MUSICAL

My top 10 favorite musicals (not in any order)

1. Hadestown
2. The Color Purple
3. Cats
4. Evita
5. Joseph and The Technicolor Dream Coat
6. Chorus Line
7. Into the Woods
8. Gatsby (Florence Welch)
9. Chicago
10. La Cage aux Folles

OPERA

Beginner's guide to opera

Blog post incoming

Recent operas I watched (January 18th, 2024) on Operavision

1. Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky)

• Wonderful production - whoever decided to put eyeliner on Eugene Oregon is a genius
• Staging is beautiful- lightning work is great
• Weird aside: The guy who plays the General (Tatiana's husband) has an absolutely beautiful voice!

2. Carmen (Bizet)

• The production is the original premiere staging.
• Costumes are the highlight - absolutely beautiful
• Deepa Johnny (Carmen) has a beautiful voice - wonderful actress

3. Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (Donizetti)

• Hilarious; I realized how rare it is to see a man in drag in opera
• Wow, Donizetti sounds a lot like Rossini (especially finale)
• Slapstick comedy is on point

My 10 favorite operas (not in any order)

1. Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart)

• The most perfect opera to have ever existed

• I heard the music of true forgiveness filling the theatre, conferring on all who sat there a perfect absolution.
  

2. La Traviata (Verdi)

• Most noble heroine of all opera
• Music is beautiful especially Act 2 between the Father and Violetta
• I love my Ilena Cortrubas version but the Teresa Stratas - ugh

3. Fidelio (Beethoven)

• The greatest German opera
• The finale is breathtaking
• Also I love to point out the amount of revisions Fidelio had to go through

4. Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky)

• I realized I love Mr. Big from Sex and the City archetypes

5. Rigoletto (Verdi)

• Just a musical bop all throughout
• No dull moments, honestly
• How could you not love the movie version with Pavorrati and Gruberova?

6. Jenufa (Janeck)

• Second time opera has been perfected

7. La Vestale (Spontini)

• An exception to all French operas being bad

8. La clemenza di tito (Mozart)

• A super flawed masterpiece that I still adore
• Parto, parto is the greatest aria ever written and I will defend that to the grave

9. Cenerentola (Rossini)

• I think that musically it's better than Barber of Seville
• Frederica von Stade movie version has a place in my heart; but it's the Cecilia Bartoli version that wins

10. I Capuletti et I Montecchi (Bellini)

• Act 1 duet between Giuletta and Romeo is amazing
• Male chorus gives me life.

Operas I have watched (construction)

1. Einstein on a Beach (Glass)

• A favorite; Knee Play 5 makes me weep

• He answered, "How much do I love you? Count the stars in the sky
  Measure the waters of the oceans with a teaspoon
  Number the grains of sand on the seashore
  Impossible, you say.
  Yes and it is just as impossible for me to say how much I love you
  My love for you is higher than the heavens,
  deeper than Hades, and broader than the Earth.
  It has no limits, no bounds
  Everything must have an ending except my love for you."
  

2. Aida (Verdi)

• I dislike it a lot. Find the music somewhat boring
• Do love the clips of Leontyne Price and Shirley Verett

3. Treemonisha (Joplin)

• Interesting ragtime opera- pretty short!
• The ending song is quite nice!

4. Lucia di Lamermoor (Donizetti)

• Dad's favorite so had to watch a lot
• Of course the Joan Sutherland version is classic but I love my Nadine Sierra version

5. Nixon in China (Adams)

• Stupid, inane nonsense. Idiotic. How can anyone enjoy this?
• Saving grace is Kathleen Kim's "I am the wife of Mao Zedong"

6. L'eslir d'Amore (Donizetti)

• Fun! Good music!
• Best version is the one with Pretty Yende!

7. Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini)

• It's fine; not my favorite Rossini piece weirdly

8. Halka (Moniuszko)

• It's fine; kinda like Giselle but opera.

9. Die Zauberflöte (Mozart)

• Childhood favorite (loved the Trollflojten movie adaptation)
• Kathleen Battle fan and apologist

10. Mitridate rei di Ponto (Mozart)

• It's fine; Mozart wrote it when he was 14
• The movie version with Ann Murphy is fantastic

11. Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Mozart)

• It's fine; I love the finale

12. Don Giovanni (Mozart)

• Hate it. I don't think the music is that great (except for the Catalogue aria)
• Plot is stupid. Characters are stupid.
• I don't trust any man who says it is their favorite opera.
• Did enjoy the Cecilia Bartoli production.

13. Agrippina (Handel)

• It's ok. Boring, but some good musical moments
• The best version is the one with Ann Hallenberg and Bruno de Sa!

14. Rinaldo (Handel)

• It's ok. Most Handel operas are just kinda boring and that's fine.

15. Alcina (Handel)

• It's meh.

16. Roberto Devreux (Donizetti)

• It's meh. I don't care much for Donizetti operas honestly.

17. Anna Bolena (Donizetti)

• It's super meh. Again it's not that fun to watch

18. Maria Stuarda (Donizetti)
19. Lucia Silla (Mozart)

• It's ok. One of my favorite Mozart aria is in here though (Il desio vendetta)

20. Livietta e Tracollo (Pergolesi)

• It's fine. It's a super short operetta.

21. Die Walkurie (Wagner)

• Love-hate. The scene where Siegfried and Sieglinde find each other again makes me weep.
• That is the one moment of musical genius I will give to Wagner

22. Gotterdamerung (Wagner)

• Super love-hate.

23. **Idomeneo* (Mozart) **

• Love; it's one of my favorite Mozart operas and I do not like people thinking that it's this unrelatable piece of work; you try having an unrequited crush as a gay girl!
• So much beautiful choral work: Nettuno S'onori

24. La fille du Regiment (Donizetti)

• It's fine;

25. Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdinck)
26. Der Rosenkavalier (Strauss)

• Love-hate: I only like it for the overture and the trio

27. Les contes d'Hoffmann (Offenbach)
28. Pagliacchi (Leoncavallo)
29. Juditha Triumphans (Vivaldi)

• Like

30. Salome (Strauss)

• Love-hate: My problem with Strauss operas is that I only like the ending.
• Ending of Salome blew me away

31. Cosi fan Tutte (Mozart)

• Hate; boring, boring boring

32. Le comte d'Ory (Rossini)

• Love; one of my favorite Rossini operas because it's wild to describe it to someone
• Unironically, the threesome scene at the end is one of the most beautiful trio I have ever heard.

33. Bartered Bride