Bel canto

As a music genre, opera really doesn't appeal to me all that much. I love La Boheme, L'Elisir d'amore, Madame Butterfly, Rigoletto, and Die Fledermaus, in their entirety; but most operas would put me to sleep within the first five minutes. However, there are songs from operas that have haunted, or at least accompanied, my adult life. There's a quintet, I think, from Lucia di Lammermoor with music so wonderful it ought to be in the Hymnal with a poem of praise set to it.

The opening three bars of Musetta's waltz in La Boheme is one of the loneliest, most desolate musical phrases I have ever heard. Gilda's last aria in Rigoletto is too beautiful to describe (knowing the story but not understanding the words helps a lot to appreciate the music). La Gioconda has one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, but I don't remember the title. And of course everyone listens when Pavarotti sings "Nessun dorma."

One reason I love La Boheme so much is that we performed it and filmed it (remember Kinescope?) in English, at the Univ. of Ala. my freshman year, and broadcast it live on PBS. We were the first PBS station to broadcast television. Of course, I didn't sing, but I was learning to use the TV cameras, and during rehearsals I was technical director (on the control board!), and while filming I was floor manager part of the time (the one who lowered [and raised] the boom), and my name was on the crawl in the TV credits. The guy who sang Marcello had the best male voice in the production (Rodolfo was kind of whiney), and his face was so completely p0ck-marked it looked like a map of the moon, but on film he was very handsome. Good makeup covers a multitude of flaws. Pat Huddleston (who was 1955 Miss Alabama) sang Mimi.

I must say, as far as recommendation goes, if you've never heard Daughter of the Regiment or seen L'Elisir d'amore, there's a part of your life that's like a big empty balloon.