When I was young, we had the three-LP album The Royal Family of Opera. (My favorite piece was Nikolai Ghiaurov singing "Le Veau d'Or" from Gounod's Faust.) When I was fourteen I saw my first opera movie: Ingmar Bergman's film of Mozart's The Magic Flute, which I quite enjoyed. When I was 21, I saw Franco Zeffirelli's movie of Verdi's La Traviata at the New York City art house the Paris!
When I was 31, I attended my first Canadian Opera Company production. It was Smetana's The Bartered Bride and it was delightful! (Benoit Boutet was really funny as the foolish heir.) One year I went to half a dozen COC productions, but now I just go to the cinemacasts of Metropolitan Opera productions from New York. My sister says that people who like opera tend to be bad-tempered, and that makes sense to me: opera is all about strong passion.
About ten years ago I joined the chorus of the non-professional Toronto City Opera, which has a pianist instead of an orchestra. (I'm a baritone.) In my first season we did Donizetti's Lucia Di Lammermoor and Mozart's Don Giovanni, which are well-suited to beginners. To tell the truth, I prefer rehearsing to performing. And I don't mind performing so much, it's waiting in the wings that gets to me.
Five years ago we put on Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and someone took a great picture of me in my 19th-century Sicilian costume. My parents framed it.
If I had more time, I could write a lot about musicals!
No comments:
Post a Comment