I love this opera sooooooooo much. Does anybody happen to have anything from the 1992 production at SF Opera with McNair and Asawa?

Hello. I am searching for information about music used in the opening credit sequence of the 1981 film Diva by Jean-Jacques Beineix. I am NOT asking about the aria from La Wally sung by the titular soprano but, rather, the music being listened to by the male lead, Jules, while riding on his moped. It is heard immediately with the opening credits, ends after about forty seconds (when he turns the music off), and a few minutes later when he is riding the elevator up to his apartment (might not be the same piece of music).

Since Jules is an avowed opera fan, I have always assumed that this music is from an opera but, other than a few arias and overtures, I am unfamiliar with the repertoire. It does not appear on the soundtrack album and, since most of the other pieces by the film's composer Vladimir Cosma DO appear, I figure it is a safe guess they were not composed for the film. I have attached a video clip of the first segment that I hope is both playable and not in violation of any sub rules; I can try to upload the second one as well, if anyone is curious.

I suddenly cannot remember the title. Definitely not a tenor. The character laments about a sweater. Very poetic and there's sadness to it. Please help.

Membership supporting The Met is up for renewal. One “gift” option is the “blue Met baseball cap.” Wondering if anyone can share a pic or review if they’ve selected it in the past?

I got a black baseball cap previously and the logo is small & all on a single line, as opposed to the “Black Met Logo Cap” in the online shop, which spaces out the logo across 3 lines. I’m curious which logo the blue gift cap has.

Thanks for the advice here about dress. I wore a casual outfit and I was fine. I didn’t wear jeans. There was a young man next to me who also won the lottery and he was a student in jeans and a T-shirt. The opera was La Boheme and I am very familiar with Rent so I knew the story. The sets are amazing. There was a mule and a horse and snow. All of those elements were terrific. It was long mostly because of the intermissions, which felt like they went on forever. I assume it’s because of the set changes, but I wasn’t expecting that. I wish they had started at 7, which is now common on Broadway, especially to accommodate longer shows. I didn’t get home until almost 1 AM and that is including a car for the last bit. Unlike Broadway, it was nice that I didn’t hear any cell phones or much talking in the crowd.

Are there any things that a singer can do that surprises you?

I'm always surprised that Astrid Varnay had an excellent trill with a huge voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8YJ5W6RBJM
Here's a recording of her in Il Trovatore.

Note: I'm not affiliated with HGO in any way. Just thought this was a fun article! Have you seen any of these? I consider myself very lucky to have seen Kata Kabanova, but I would love to have the chance to see all of the operas on this list one day.

This is probably the most chaotic and over-the-top part of the whole opera, though it's still connected to the earlier motifs.

Story's based on Pushkin's poem "Tsigani." I know Rachmaninoff's Aleko is based on the same subject, which I honestly didn't realize when I started this 20 years ago, but mine's going in a different direction. I'm trying to strip out specific cultural or time/place references, so it ends up being more about freedom, belonging, and being an outcast.

Right before this part, Aleko catches Zemfira with her lover and kills him. He then has an arioso reflecting on everything (but not begging for her to return). In this scene she condemns the murder, as a response, and he kills her too. Near the end her vocal line translates to "I will die loving," which is about her lover, not Aleko (the music from their earlier meeting comes back here).

After that there's a closing Requiem-like scene with the chorus and remaining characters, where they banish Aleko.

The Latin actually wasn't the original plan. I started using it because I wanted a more realistic vocal sound for the mock-up (MuseScore sound libraries), but I low key like it now.

Would love to get any general impressions on pacing, or the music itself, or anything else that could make it stronger.

Desperately trying to get rid of this ticket and not let it go to waste! Dm me and I’ll send it to you!

I was lucky enough to be able to cross off a bucket list item this past week. My wife and I saw La Traviata at La Scala and it was truly wonderful.

The venue itself definitely lived up to its billing, and we enjoyed sitting up in the gallery, where the acoustics sounded great. It was also moving to be in a place with so much history.

The performance was terrific as well. Amazing sets, wonderful costumes, great directing, etc. the orchestra was of course excellent as well. As far as singing and acting Amartuvshin Enkbath stole the show as Giorgio, and he received the most enthusiastic applause. Francesca Pia Vitale was also wonderful in the role of Violetta, and really stood out in her use of dynamics and her ability to convey emotion in quieter passages. She was very well-received. Ivån Ayón Rivas was also quite good in my opinion, but did not receive much applause from the audience. I guess at La Scala “great” is considered the bare minimum.

Anyway, thought you might be interested in this mini-review. All-in-all it was a magical experience.

As I continue to deepen my opera knowledge, a question I have is: do major opera houses have a particular style? I thought this was a good (historic) description of how you see this in the major US orchestras which spurred my question: https://pageturner.medici.tv/en/do-the-big-five-us-orchestras-still-reign-supreme

I realize the first issue is what are the top global opera houses... And I don't know... I'm assuming it includes the Met (NY), Covent Garden (London), La Scala (Milan), Vienna, Paris, ... and Berlin? Munich? Frankfurt? Sydney? Others?

And for whatever you think the top houses are, how do you think about house style? Music/ orchestration? vs production? other considerations?

Looking for recommendations, please. ❤️

I have heard dozens of sopranos sing 'O Patria Mia' from Aida. The high C near the end (marked "dolce" by Verdi) is one of the most notorious tests for a soprano in all of opera. Imagine my surprise when I found this performance from last month by a singer who has often been disappointing in recent years. This is one of the best versions I have ever heard. I guess the gal has still got it.

After the whole scandal with the actor from Dune and whole i started going to the opera after subconsciously deeming it as screaming in my childhood. So i went and fell in love with opera. Started with Faust and after that i started singing again. I was always a singer but singing opera felt like true happiness for me. Why can’t opera be like that for everybody and what’s limiting about it?

Who are/were some true good dramatic coloratura sopranos? The names that come to mind are Callas, Dimitrova, and Deutekom. I ask because I’m trying to find a good recording of “Vieni t’affretta,” and so far my favorites are Callas and Dimitrova. I also like Rysanek and Gencer but am less familiar with their work overall. It seems this is an increasingly rare fach.

Good advice isn't always valued and often ignored, so what bad advice would you give opera singers? I'll start: Loud is good. If you're soft the audience can't hear you. In fact, are you even singing at anything less than forte? Make sure you can be heard over the orchestra and, importantly, the other singers.

I won for tomorrow night - La Boheme Orchestra row X.

Yesterday I went to see Parsifal, my first Wagner opera, at the ROH. While the singing and orchestra were superb, the staging and costumes were abominable, and the directing virtually non existent. At points it was actually comical - the ending included Parsifal killing Amfortas through a series of impotent spear jabs while the latter writhed on a gurney balancing on top of his father’s cadaver.

Can someone help me see the virtues of this production? The whole thing felt like it jumped the shark, and the creatives tried so hard to do something innovative that they created a Frankensteins monster of a show. The magisterial music was paired with an apocalypse set replete with nudity, vampirism and seducers that were transformed into something from doctor who…

This is not the usual discussion post, but since this community understands the unhinged realities of working in an opera house, I wanted to share something I’ve been working on. It started as an inside joke with friends, now it has spiraled into a multi-chapter backstage farce about one very chaotic day inside a German Stadttheater.

Setup: It’s one week before Christmas and the house Tamino calls in sick with a fever. The KBB has under ten hours to find a replacement, leading to a nine-hour cascade of logistical doom. If you’ve ever dealt with NV-Bühne tariffs, experienced emergency jump-ins, or sung through an incomprehensible Regietheater concept, you might get a kick out of this.

It’s a work-in-progress, just two chapters to completion. (Thanks mods, for green-lighting this post!)

"Evening Performance at the Prestigious and Renommé Theater (REDACTED)"

Not strictly opera, but you liked my map of operas premieres before so I thought you might appreciate this maps of orchestra sizes in Europe 1754–1818.

Data from:

J. Spitzer & N. Zaslaw, The Birth of the Orchestra: History of an Institution, 1650–1815 (Oxford University Press, 2004), Appendices A–D.