- Salome (by Richard Strauss), Pittsburgh opera, 2001: my first opera. A lucky one, that appealed to my contrarian sensibilities and love of modern art/music. Also, at the end of the dance of the seven veils, there was a lighting error and I got to see the lead woman completely naked on stage. It made a pretty good impression overall.
- Madama Butterfly (by Giacomo Puccini), Pittsburgh opera, 2001 and 2007: I don't particularly remember the first time, but I remember that 2007 was the second time I saw it. The most striking memory I have about it, at first, is that my mom told me that it was my grandmother's favorite opera, and when I read the synopsis I really wondered why she loved it so much. I mean, it's about a Japanese woman who really gets fucked over by an American Naval officer. It's totally patriarchal and imperialist and I couldn't fathom why that didn't bother my grandmother at all. Later I found out that she used to sing that role and of course I realized that the arias are hauntingly beautiful.
- Lucia di Lammermoor (by Gaetano Donizetti), Pittsburgh opera, 2002: I don't remember much about this one except that "Lammermoor" is a weird name and doesn't seem Italian at all.
- Cinderella/La Cenerentola (by Gioachino Rossini), Pittsburgh opera, 2002: It was pretty fascinating to see the story of Cinderella not as a Disney classic. I remember the costumes of this one were particularly intense and adorned.
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (by Benjamin Britten), Pittsburgh opera, 2002: the first English language opera I saw. I remember that I really liked Benjamin Britten's orchestration.
- Elektra (by Richard Strauss), Pittsburgh opera, 2003: yeah, don't remember much, but I'm sure I really liked the music.
- The Barber of Seville (Gioachino Rossini), Pittsburgh opera, 2003: Such an amazing plot. Almaviva sang his role particularly well.
- The Flying Dutchman (Richard Wagner), Pittsburgh opera, 2003: did I see this? I think I saw this.
- Julius Caesar (George Frideric Handel), Pittsburgh opera, 2003: We got there barely on time, we were seated and I was LOVING the first act, and then my mom decided to have some overly dramatic medical event or dizziness that turned out to be caused by a lack of enough potassium in her blood...she went to the emergency room and got an IV with proper fluids, and I ended up watching the second half of Grease on the hospital television.
- Dead Man Walking (Jake Heggie), Pittsburgh opera, 2004: I remember this one in particular because it was a movie as well (though not one I had seen at the time...nor have ever seen). It had some pretty impressive scenery that included 2-level scaffolding in a jail, atop which was a darkly shrouded sex scene. Woo
- La Traviata (Guiseppe Verdi), Pittsburgh opera, 2004: I remember questioning why Violetta would go with Alfredo if she didn't really love him. Well, maybe courtesans like genuine love instead of convenient love, I guess.
- The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), Pittsburgh, 2004 and 2010: I don't remember the earlier one very well, but the 2010 was fun, and Cherubino was played by a tiny cute Asian woman. Classic.
- The Turn of the Screw (Britten), Pittsburgh, 2004: yeah, this kicked some serious ass. It was dark and creepy and there were children in it, and everyone was really good. I remember it very well.
- Faust (Charles Gounod), Pittsburgh, 2005: Obv totally super.
- Ariadne auf Naxos (Richard Strauss), Pittsburgh opera, 2005: I remember that Werner was particularly excited because this was one of his favorite operas...I just remember the particular way he said the name of the opera, in that way that is just weird enough to make you both want to hear it again and also want never to have heard. About the opera itself I don't remember much.
- Cosi fan tutte (Mozart), Pittsburgh opera, 2006: pretty funny and upbeat, overall.
- all of season 2010-11
- Moby Dick (music by Jake Heggie and libretto by Gene Scheer), Pittsburgh opera, 2018: not bad, music very strange bc of dissonance between the vocals and the orchestration. Each of them was melodic but they were not in the same key, not matching up....
jul 18 2010 ∞
apr 1 2018 +
apr 1 2018 +