believe it was Poulenc's Dialogues of Carmelites I really love the opera...haven't been in what seems forever but it has only been half a year...

 

[Lacko]

ohh, i forgot, and i went with my parents and a close family friend...but then after that i started to go heavily to ALL the opera's that were being performed between the ages of 16 and 18 with my friends from school and the teacher because she got us a discount! Since then ive been going less frequently but i still tend to go to at least a couple each year.

 

[want2change]

I always listened to opera and sometimes saw it on tv, or my parents bought videos of some shows. the first one I actually sat in a theater and saw, however, was 'the marriage of figaro' with my mom. I think I was 16, but I'm not sure since it was around my birthday.

saturday the 6th I'm seeing 'i puritani' with my dad. although we'll be seeing a presentation from the met in new york, it'll be a recording and we'll be sitting in a movie theater. I think that's a great idea and an awesome way to let people who don't usually get to see these (expensive) things experience them.

my favorite opera is gounod's 'faust' and I've been saving up to buy tickets. sadly, I don't think it's gonna work out.

 

[janny108]

I've never been to any operas. I got started listening to mostly Italian and German operas since I lived in Europe for a spell. Then I got Aida for my own, it was Met Opera. I really liked it , then I started exploring other opera themes. Then on TV there was a series of Mozart operas performed by an opera house in Denmark.

My latest exposure is Russian operas, I think their music as opposed to German or Italian is sort of mysterious and beautiful. The first one I've seen is Eugene Onegin.
Jan

 

[janny108]

Oh BTW Eugene Onegin is also a movie with Ralph Fiennes. I heard via Netflix they have Tosca as a movie too. I've seen that one too.
Jan

 

[shoshanarose]

Madame Butterfly by Puccini
Leontene Price, soprano...awesome.

 

[willard3]

Haven't been to any yet, but plan to sometime.

I don't count Phantom of the Opera as a true one, tho I haven't even seen that.

I want to see Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (and also Gluck's).

 

[Rebekka]

Haven't been to any yet, but plan to sometime.

I don't count Phantom of the Opera as a true one, tho I haven't even seen that.

I want to see Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (and also Gluck's).

Monteverdi's Orfeo is my husband's absolute favourite piece of music. I would love to see it with him. I like Gluck's too.

 

[UberLutheran]

Aïda, by Giuseppe Verdi. was seven when I heard it: my dad was a soldier and singing in the chorus.

The most magnificent production of an opera I ever saw was Indiana University's production of Mozart's Don Giovanni. The scene between the Commodore and Don Giovanni, where Don Giovanni is given one last chance to repent (and doesn't) and is then sent off to Hell was absolutely terrifying -- the statue of the Commodore was perhaps ten feet tall, actual flames were shooting up around Don Giovanni, devils appearing, sulfurous smoke -- just writing about this makes my hair stand on end!

I always loved the lavish staging of Indiana University operas.

My favorite opera of all time is still Busoni's Doktor Faust. Unlike the settings of Goethe's Faust legend, this one does not have a happy ending: ya play with the Devil, ya lose ya soul.

 

[janny108]

how old were you and who took you? this was something I've wondered about.Many of us were intro'd to this music somehow I would love to hear our beginnings. Mine was Rigoletto and I was 11.My parents took me.

Love your avatar! Where did you get it?
jan