do you like opera? (new york city opera may cancel rest of season)

[longship]

23. I love it with a passion.

Yes, knowing the story ahead of time can help. But as many of the stories are classics in their own right that isn't a high cliff to climb for those educated in the literature.

I am not that educated in that area, so for me it has always been about the music and the awesome spectacle the opera presents to the audience, with full orchestras and singers belting out their voices with no amplification. Even at the extreme top of the NY Met house one hears everything.

All houses now have English super-titles projected over the stage, but one quickly learns not to use them much. The acting does a lot to communicate the words.

New opera is very interesting. My favorites of these include Philip Glass, Satyagraha which is so haunting an experience one does not quickly forget it.

People will inevitably have personal favorites, as opera is diverse as the literature it depicts. Mine is probably Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, a comedy of such wonderful musicality that I have seen it live four times -- once at the NY Met --and would do so again and again, if I could afford the tickets.

There are operas I don't like too much, but as I think these are personal matters I won't malign them here just because I don't like them.

Call me an opera fan boy.