lloyd,
you make opera sound delicious. there are a number of points that i
could argue with you on but, i would actually rather share with you, things i
still love about opera.
probably the thing that i appreciate about opera the most, on a
philosophical level as well as a visceral level, is its excess. it always
goes as far as you'd want it to go. (not in every case. there is a lot of
opera i could really do without- don pasquale, for example). but, the
'liebestod' still causes a physical reaction all over me everytime i hear it.
i read somewhere that, at one time, puccini wanted the 1st act of boheme to
end without the voices singing their last 'amors'. i have never heard it
that way but, it sounds perfect in my mind.
probably the most, i don't know what to call it, experience for me in
opera, was being figaro in mozart's opera. there we were, figaro and
susanna, standing together, alone in the garden, completely unaware of the
rest of the world (including the audience). i felt a breeze on my cheek
that i have only felt on cool summer nights in the berkshires. that's what
i wanted my real life to be like.
thanks,
mike
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