#opera lovers

[newyorkthegoldenage]

The line of music lovers waiting to get tickets at the old Metropolitan Opera House at the first performance of the season, November 22, 1925. The old building was at Broadway & 39th St. before the company moved to a new building at Lincoln Center in 1966.

Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images/NY Daily News

[giulietta-hearthful]

🎭 150 Years of Carmen 🎶

L’amour est enfant de Bohême

Il n’a jamais jamais connu de loi

Si tu ne m’aimes pas, je t’aime

Si je t’aime, prends garde à toi!

Love is a gypsy’s child

It has never, never known the law

If you don’t love me, then I love you

If I love you, you’d best beware!

On March 3, 1875, Georges Bizet’s Carmen premiered in Paris. It shocked audiences, flopped at first, and tragically, Bizet died believing it was a failure. Yet, 150 years later, Carmen is one of the most performed operas in history - a captivating story of love, obsession, and freedom.

Famous Carmen performances:

Elīna Garanča

Anna Caterina Antonacci

Agnes Baltsa

Maria Callas

Carmen is a story about freedom - about staying true to oneself no matter the cost.

It is also a cautionary tale: love is not possession. Don José abandons his career and his own values to be with Carmen, but in doing so, he loses the very qualities that once attracted her - his discipline, stability, and dedication. His love turns into desperation, then obsession, until Carmen is completely repelled by him. Near the end, she finds love with Escamillo, the toreador, a man who, like her, has his own passions and a love of freedom.

It is a powerful lesson about how love is not just about intensity - it is about compatibility.

But what inspires me most about Carmen is her fierceness, authenticity, and bravery. She refuses to be anyone but herself, even in the face of danger. She lives on her own terms, loves who she chooses, and meets her fate without fear. That kind of freedom - the courage to be unapologetically yourself - is why Carmen remains an icon.

Yet, Carmen remains painfully relevant today because it speaks to the tragic reality of femicide. It is heartbreaking that, even now, so many women see their own stories reflected in Carmen’s struggle - to leave a toxic relationship at the risk of losing their own lives.

150 years later, Carmen’s story is still being lived by too many women.

Sometimes, I wonder - what if Carmen had chosen differently? What if she had stayed with her friends instead of facing Don José? Could she have escaped, built a new life, and found happiness?

Yet, that’s exactly what makes Carmen, Carmen. She is stubborn, fearless, and true to herself until the very end. For her, freedom isn’t just about living - it’s about living without fear, without hiding, without bending to anyone’s will. She knows the risk, but she refuses to let Don José control her fate. To hide from him forever would be another kind of prison.

And so, she makes her final choice - not because she underestimates the danger, but because anything less would mean she is no longer truly free.

Carmen chooses freedom at any cost, even when fate seems against her. Do you think she was truly free in the end?

Libre elle est née et libre elle mourra!

(She was born free and free she will die!)

[loynosca]

Selection of images detailing lighting design and stage design for various productions of Madama Butterfly over the years. 

From the New Orleans Opera Association Archives. 

Listen to a recording of the NOOA 1967 performance (also from our digital archives), HERE. 

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Waiting through the night on line for tickets isn't a pastime limited to sports fans. Opera lovers do it regularly. With ticket prices out of the reach of many fans, standing room is the only way they can see live performances. Here, Rudolf Bing, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, turns humanitarian and hands out complementary coffee to the stalwarts, November 14, 1955.

Photo: John Lindsay for the AP

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Im Richard-Wagner-Jahr,” Simplicissimus. Vol. 37, No. 42, January 15, 1933.. p. 504. --- (E. Schilling) .... Mir gommd es so vor, Madhilde, wie wenn die hehren Gesdalden von unserm goddlichen Richard Wagner verleichd doch zu majestätsch sin für solche Veransdaldungen." [It seemed to me, Madhilde, as if the sublime gestures of our godly Richard Wagner were too majestic for such events.]

[newriverartist]

Wow! Still don't agree

Eagle Fire Original Oil painting SOLD Wall Art Prints and Prints on other items available with the below link https://kendall-kessler.pixels.com/featured/eagle-fire-kendall-kessler.html Last night I was watching a fantastic opera on PBS. It was Agrippina and, of course, I thought of my Mom who passed away four years ago. She was a great pianist but she did not like opera. She said it was a…

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[lavotha]

Brightest Opera star sang with passion & sensuality

Yesterday, Tuesday, March 5, 2019, the young Bulgarian Soprano Sonya Yoncheva, gave a passionate recital of Italian Opera Arias and melodies by Alfredo Catalani, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Giuseppe Martucci, Giacomo Puccini, Paolo Tosti, and of course Giuseppe Verdi.

The opera lovers were delighted with the passionate performance by the diva and broke into fervent applause after every Aria, and at the end of her performance, they continue clapping enthusiastically demanding an encore, over and over again. She fascinated us all with her beauty and strong stage presence, her idiomatic musicality and the sensuality of her voice. She is one of the most attractive Opera personalities of our times.

Talented French pianist Antoine Palloc from Nice, France, accompanied the soprano in her sublime performance. A role he accomplished with success. He is one of the best accompanists of melodies and operas in France today. He played with Annick Massis, Beatrice Uria-Monzon, Karine Deshayes, Jennifer Larmore, Jean-Francois Borras, Frederica Von Stade, just to name a few, and has been on the stage at the Opera of Paris, San Francisco, Berlin, Barcelona, Carnegie Hall in New York, London…

Sonya Yoncheva and Antoine Palloc, Récital Sonya Yoncheva ©2019 – Alain Hanel – OMC (1)

Récital Sonya Yoncheva ©2019 – Alain Hanel – OMC (3)

The Monegasque public discovered Sonya Yoncheva in the role of Violetta Valery in January 2013. An incredible revelation, her incarnation of La Traviata conquered the public and the international media. Soon she became Opera’s brightest new star! Since then, the most important world stages invite Sonya Yoncheva who becomes an exclusive Sony artist. As a sign of her international recognition, she holds the record from that season of the higher number of direct retransmissions of the Metropolitan Opera of New York.

After her representations of La Traviata a Monte-Carlo, her career and her voice continued moving towards more dramatic roles (Tosca, Desdemona, Norma…) and it is this incredible evolution that this recital highlighted.

Yoncheva’s return to the Opera of Monte-Carlo was a resounding success! Bravo!

Today’s Quote

“Farewell past, happy dreams of days gone by. The roses in my cheeks already are faded.”Verdi, La Traviata

Sonya Yoncheva, a beautiful woman with the voice of an angel, bewitched the public at the Opera of Monte-Carlo Brightest Opera star sang with passion & sensuality Yesterday, Tuesday, March 5, 2019, the young Bulgarian Soprano…

[ms-myself]