One may as well begin with some autobiography...
I wasn't brought up on opera or classical music; I was a Motown child. But I remember classical music being played as I went in to school assemblies and from there learnt the names of Beethoven, Vivaldi and Holst.
I always liked the sound that an orchestra made and thought I might be responsive to opera. But the problem was always where to start. Who was who and what was what? Hopefully, this blog will help answer some of those questions for you.
The big breakthrough came in 1990, when The Three Tenors (Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti) gave a concert in Rome. From the concert, two arias by Puccini from his opera Tosca stood out. There was the way in. I received a video of Tosca as a Christmas present, then moved on to other Puccini operas, borrowing recordings from the library and reading the inlays for further information and guidance.
Since that time, Tosca has always had a special place in my heart. But now, I'm running ahead of myself. Here from that concert is Pavarotti singing Recondita armonia:
and Domingo singing E lucevan le stelle:
And here is an excerpt from that first video with Giacomo Aragall as Cavaradossi and Eva Marton singing Tosca: the love duet from act one
Thanks for introducing us to the lovely world of opera and not just leaving us in the dark. The more we know the more we want to know and love opera. x
ReplyDeleteLoving the colour of this blog page (and the content) Bravo, Bis Bis!
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