What is the last classical/opera concert you went to?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

We need a separate thread.

Me: Last classical concert: Kremlin Chamber Orchestra, Oct. 2012

Last opera concert: Pardon My French! French Opera Scenes, Dec. 2012, Sam Houston State University Opera Workshop.

Before that: The Marriage of Figaro, in Italian w/English subtitles, August 2012, Sam Houston State University Opera Workshop.

Last Standup Comedy: Lewis Black, Rose State University, Oklahoma City, Jan. 2012. He's awesome and I have a crush on him. He has a total aura of NICE.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. classical concert - Honegger Christmas Cantata (spectacular, at Duke Chapel in NC).

However, favorite was Mahler's second symphony, several years ago, also at Duke Chapel.

[Aristus]

2. My wife and I saw 'The Nutcracker' at the Pacific Northwest Ballet last month.

And we have our tickets for all four operas of Wagner's 'Ring' Cycle at Seattle Opera this summer!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. I SURVIVED PARSIFAL.

I need a t shirt with that on it.
Started at 7 pm, over at 12:15 am with Christoph Eschenbach conducting, Houston Grand Opera.

I didn't think I would enjoy it, but Surtitles saved the day. It was a very simple set by Robert Wilson.

Right before the end of the first act, the chorus walked into the grand tier and started singing so we had surround sound. And Amfortas sang from the door at the back of the grand tier down to the stage. Pretty cool!

[Aristus]

9. 'Parsifal' is the one of Wagner's grand operas that I haven't seen in performance.

I've seen 'Lohengrin' and 'Tristan And Isolde' at the Seattle Opera. Great stuff.

I remember 'Lohengrin' mostly for the animatronic swan, and because seated in the audience was without a doubt the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. That was 15 years ago, and I've still never seen a more astoundingly, breathtakingly beautiful woman.

[harmonicon]

16. Are you sure it wasn't just a guy with a ponytail?

Years ago - at a classical music concert, no less - one friend of mine was sitting behind another, and for the entire concert, he was convinced that he was sitting behind a lovely young girl, only to discover he was sitting behind a bearded guy with long hair.

He really tried to tell himself that when he was drinking later he wouldn't tell him that he'd thought this, but of course he did. Laughter was had.

[Aristus]

22. No. I saw her from the front after one of the intermissions.

She was Japanese-American, by the look of her. She had sleek, shiny black hair held up in a bun, and the most astoundingly, ethereally lovely face one could possibly imagine. Her only evident makeup was a bit of coral pink lipstick. I've never forgotten her.

[harmonicon]

23. Hold on...

Is there a different look to Japanese-American compared to, say, Japanese-English? I think she might have been Japanese-Dutch, and you should get yourself over to The Hague, pronto.

[Aristus]

24. Or Japanese-Canadian, for that matter?

[harmonicon]

25. You can always tell THEM apart.

Hint: it's the ice-skates.

[elleng]

3. Nutcracker Ballet,

Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker, December 15, Baltimore.

WILL attend Swan Lake (Balanchine/Tchaikovsky)
Allegro Brillante (Balanchine/Tchaikovsky)
Tschaikovsky Suite No.3 (Balanchine/Tchaikovsky) at Kennedy Center, March 31.

[onehandle]

4. My wife and I went to a dinner club in Atlanta featuring opera singers a while back.

Now that we live in a more cultured city (Philadelphia) we have started with a fair amount of theater, and will expand from there.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

7. They put the words up in English now at the opera, you know.

It made all the difference in the world to me understanding opera.

Surtitles(R) rock!

First time I saw them at an adult opera was at a 1990 production of Samson and Delilah.

In 1988 I took my small daughter to see Hansel and Gretel in English with English surtitles.

[onehandle]

8. Nice. I am an uneducated lover of Opera.

I plan to fix that.

[kwassa]

5. I was in the last concert I went to.

Did multiple performances of Handel's "The Messiah" with the National Philharmonic, and multiple other groups, and Brahm's Requiem, and Carmina Burana, and Mozart's Requiem ....

also went to the Kennedy Center Opera for two or three operas a year, Placido Domingo directing. It has been about five years since we last did that; the tickets are quite expensive.

[TuxedoKat]

10. Cendrillon

Four years ago.

[hollysmom]

11. About 4 years ago

the Met in the park. I think they have cut out my area, they have not had it lately.

I did go to an opera contest in spring 2012.

[Grantuspeace]

12. Swan Lake by a Russian ballet company.

Supported with a local community symphony. And before that our local symphony had a night called " Cirque du Symphony" or something like that. They had circus type performances set to the pieces they were playing.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

13. I've played a lot of ballet suites in my orchestral career:

As an amateur violinist--high school, college and community orchestras.

The Miraculous Mandarin - Bartok
The Firebird - Stravinsky
The Rite of Spring - Stravinsky
Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Sleeping Beauty - Tchaikovsky
Les Sylphides - Chopin
Rodeo - Copland
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story - Bernstein

But I have no interest in seeing the ballet itself. Maybe because it's so unnatural. I've seen Swan Lake performed by ABT; The Nutcracker and Cinderella by Prokofief at Houston Ballet. I've seen Alexander Godunov on his solo tour. It doesn't do anything for me.

[Brigid]

14. I wish Lewis Black would come here.

I visit his site from time to time to see what his tour schedule is, but no dice so far.

Went to see "The Nutcracker" last year, and "Don't Giovanni" a few years ago, both at Clowes Hall.

[harmonicon]

15. Highschool guitar students.

I was going to support their teacher, but they were really pretty good.

[Arctic Dave]

17. I saw a duo of Brazilian guitarist do classical music last winter.

I don't remember their names but I have their CD around here somewhere.

[HeiressofBickworth]

18. Last year (or was it the year before?)

the Seattle Opera did Madam Butterfly. The live production was in the Opera House but they did a simulcast in a nearby venue at a fraction of the cost which was what allowed me to attend. I was surprised at how many were at the simulcast.

[pinboy3niner]

19. Tommy

[eppur_se_muova]

20. Trinity University Symphony Orchestra, a few years ago ... 2004? 2005?

Can't remember the other pieces, but they did Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Festival Overture quite well. Pretty ambitious.

One of the pleasures of being part of a University community is attending student concerts and recitals. It always amazes me to see kids who are just about to graduate college standing before an audience and presenting a full musical performance. There's something intimate about these small -- often chamber -- concerts that you don't get at a full symphony perfomance. I've saved all the programs from the recitals I've been to over the years. I just wish I had been to more -- there's so little time for such things when you're teaching, particularly in a temporary position. I had to pass up a saxophone recital just this past semester.

(I just realized this wasn't the most recent -- I got to see the Salzedo Harp Duo just a couple of years later. Oh yeah, faculty recitals are another nice thing.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

32. Hey Homie! I graduated from Trinity!

The orchestra was a community orchestra, not for credit. One concert each semester. The conductor was a wonderful man who I took violin from. He was the principal viola of the San Antonio Symphony when Victor Alessandro was conducting. His name was Domenico Saltarelli.

I heard that Trinity fired him because he didn't have a Ph.D.

[eppur_se_muova]

33. Man, that last line sucks ...

hope there's a chance it isn't true.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

35. That was hearsay that was likely true.

Source was a professional musician who was from San Antonio.
My source also knew Sister Goretti at Incarnate Word.

[In_The_Wind]

21. Woodstock Chamber Orchestra

TERESA CHEUNG, conductor
ALLISON BITZ, oboe

HÄNDEL: Concerto for Oboe no. 3 in G minor, HWV 287
MOZART: Symphony no. 36 in C major (“Linz”), K. 425
STRAVINSKY: Suite from Pulcinella

It was at the Woodstock Playhouse.

[JustAnotherGen]

26. 12/31/2012

Salute to Vienna at NJ state theater.

A combination of symphony, ballet, a soprano, and a tenor. Good time!

[datasuspect]

27. houston. they were doing mussorgsky or something like that

[bif]

28. Opera: Handel's Julius Caesar. Classical: The Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Doing The Nutcracker Suite and a Copeland piece.

[ohiosmith]

29. Madam Butterfly at the Sydney Opera House in 2010.

[pokerfan]

30. Saw the Nutcracker last month

Our local symphony combined with a traveling ballet company from Canada. More or less an annual event for us.

Most memorable recently was Carmen in Seattle a couple of years ago.

[Art_from_Ark]

31. The last (and only) classical concert I paid to attend

was back in 1979, at Carnegie Hall. The main performer was Yehudi Menuhin, who had wowed me with his recordings of the Brandenburg Concertos a few years earlier. As I was standing in line to buy a ticket, it looked like the "cheap seats" (read, "nosebleed section&quot were going to be sold out before I got a chance to get one. But then the lady behind me said she would sell me her ticket for the original price ($5), because she wanted to be in a different section so she could sit with her friend. So I bought her ticket (which technically was a no-no, but what the heck) and found that it was for the very farthest seat from the stage. The performers looked like ants from up there on the 5th floor. To top it off, the pieces were written by some obscure modern-day composer, whose concept of "music" was wildly different from mine. So I was quite disappointed in the performance. But at least I could say that I attended a concert at Carnegie Hall

[trackfan]

34. I think it was the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall

with Dudamel as guest conductor, about a year before he took over the conductor position. I think Richard Strauss's Alpensinfonie was the main piece played, along with something by Mozart, and some recent piece.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

36. I would LOVE to see little Gustavo!!

only 31 years old and already the chief conductor of the L.A. Phil. What's he gonna do when he's FORTY?

I have the DVD of Gustavo conducting Mahler's First.

He's the product of La Sistema, their national youth orchestra system. Lessons after school starting at age five. But we can't spend that kind of money on the arts, to give kids meaningful activities to keep them out of trouble.

That's in Venezuela. We're not a first world country anymore. Not culturally, in many places.

[elleng]

38. He's WONDERFUL!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

37. CD Trivia:

The Berlin Phil CD of the Alpine Symphony was the first commercially sold CD? I have a copy.

On DGG of course. This was in the days before all-digital recordings. When the back would say ADD (analog-digital-digital) meaning the original source recording was magnetic tape.

[Rowdyboy]

39. Bach on harpsichord about 3 months ago in Jackson Mississippi....

Absolutely awesome.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

40. My classical concert attendance has been stymied by the lockouts of both

the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Neither orchestra has played an official season concert since October.

However, I did see a preseason outdoor concert by the Minnesota Orchestra at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis in August.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

41. Aww. That is so sad when orchestras shut down or go on strike due to lack of money.

Opera companies are fading too.



Lockouts are not fair. I am the child of a union organizer (OCAW) and proud of it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

42. Interestingly enough, the managements of both orchestras retained the same union-busting law firm

and have refused arbitration while claiming that the Mn Orchestra (the one I know more about) musicians are "refusing to make a counter offer" to 35% salary cuts. I wrote a letter to the board saying that an offer to submit to arbitration was indeed a counter-offer, and I got a snooty letter back saying that no arbiter could possibly understand the special issues that the orchestra faced. (There are suspicions of mismanagement, such as spending $50 million to remodel the lobby and exterior of Orchestra Hall for no particular reason, except for a rumor that the Big Money types didn't think the lobby was large enough to promenade around in during intermission.)

After cancelling all concerts through February, they asked season ticket holders to make donations.

Like hell I will. Season tickets are a major expense, and I haven't even gotten any concerts for my money.

However, the musicians of both orchestras have given sold out "rogue" concerts (I have been unable to attend them for various reasons), and the mayor of Minneapolis and a major, major donor have invited the orchestra to perform in February.

It is pretty clear that the public is on the side of the musicians, so this week, the managements of both orchestras agreed to go back to the bargaining table.

[LeftinOH]

43. Don Giovanni, San Francisco Opera, Oct 2011. n/t