- A performance of Don Giovanni with the great Italian baritone Antonio Scotti (as Don Giovanni). Scotti sang the role of Don Giovanni at Covent Garden, London, in 1899 and again at the Metropolitan Opera, New York in December of the same year.
It never dawned on me I was proud I didn’t like opera. I’d never heard any opera except brief snatches or in spoofs. I’d never given any conscious thought at all to the fact I thought people who went to operas did it to show off to other people who went to operas, or were snooty and just wanted to impress someone, or were sissies. Never gave it a single thought.
To my mind a person who went to operas was just naturally, naturally, naturally someone I had no respect for, had no time for, would never take seriously. I didn’t need to think about it. I knew. I don’t recall anyone ever trying to change my thinking about it, either. I imagine they all knew same as I did those opera goers were phonies and sissies.
So, sometime in the late-1980s when my ex-wife got a couple of opera tickets for a performance on the University of Texas campus I wasn’t overjoyed. I suited up and traveled down there under duress, grumbled behind her to our seats, scowled when the lights went down and battened down the hatches for hard weather.
Over the next couple of hours a pair of blinders was removed from my eyes, plugs removed from my ears. A war went on inside me as the realization dawned that I loved this stuff. The next time an opera came to Austin it was me insisting we get tickets.
That would be bad enough if it had stopped there. But when my marriage broke up in 1992, and I relocated to Santa Fe, mildly affluent, I discovered a Santa Fe Opera exists. I attended a performance, and thereafter every year bought season tickets and used them as long as I could afford them.
I’ve attended a lot of concerts and live performances in my life and enjoyed many with Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Kinky Friedman, Leonard Cohen, Loudon Wainwright and others, including a few Broadway performances. But I’d be lying if I claimed every opera I ever attended wasn’t as thrilling and uplifting as I walked out as any of those.
And naturally, I hate myself for it and hang my head in shame admitting it.
Florida Grand Opera-DON GIOVANNI, The Don’s final scene
So Far From Heaven 
Guilty! Been to a couple . And as a music major in College I was exposed to a lot of it. Don’t get me wrong I don’t sit around listening all day. One reason is I don’t understand Latin. 🙂
Morning Ben. Thanks for coming by for the visit. Sounds as though you were fortunate enough to discover it earlier in life than I did. Shore is fine though, having discovered it at all. Gracias, Jules
Forty something years ago I did not like opera. I won’t say hate because I’ve never hated any kind of music. One night when I was stoned or drunk I heard a part of an opera, sung in Italian I believe, that brought tears to my eyes. I do not know the name of the opera or the song but it changed my outlook a great deal. I still know very little about opera but when I chance to hear that particular piece it still brings a tear.
In a language I do not understand and in a format I claimed to not like It evoked that kind of emotion, now that is powerful.
Morning Oldfool: We have a way of setting ourselves up for surprises by knowing too much without knowing anything about what we know I reckons. Glad to hear you’ve encountered the opera surprise, too. Thanks for the visit and the comment. Gracias, J
Prompts me to ask if you like any classical music too?
For me, it’s just music – some I like and some I don’t care for – which goes for about any kind except rap and heavy metal. Just too old to appreciate those.
Hi John. Thanks for coming by. Some classical I like, other classical I don’t care for, same as you. Probably there’s opera I wouldn’t care for but just haven’t seen nor heard it. Gracias, J
I’ve heard enough opera, and choral music, to know I prefer instrumental music from the genre most folks call “Classical.” So I’ll accept an opera for free, but I’d pay to hear a good symphony.
Morning Ed. I wouldn’t pay much to hear any of it these days, but have done. Gracias, J
I’m still living in the “don’t think I’ll ever like Opera even though I’ve never tried” period of my life. Perhaps I should consider it…
Morning Kid Id: Thanks for the read and comment. No harm in it either way. Just one more door with something unsuspected behind it. Gracias, J
Never caught the opera bug, though I attended it twice while living in Santa Fe. Very glad for the experience, though. I do recall walking by someone’s cabin on a cold winter night where they were listening to opera, and the sound coming out of that cabin that night, with that setting, was memorable indeed.
It is nice when we’re pleasantly surprised at having our minds changed.