Reply #30: I can imagine..

[Princess Turandot]

one of my long term friends tried to make a go of it at playing baroque woodwinds, mostly recorder. Built her own clavichord. Tough to break into a group, though..she worked for a while at a place which made recorders and other baroque instruments because the owner was a big macher in the NYC baroque ensemble world. She eventually married a guy whom she met at a summer program at Oberlin, who played Viola da Gamba as an avocation. After she got married, she went into the comp science world.

Did you sing any concert versions of operas? I've only heard one live: Nabucco at Carnegie Hall which has no plot but beautiful music.

Did you sing at the main Marble Collegiate or the one down on 8th Street & Second Avenue?

I had a subscription to the Met for years. I eventually gave it up because of the cost & because my 'opera partner' got transferred to the West coast, and opera is a hard date to fill lol. Once, we were seated next to the parents of a guy from a mid-Atlantic opera company, who was singing in the chorus of Meistersinger but actually had a single phrase to sing. He popped by to see them at some intermission. He and they were as thrilled as could be.

I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Domingo sing Otello 3 times, once with Renee Fleming and once with April Millo, and also by chance was there the nights that they filmed their sales version of Tosca & Turandot, both with Domingo. (Witness my nickname.) Mirella Freni once, in Fedora. Dame Joan at the end of her career, in Fille du Regiment. Stiffelio once, with Domingo.I heard Carreras sing in Carmen once, unusual because he doesn't appear at the Met much at all.

I did not attend my first opera until my mid-twenties; it was Traviata. The first scene left me unconvinced; the second hooked me forever! I have abt 250 full opera recordings at this point, as well as extraits and various vocal music. I like buying offbeat recordings of lesser known operas by well known composers, such as the Donizetti operas released by Opera Rara. (Finances & space have sort of limited me at this point.)

I'm very good with numbers & a decent avocational artist & photographer, but I wish that I could sing! You have to give the Yankees props for bringing in real singers, as opposed to the Cowsills..:evilgrin:

I'll end now, since this is off topic and because I could go on forever!