I'm not terribly into classical music or opera, but for some reason I've been in that kinda mood today. I've been listening to requiems-Faure and Webber (i know, i know, but I kinda like ALW's Requiem.)--all day.  I really like me some choral music, but that's my sister's influence shining through.  When I was in college, nothing beat studying to baroque music.  I don't know why, but it just would really help me concentrate.

Oh, and I saw Il Travitto on PBS's Great Performances this weekend.  I really enjoyed it, and I'm not too interested in opera.  Oh, lord, though.  Great Performances is like crack to me.  I have the DVD of Kristen Chenoweth in Candide (ok, I know I'm straying from the opera/classical thing) and it makes me swoon.  Patti LuPone! Kristen Chenoweth! Sondheim!  *sigh*

uh, yeah, so I like me some classical music. 

i love classical music since i was very! young i always loved it  !  as child sometimes i pretended to be an orchestra conductor  ( with chinese sticks ... stupid i know !)then later i did ballet so i listened to classical music even more !

Comme disait Jeanne D'Arc : " tu verras de quel bois je me chauffe " ;)

I absolutely love it!

I don't know if any of you've seen this clip from Brittians got talent it gives me goose bumps everytime i watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0dzZTPWrSM 

I would gladly go to any opera or classical concert if they weren't so costly.

My last show was Madame Butterfly & i thoroughly enjoyed that!

Next to my daughter and women in general, I love opera best. Thanks for starting this thread. Lesbians and opera….perfect together. At least I think so.

There’s so much to love. There’s the goddess Brnnhilde and her Walkre sisters stomping about on stage with their spears and capes and tresses flowing from their wing-ed helmets. There’s La Tosca killing her would-be rapist with his own dinner knife and then leaping from the fortress into the Tiber rather than surrender to the coppers like an original Thelma and Louise all rolled up into one delicious package.

Then there’s the Queen of the Night, herself, from “The Magic Flute”. I love her. What I don’t understand, and never will, is why she’s supposed to be so bad. So bad, in fact, that her own daughter has to be “rescued” (i.e. kidnapped by Sarastro and his patriarchal co-conspirators) from her. I think it must be because she’s guilty of, you guessed it, huge amounts of awesomeness. If you don’t believe me, take a look at this recording of my latest soprano heartthrob, Natalie Dessay, singing the Queen of the Night’s biggest baddest aria, “Der Hölle Rache” (oh so helpfully subtitled in French):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUEbgNS15dw

The singular most lovable thing about opera has to be the “trouser roles”. Early operas up to and including those by Handel and Mozart, had male roles written in the mezzo-soprano and soprano ranges. These were usually performed by castrati. Now that those kinds of guys are no longer around, these roles are either transposed down to lower ranges (boring!) or are sung by women in drag (mmm, much better!). There are even male roles that were originally written as trouser roles to be sung by women such as Cherubino in “Le Nozze di Figaro”, Nicklausse in “The Tales of Hoffmann”, and Prince Orlofsky in “Die Fledermaus”. But, the Queen Mum of all trouser roles has to be Octavian, the title character in “Der Rosenkavalier”.

“Der Rosenkavalier” was the first opera I ever saw at the Metropolitan Opera. I was a year and a half into a job I hated, my first after college. I was back in the closet after some wild times in college. I was so miserable. Between Christmas and New Year that year, I booked myself a flight into NYC, got myself a new dress and got a box seat at the Met to see “Der Rosenkavalier”. By the following Fall, I had quit that horrible job and gotten a new one in New Jersey and was sneaking my way back out of the closet. I’ve seen something like 100 or more operas at the Met since then, and plenty more at other opera houses, but I’ll never forget that first night at the Met.

“Der Rosenkavalier” is scrumptious from beginning to end, but the last 15 minutes, a trio followed by a duet, are achingly gorgeous. Octavian (mezzo-soprano) has been the young lover of the Princess von Werdenberg (the Marschallin) (soprano). But, since the Marschallin is so old, she knows Octavian will want to move on. By the end of the opera, Octavian finds himself, uh, herself (yeah, let’s stick with herself) torn between the lovely, yet old Marschallin (she’s 30 years old, BTW) and her new love, Sophie (soprano). In the trio, “Hab’ mir’s gelobt”, the Marschallin is letting go of Octavian so that the two young lovers can run away together. As the Marschallin leaves, Octavian and Sophie sing the final duet “Ist ein Traum”.

Here are the trio and duet from a 1994 staged version at the Vienna State Opera

(Felicity Lott (Marschallin), Anne Sofie von Otter (Octavian), Barbara Bonney (Sophie)) (Get a load of how happy (or is it bemused?) Sophie’s father is over Sophie hooking up with her sweetheart, Octavian)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pO-zbfpXKc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EolhXNJBbU

Here are the trio and duet from a concert version as televised on Austrian TV (Soile Isokoski (Marschallin), Angelika Kirchschlager (Octavian) Genia Kühmeier (Sophie)). (During concert versions of pieces from “Der Rosenkavalier”, it’s traditional for the sopranos to wear diva gowns as usual but for the mezzo singing Octavian to wear, well, trousers.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa_qqcfBXd8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKb76kBIRJw

This must be what it sounds like in heaven.

(PS I think my heart know belongs to Frau Kirschlager)

I have to say, she's not my favorite.  Have you seen the Diana Damrau version, it's so badass.  That woman is awesome.  Check it out:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DvuKxL4LOqc

Hell yes.

My favorite right now, though, is June Anderson.  I might be a little bit in love with her.  Have you seen her Lucia? (Lucia Di Lammermoor = my favorite opera ever)  She's mind-blowing.  Here's the Mad Scene in three parts:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KUfsmE8lu-U

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tEDxgZlx0ng&feature=related

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2DUVIP2Xjec&feature=related

Also, you mentioned Barbera Bonney, who does a really lovely Ave Maria.  It might be my favorite:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aQVz6vuNq7s

Oh, and (my mind just keeps wandering...) speaking of The Magic Flute, there's this really amazing boychoir called Tolzer Knabenchor, and ther're two really amazing Magic Flute videos.  The first is of a boy doing the ueen of the Night aria:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aQVz6vuNq7s

And the second is 4 boys (yes, one is singing Pamina) doing the part where the three boys keep Pamina from offing herself (this one's amazing):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6nrvaKJx5AA

Anyways, I'm going to stop posting things, because I'm going to be here all night.  You totally know waaaay more about opera than me, by the way, which is awesome.  I loved the links :)

One of my dreams is to go to an opera with a girlfriend, but since I'm single and live in Miami (where there are few, if any, opera lovers) it will be a while for my dream to be fulfilled.

My first opera was "La Traviata". And no, I did not cry, but I certainly fell in love with the art form. "Sempre Libera" makes me giddy and I can't help but sing along. Tickets to "Don Giovanni" were a birthday gift from a caring soul, but boy did I wish she had kept them! Awful performance, I dare not blame the opera itself. 'Carmen' is always lovely, and once I saw "Madame Butterfly" twice in one week (couldn't see it a few more times because tickets are much too expensive). Had to leave halfway through 'The Magic Flute', and I still regret it, just as I will always regret forgetting to buy tickets for Lucia de Lammermoor. But I have to admit that the craziest thing I've done for my love of opera was to (as a poor college student at the time) self-finance (meaning use a credit card that took me a year to pay back!) a 2-day trip to New York to experience the force of nature that is 'Turandot' at Lincoln Center. And boy, it was so worth it. The opera season here in South Florida leaves much to be desired, but it'll suffice. This season I'm looking forward to 'La Boheme" and "Tosca". I just wish I knew more about music! It's one thing to enjoy it as an audience, but it would be lovely to create it.

my favourite opera singer is maria callas..she is the all time classic opera singer! specially the song "la mama morta"(the mother died)..omg its the best! as for classical music..hmm..i think i ll give 12 points to mozart!

what you can't have

you can't resist

lol...i do music and i'm in england atm doing exactly just that... learning all sorts of music so youi're not the only lesbian who's into stuff like that =)

well i don't really like baroque personally... i play the piano (i'm not rubbish) and i find that romantic music is awesome, like rachmaninoff...not really into bach though i have to play bach, it's for an audition and it's just in minor key and it's so beautifull....i just don't like his happy prelude and fugues =\ they annoy me.. lol. so sue me!! *hides*

opera is just awesome. i love madame butterfly and turandot...it's just, so awesome o_o i love ballets too...currently hoping to learn the prokofiev's romeo and juliet for piano. it's just so hard and awesome lolol. i've soooo much to say about music, i'm in this music specialist school and i'm like surrounded by music...people always say how i'm never seperated from it (cuz i always bring my ipod to every single lesson and i listen to it illegally everywhere except for the shower...)

well, it's good to know that there is a thread like this so i can rant somewhere =)

-----------------------------------------

i speak with my hands
and you speak with your eyes.

~~~~~~

Don't write me a love song;

write me a check.

Patricia Racette will be at the Met next month playing Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes.

Here she is with her life partner and fellow opera singer Beth Clayton.

http://www.patriciaracette.com/CeremonySm.jpg

Thank you, snowweeks, for the news (to me at least) of Patricia Racette and Beth Clayton. I didn't know!  I feel like I've been such a bad lesbian opera fan.  Bless me, it's been nearly 2 years since I've seen an opera on stage.  I took my daughter to the New York City Opera to see Carmen.  Delicious as that was, it's just not enough.

The next best thing, though, will be seeing Patricia Racette live from the Met on the big screen.  For those of you who don't know, you can see HD live opera performances from the Met on certain Imax screens across the country.  Here's the link: 

 http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/broadcast/hd_events.aspx

Patricia Racette in Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes will be on Saturday March 15 1:30pm - 5:15pm.  You can locate the nearest theater and order tickets from the website.

Puccini's Manon Lescaut, although with no known out lesbians performing, is up next for the Met's HD live transmission on Saturday February 16 1:00pm - 4:41pm.

This thread is nice! It has largely been my girlfriends influence that I've started loving classical music and opera. She has a large collection of complete opera recordings, especially Maria Callas originals, who we both love. Normas aria "Casta Diva" is so beautiful and it moves me so much. Actually I have to listen to it right now. Wait a second...Wow - goosebumps!!! I found it on youtube too:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7B8rGK3jvQ

Another great sopranist: Jessye Norman!

Meanwhile I have developed my own taste too ;-) I like instrumental classic a lot, for example Dvorák's 8th and of course 9th symphony (From the new world). Tschaikowski! (violin concert D major - I have a great record with Anne Sophie Mutter - but right now I still listen to Maria...). Also very good: pianist Lang Lang! Here's he at the Waldbühne in Berlin with Tschaikowski's Piano concerto No. 1 (1st part)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Fwi794qGs

And then there is Johann Sebastian Bach... I adore the "Matthäus-Passion" and try to see a live performance every year at Easter. Here's a recording of the famous final chorus "Wir setzen uns in Tränen nieder"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7EtnprvVjg

My gf and I are living in a long distance relationship, so we don't make more than one opera visit a year sadly. Where I lived before I had an abonnement with a friend, but since I moved I haven't been to opera much. I should pull myself together and go more often! *late New Years resolution*

Yeahhhhh! Finally someone picked up the topic. Do love Opera and Classic Music as well. Currently very much in to Handel's Alcina and Scarlatti.

Hello from Belgium!

Yes, I do love opera as I am an operasinger...

So let me tell you that there are a lot of lesbian opera singers! I have to travel a lot and I have to tell you that I work the most of the time in Germany because it is the Mecca of the opera. I noticed that sometimes the Germans are a bit conservative so I sometimes tell that I hg