Who’s Fond of Opera?

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Toast

Part of the Furniture Now
Feb 15, 2021
660
1,312
UK
& I thought this place was a haven of culture & refinement! No Marx Brothers mentions!

This is my only opera pipe:
IMG_20210310_153637.jpg

I'm saving smoking it until I can actually go to the opera again. Unlike most of the rest of you hooligans, I think it's glorious.
 

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Lifer
Apr 28, 2019
1,873
5,069
At the end of last year they began a Wagner's Ring Cycle series here in KC. After Siegfried they had to take a break due to Covid. I had to plan out bathroom breaks to attend because it was so long lol
There are much better Wagner operas in my opinion. The Ring gets a lot of attention because it's big and flashy but Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde, and Tannhauser have the beautiful music.
 

Birddog66

Lifer
Nov 29, 2020
2,997
53,374
Newhaven England
It’s ballet for me, the human body in its most perfect expression. I go every time a troupe comes to Brighton or when visiting London during the season. I don’t mind some modern dance so long as it doesn’t look like the dancer is having a fit.
My first wife loved the opera and I enjoyed most I attended with her. We have The Royal Opera and the ENO, English National Opera who do them all translated to English. I preferred the RO personally.
I can’t wait for the theatres to open again. I’d see anything... except musicals, never musicals. (Except Singing in the Rain and White Christmas but that’s more for the dancing)
 
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sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,747
45,289
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Cultural preferences are strange. A lot of members here are happy to blow a raspberry at opera, but will get all gooey over poetry.

I love opera. I have no idea why, but ever since my father returned from a trip to NYC with a boxed set of recordings called "Opening Nights At The Met" which recounted the Metropolitan Opera's history with recordings going back to the turn of the 20th century, I've been hooked. It's often a silly pretentious art form, but it's also magical when all the parts come together, magical in a way that no other performing art form affects me.

For a decade I was a season subscriber to the LA Opera before switching to becoming a season subscriber at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I've attended performances at other opera venues and support the various small local opera companies that put on a production here and there, in churches, public auditoriums, parks, etc, mostly volunteer efforts by people who love the art form.

Poetry readings will bring about in me an unfettered desire to gnaw at my wrists. The only way I've ever been dragged to one was with the promise of world shattering sex as a reward for enduring it.

Same with ballet. It's beautiful in the extreme and the grace and power of the human body performing ballet or modern dance cannot be overestimated, but ye gods, what a bore to watch. On the other hand, the sex afterwards more than made up for it.

I enjoy most forms of performing art, opera, musicals, concerts, plays, etc.

Poetry doesn't interest me. I've no objection when someone shares a poem they think is good, but I just can't get up enough enthusiasm these days to go exploring beyond Rumi and Shakespeare.

BTW, did anyone ever answer the OP's question regarding the age of his pipe? Did anyone suggest that he look at the stampings and go to pipephil.eu for answers?
 

Toast

Part of the Furniture Now
Feb 15, 2021
660
1,312
UK
It’s ballet for me, the human body in its most perfect expression. I go every time a troupe comes to Brighton or when visiting London during the season. I don’t mind some modern dance so long as it doesn’t look like the dancer is having a fit.
My first wife loved the opera and I enjoyed most I attended with her. We have The Royal Opera and the ENO, English National Opera who do them all translated to English. I preferred the RO personally.
I can’t wait for the theatres to open again. I’d see anything... except musicals, never musicals. (Except Singing in the Rain and White Christmas but that’s more for the dancing)
RO is my go to too (more comfortable seats if nothing else - & the gods are cheaper than the cinema)! I don't like translated opera.

West Side Story & Bugsy Malone would be my honorable exceptions on the musical front.
 

Birddog66

Lifer
Nov 29, 2020
2,997
53,374
Newhaven England
Listening to Callas, Caruso or Jussi Björling brings me to tears .

And she had a body to match.



View attachment 69971
And yet she refused to do Carmen because she didn’t think she had the legs for it.
But hell, I’d rather listen to the Doobie Brothers than these smug bastards who think their views are the only ones acceptable and deride others opinions. Shit! I’d even watch Cats.
 
Dec 10, 2013
2,386
3,019
Nijmegen, the Netherlands
And yet she refused to do Carmen because she didn’t think she had the legs for it.
But hell, I’d rather listen to the Doobie Brothers than these smug bastards who think their views are the only ones acceptable and deride others opinions. Shit! I’d even watch Cats.
I once suffered a quite serious back injury from a friend who had real pointy knees . she was very tall and it happened when she cuddled up behind me in bed.
But look at hers !
 
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edger

Lifer
Dec 9, 2016
2,991
22,350
74
Mayer AZ
It’s ballet for me, the human body in its most perfect expression. I go every time a troupe comes to Brighton or when visiting London during the season. I don’t mind some modern dance so long as it doesn’t look like the dancer is having a fit.
My first wife loved the opera and I enjoyed most I attended with her. We have The Royal Opera and the ENO, English National Opera who do them all translated to English. I preferred the RO personally.
I can’t wait for the theatres to open again. I’d see anything... except musicals, never musicals. (Except Singing in the Rain and White Christmas but that’s more for the dancing)
Agree about opera. Disagree about musicals. Most criticism of musicals would apply to Gilbert and Sullivan, then what?
 
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