Opera

My mum was an opera singer. She competed against people at quite a high level, however stopped from going professional to have a family. She carried on at lots of local performances, including the Hutton Rudby pantomime.
Even though I was proud of my Mum, opera was never for me, probably after being forced to go to support mum.
She used to complain about my music, that you could never hear the words.
 
Bayern plucking Münich?!? Yer joking aren't ya? Boro sticker for a long time on the last car, but nothing now.
If I was the sticker type, more likely to have a SV Sandhausen one - my local 2nd division team - perennial relegation flirts but somehow manage to stay up season after season.
Car in front of us had boro and BM sticker driving around rothenburg last year
 
Very prestigious - good on her. I'm working in a different theatre in Stuttgart twice next season, so might look her up. As long you don't think that's creepy.
BTW. I meant no not at All creepy. . My daughter ( who you will identify easily on the oper site.) Is a lovely woman and a ex season ticket holder.
 
Is it any good? I usually think it isn't but just occasionally here something where I almost get it.
Not opera, but I once went to see Swan Lake performed by Nuryrev's (sp?) troop at the Opera Garnier when it temporarily moved to the Opera Bastille during renovation.

I wore a Boro shirt and ripped up wranglers and the French didn't bat an eyelid.

The snooty penguin-suited brits in the foyer/bar looked down their noses at me like I was terrorist or something though.

I love opera and ballet, just not the British posh knobs who think they own it.

It started off as street performance by the lower classes. I never had any class discrimination in 20 years living in Paris and no anti-British sentiment either.
 
BTW. I meant no not at All creepy. . My daughter ( who you will identify easily on the oper site.) Is a lovely woman and a ex season ticket holder.
Yes, already identified her - not a lot of geboren in Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire in the Staatsoper ;-). I'll drop her a line when I'm in Stuttgart and see if she's up for a coffee and a natter about the state of of Riverside affairs. All the best.
 
My Mams lifelong ambition to see an opera in Italy. Booked a box in the Cremona Opera House and flew her out to Milan to see the Mikado (I think... it was that bad)
That was a very very long 2 hours. But each to their own.... doubt many Italians are into Northern Soul either.
 
My Mams lifelong ambition to see an opera in Italy. Booked a box in the Cremona Opera House and flew her out to Milan to see the Mikado (I think... it was that bad)
That was a very very long 2 hours. But each to their own.... doubt many Italians are into Northern Soul either.
Isn't that "comic opera" rather than the real thing?
 
Not a comparison to Pavarotti in any way, but Nessun Dorma by Jonas Kaufman at the Proms a few years ago is great.
Right at the end he knows he's proper nailed it...he certainly did.
It even made our mam sit up and take notice... probably more to do with the fact he's a decent looking chap.

 
Not a comparison to Pavarotti in any way, but Nessun Dorma by Jonas Kaufman at the Proms a few years ago is great.
Right at the end he knows he's proper nailed it...he certainly did.
It even made our mam sit up and take notice... probably more to do with the fact he's a decent looking chap.

Saw him play Don Jose in Carmen in New York in 2009
On the other hand saw Sweep sing Nessum Dorma on the Sooty Show at Crealey yesterday :)
 
I went to see/hear opera for the first time in my life 3 years ago aged 70. It was Aida at the Verona Arena, the largest capacity (16,000?) functioning Roman arena. It doesn't start til it's dark and goes on for about 3 and a half hours finishing about 0030. I thought I can always leave if it sucks - I was on my own and didn't know what to expect or if I'd be able to follow what was going on though I'd read up on the basic storyline. I just got the cheapest ticket which means you sit on the same stone slabs as the plebs did as they watched all sorts of bloody deaths 2000 years ago, but you can now buy a cheap bit of foam to sit on.

I'd put it in one of the top 10 experiences in my life, maybe top 5. I stayed til the end. The fact that it's night in the open air in an enormous Roman arena creates an amazing atmosphere I can't put into words. There was a simultaneous electronic translation of the libretto in English and I thought it's probably going to be a bit of an iffy one but it wasn't and when it got to the bit where Aida's lover sang the line 'Let me build you a throne next to the sun' my jaw dropped.

I decided to visit Verona every year to see a different opera but Covid put a stop to that but I'm going back to Verona next month to see La Traviata and possibly Carmen too (the annual opera festival lasts nearly 3 months June-Sept and next year is the 100th festival so should be amazing). The scale of the Arena in Verona means hundreds of people can be involved on stage, it's so dramatic and the excitement in the air in the city centre beforehand.

Try an opera, go to Verona.


Just got back from Verona and went to see my 2nd opers La Traviata last Saturday. The plebs seats (cost ~£21.50) weren't numbered last time so you knew where you'd be sitting instead of last time where the seats filled row by row as ppl arrived. I bought the official comfy cushion inside the arena( 5 euros( which was definitely more comfy than the tacky 2-3 euro ones from the hawkers outside and a souvenir to boot. In a way it was more exciting this time as I knew what to expect, you can feel the atmosphere building up as you get near it and even more so when you're inside. 3 and a quarter hours with 3 intervals but it's over like a flash like an absorbing game of football. I'll be back at least once for the centenary of the festival next year. One thing I hadn't realised til this year is there's no microphones / amplification at all: not needed as the audience is silent and the arena has amazing acoustics. Astonishing. Here's a titbit from my cheap phone

 
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