A Wellsung post from last week has become a new meme/party trick at Parterre Box: What is your "birth opera"? The idea is to dig into the Metropolitan Opera Archives online and find out what the company was doing on the day you were born. (Those born during months in which the Met was dark have taken the liberty to turn their attention to other houses in the comments following La Cieca's post.)
As it happens, the Met was busy on the day I was born, playing both a matinee and an evening performance in Boston:
LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR {346}
Lucia...................Anna Moffo
Edgardo.................Sándor Kónya
Enrico..................Nicolae Herlea
Raimondo................Raymond Michalski
Normanno................Robert Nagy
Alisa...................Carlotta Ordassy
Arturo..................Charles Anthony
Conductor...............Joseph RosenstockDON GIOVANNI {260}
Don Giovanni............Cesare Siepi
Donna Anna..............Teresa Stich-Randall
Don Ottavio.............Jan Peerce
Donna Elvira............Mary Ellen Pracht
Leporello...............Fernando Corena
Zerlina.................Jeanette Scovotti
Masetto.................Theodor Uppman
Commendatore............Justino Díaz
Conductor...............Joseph Rosenstock
So, how about it? What's your "birth opera"?
Playlist:
Antonio Vivaldi [att.] - Andromeda Liberata - Simone Kermes, Max Emanuel Cencic, Venice Baroque Orchestra/Andrea Marcon (Archiv)
Antonio Vivaldi - Amor Profano - Simone Kermes, Venice Baroque Orchestra/Andrea Marcon (Archiv)
Joseph Haydn - Die Schöpfung - Simone Kermes, Dorothee Mields, Steve Davislim, Locky Chung, Johannes Mannov, Balthasar-Neumann Choir and Ensemble/Thomas Hengelbrock (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)
Punch Brothers - Punch (Nonesuch)
Elvis Costello - This Year's Model (Hip-O/Universal)
As it turns out I was born on an auspicious date: the day Giulietta Siminato made her Met debut as Azucena in Trovatore:
[Met Performance] CID:183000
New production
Il Trovatore {302} Metropolitan Opera House: 10/26/1959.
(Opening Night {75}
Rudolf Bing, General Manager
Debuts: Giulietta Simionato, Roald Reitan
Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
October 26, 1959
Opening Night {75}
New production
Rudolf Bing, General Manager
IL TROVATORE {302}
Giuseppe Verdi--Salvatore Cammarano
Manrico.................Carlo Bergonzi
Leonora.................Antonietta Stella
Count Di Luna...........Leonard Warren
Azucena.................Giulietta Simionato [Debut]
Ferrando................William Wilderman
Ines....................Helen Vanni
Ruiz....................Charles Anthony
Messenger...............Robert Nagy
Gypsy...................Roald Reitan [Debut]
Conductor...............Fausto Cleva
Director................Herbert Graf
Designer................Motley
Posted by: Eric Skelly | February 06, 2008 at 02:37 PM
The Met and San Francisco were both dark on my birthday. Wah.
Posted by: Lisa Hirsch | February 06, 2008 at 06:05 PM
Only because everyone already knew you deserved to have the spotlight all to yourself that day, Lisa.
Posted by: Steve Smith | February 06, 2008 at 06:10 PM
I seem to be having a Soprano Moment and can't figure out how to search the database for my birthday... ??
Posted by: ACB | February 06, 2008 at 07:02 PM
It took me a minute to figure out as well, ACB (although I note that La Cieca spelled it out): Go to the Met archive site, click on Key Word Search, then simply enter your full birth date in the top search field. Voila! Do report.
Posted by: Steve Smith | February 06, 2008 at 08:20 PM
Far too much fun for a day this gloomy. Here's mine.
Posted by: Matthew | February 07, 2008 at 09:49 AM
This is so entertaining, I'm only surprised no one suggested it sooner. Mine is here.
Posted by: Bruce Hodges | February 07, 2008 at 10:40 AM
Oddly enough--as I was being born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on May 30, 1973--the Met was performing Il Trovatore (with Richard Tucker) a mere 50 miles away in Detroit.
Posted by: Matt Carlson | February 09, 2008 at 02:20 PM