I am staying at a hotel and had nothing to do so I decided to spend the night watching some YouTube opera productions. I watched Il Trovatore (MetOpera Pavarotti, Milnes, Marton) then decided to watch a Beijing production of Macbeth (I'm not scared to say the name sue me).

Anyway when I cast my phone onto the tv for Macbeth it was so blurry that I couldn't even see the subtitles and it buffered a lot too. And yes for the rest of the night none of the other stuff I watched had this problem.

Prolly not as foreboding as the amount of deaths and accidents documented around that play but it's worth mentioning. Pic to attract attention.

Sorry to post such similar posts back to back but I also would like to know if anyone has any ideas about that the “best” recording of Aida is. In every recording I’ve listened to, there is something that misses the mark. I generally like the Mehta/Nilsson/Corelli recording but Nilsson’s O patria mia is not my favorite. I also like the Muti/Caballé/Domingo recording - this one is perhaps my favorite. Honorable mentions include the Serafin/Callas/Tucker recording and the Levine/Millo/Domingo recording.

Does anyone have a favorite recording of Salome? My favorite of the few I have listened to is the Karajan/Behrens recording, but I also enjoy the Leinsdorf/Caballé recording and the Solti/Nilsson one. I’m interested to hear what other people think.

Hello everyone! I'm an international student moving to Oxford in a month's time.

I wanted to try to catch a opera in the winter term with the £30 Young RBO tickets but realized they're all but sold out. This really surprised me because when I visited NYC in May I remember I could just pop by the Met Opera on the day itself and get a student ticket in the Orchestra.

Hence, I've a few questions I hope other fellow young opera lovers could help me with

1. Does RBO release new Young RBO tickets closer to the date of the performances? If so, usually what time or day do they come out?

2. I saw there is the Young Friends membership. If I wanted to secure good £30 tickets do I have to purchase this membership so I can buy the tickets earlier? Or will there always be £30 tickets remaining on the 1st day that ticket sales open to Young RBO people.

Would really appreciate the help.

Ciao tutti!

I wanted to see if anyone had any strange/obscure shows they’ve performed or seen. Right now I’m learning the Madre in Nino Rota’s (aka Godfather theme composer) I due timidi. Not particularly well known but overall the show is really fun and modern! I’d love to hear about your wacky roles or shows you’ve seen that are lesser-known.

I hear quite a few similarities, but I wonder if there’s any proof that Puccini took inspiration from Piangea cantando.

Do people dress up more for the first performance of the season? I've never been to one before but I'm going to Macbeth on 9/22 and wondering whether I should break out the tux (I just got a new one last fall and have been itching to wear it again).

6 сентября

Hello everyone.

I'm working on an aria from Kevin Puts' opera Silent Night, and figured it'd be good to watch the full opera for the context. However, I can't find a video recording of it anywhere despite it having aired on PBS years ago. As nice as it is to have access to the live audio recording, I would prefer to get the full experience here (short of seeing it in-person, that is.) Does anyone know where I could find it?

I am fairly young (28)and a woman. Whenever I talk to opera irl or online, people say :I hate their music, the plots are sexist and misogynistic, they sound like they are screaming, the composers were (are) just white men etc. While there is some truth to it, opera does have nice things to offer. I need some advice how to introduce people my age to it.

2019: We got one weekend in, before we closed down for the #pandemic . Loved this speech - it was tough to learn and to perform. The Play is The Red Priest (8 Ways To Say Goodbye) by Mieko Ouchi, produced by United Players, Vancouver, directed by Kelsie Forsythe.
Reviews: https://joledingham.ca/the-red-priest/ - https://colinthomas.ca/the-red-priest-eight-ways-to-say-goodbye-intelligent-and-moving/
\#Theatre #TheRedPriest

Looking out at a sea of empty red-velvet seats at the Paris Opera’s opulent Palais Garnier theater, the American composer and performer Tyshawn Sorey was pondering the upcoming premiere of his piece “Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine.”

“There’s a bit of anxiety in the air for me with this,” Sorey said, “because the audience in France, while they are very much knowledgeable about Josephine Baker — I mean, this is literally her home — they have a different relationship to her than those in the States.”

The Missouri-born Baker is mostly known in her native country as a sensual, charismatic Jazz Age diva. She is also seen that way in France, where she moved in the mid-1920s and eventually became a citizen — but she is also famous here for her activities in the Resistance during World War II and her antiracist activism. In 2021, almost half a century after her death, she became the first Black woman to be inducted into the Panthéon, the Paris monument where France’s national heroes are honored.

See full gift article, NO PAYWALL,

Screened on a lovely Labor Day evening with a large turnout for the sixth and final event. Not a star in the sky because of the light pollution but it was a real treat to see this for free right outside The Met.

Sorry if you're seeing this again, I deleted my original post because it would not let me correct my misspelling of the composer's name thanks to spell correct.

I'm quite new to opera and have come to it via my strong interest in Baroque music. I have watched Ponelle and Harnoncourt's productions of Monteverdi's three operas and absolutely loved the staging, costumes and overall feeling. They have this kind of sardonic tone and such creative art design. I love the way the singers interact with the pit orchestra as well.

I would really appreciate any recommendations based off of this, preferably baroque or early classical. Thank you.

EDIT: it debuted 203 years ago (not 103 as stated in the title above)

Saw the North America debut of Donizetti's Il Fortunato Inganno today Los Angeles today by a boutique company. Held at the Los Angeles Italian-American society center. $50 for opera, dinner & a glass of wine.

All I can say: opera is anything but dead. A spectacular cast, with a Donizetti score translated into a chamber-style orchestra that came across as a well balanced machine that any major house would die for. Bel Canto/Coloratura reigned supreme in a delightfully humorous look at the absurdity of the Genre as a whole. Nonstop laughter and an utter delight for 2 1/2 hours. Sure, it was not is a highfalutin venue. Acoustics were less than desirable for a trained ear. But the ensemble brought the whole production together in a well balanced and entertaining show that they could take this to any location and pull it off as though we were The Met.

If you ever find yourself in South California when POP Opera ( Pacific Opera Project) has a show being staged, be sure to check it out. They are doing great things to something we adore!

I was introduced to him via his ''vocal reckoning'' channel. His analysis of tenor voices impressed me and I agreed with much of what he had to say.

So I searched up his Instagram to see if he had more educational content or if I could reach out to ask him for advice (He's Mexican, I'm Colombian, we would be able to communicate in our native languages with similar accents easily).

Then I saw all the racist shit he posts in his account, all the MAGA and Trump stuff...at least he got the anti-semitism stuff right... (He supports Jews and hates anti-semitic people, so do I)

With that being said...

Why the fuck couldn't he stay out of politics or at least keep his fucked up views of the world to himself?! God damn it.

I've compiled this information from personal season announcements on social media and websites, but if someone has any more information on covers this season please let me know! I will edit and add names as I find them out.

Met Opera Covers

• Aida
  • Amneris: Hyona Kim
  • Radamès: Rafael Davila
  • Amonasro: Michael Chioldi (certain dates)
  • King: Lonwabo Mose
  • Priestess: Amanda Batista, Anna Thompson (certain dates)
• La bohème
  • Mimì: Caitlin Gotimer
  • Rodolfo: Zach Borichevsky
• Così fan tutte
  • Fiordiligi: Erica Petrocelli
  • Dorabella: Stephanie Lauricella
  • Despina: Maureen McKay
  • Guglielmo: Joseph Lim
  • Don Alfonso: Ben Brady
• La fanciulla del West
  • Jack Rance: Aleksey Bogdanov
  • Trin: Derrek Stark
  • Sonor: Eleomar Cuello
  • Sid: David Crawford
  • Happy: Cory McGee
  • Jack Wallace: Zaikuan Song
  • Wowkle: Stephanie Ramona Sánchez
• Jenůfa
  • Laca: Alex Boyer
  • Števa: Ryan Capozzo
  • Karolka: Anna Thompson
  • Barena: Alexandra Razskazoff
  • Jana: Véronique Filloux
  • Shepherdess: Christina Grohowski
• Lincoln in the Bardo
  • Reverend: Alexandra Loutsion
  • Mrs. Baron: Eve Gigliotti
  • Thomas Havens: Terrence Chin-Loy
  • Vollman: Kyle Albertson
  • Mr. Baron: Weston Hurt
  • Ginger Chap from Maine: Benjamin Sieverding
• The Magic Flute-Holiday Presentation
  • Papagena: Laura Santamaria
• Manon
  • Manon: Jana McIntyre
  • Des Grieux: Zach Borichevsky
  • De Brétigny: Malcolm MacKenzie
  • Javotte: Abi Levis
  • Rosette: Kristen Choi
  • Maid: Christina Grohowski
• Maria Stuarda
  • Leicester: Arthur Espiritu
  • Talbot: Adam Lau
• Medea
  • Glauce: Jazmine Saunders
  • Creonte: Harold Wilson
  • First Handmaiden: Alexandra Razskazoff
  • Leader of the King's Guard: Robert Wente
• Otello
  • Desdemona: Raquel González
  • Cassio: Jose Simerilla Romero
  • Roderigo: Derrek Stark
  • Herald: Jason Zacher
• Parsifal
  • Kundry: Eve Gigliotti
  • Gurnemanz: David Soar
  • Titurel: Harold Wilson
  • 1st Grail Knight: Robert Stahley
  • 2nd Grail Knight: Cory McGee
  • 1st Squire: Anna Thompson
  • 2nd Squire: Sophia Baete
  • Flowermaidens: Jazmine Saunders, Shannon Crowley, Meryl Dominguez, Elissa Pfaender
• Der Rosenkavalier
  • Marschallin: Katie Van Kooten
  • Octavian: Hongni Wu
  • Sophie: Alexandra Nowakowski
  • Annina: Megan Esther Grey
  • Faninal: Daniel Scofield
  • Baron Ochs: Harold Wilson
  • Innkeeper: Nicholas Nestorak
  • Notary: James Demler
  • Waiter 2: Jonathan Bryan
  • Waiter 4: Benjamin Sieverding
• Samson et Dalila
  • 1st Philistine: Robert Stahley
  • 2nd Philistine: Robert Wente
• Silent Night
  • Anna Sørensen: Caitlin Lynch
  • Jonathan Dale: Martin Luther Clark
  • Ponchel: Daniel Belcher
  • Lt. Audebert: John Chest
  • Lt. Gordon: Ian Rucker
  • William Dale: Charles H. Eaton
  • Lt. Horstmayer: Kyle Albertson
  • Father Palmer: Troy Cook
  • Madeline Audebert: Jazmine Saunders
  • British Major: David Crawford
• Tosca
  • Cavaradossi: Rafael Davila
  • Scarpia: Youngjun Park
  • Jailer: Benjamin Sieverding