Meme chanson, meme refrain
La Cieca is indebted to those Wellsungs for this idea:Â what’s your birth opera? Or, in other words, which opera (and cast, if applicable) was the Met performing on the day you were born? (You get this information, of course, from the Met Archives Database.)
Unfortunately, La Cieca, being a Leo, was born outside the regular Met season. So, for the purposes of this meme, she’ll look to the the Salzburg Festival for her birth opera:
Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni: Cesare Siepi; Donna Anna: Elisabeth Grümmer; Don Ottavio: Anton Dermota; Donna Elvira: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf; Leoporello: Otto Edelmann; Il Commendatore: Dezsö Ernster; Masetto: Walter Berry; Zerlina: Erna Berger. Wilhelm Furtwängler; Wiener Philharmoniker.)
 What’s your birth opera?
I’m an Oklahoma Boheme — pretty good, given that I was born in Brooklyn:
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
May 13, 1953
In English
LA BOHÈME {485}
Mimì………………..Nadine Conner
Rodolfo……………..Eugene Conley
Musetta……………..Regina Resnik
Marcello…………….Robert Merrill
Schaunard……………Clifford Harvuot
Colline……………..Norman Scott
Benoit………………Lawrence Davidson
Alcindoro……………Lorenzo Alvary
Parpignol……………Paul Franke
Sergeant…………….Algerd Brazis
Conductor……………Alberto Erede
“I could sing Musetta *tomorrow*, it’s a question of color and tessitura…”
Another August baby, so to Salzburg I go.
Boy, do I have a bummer birth opera!
Hans Pfitzner PALESTRINA
New production, Premiere performance
Rudolf Kempe, Conductor
Günther Rennert, Stage director
Wilhelm Reinking, Stage sets/costumes
Gottlob Frick, Papst Pius IV.
Ferdinand Frantz, Giovanni Morone
Helmut Melchert, Bernardo Novagerio
Otto von Rohr, Kardinal Christoph Madruscht
Paul Schöffler, Carlo Borromeo
Hans Herbert Fiedler, Kardinal von Lothringen
Peter Klein, Abdisu
Walter Berry, Anton Brus von Müglitz
Alfred Poell, Graf Luna
Rudolf Christ, Bischof von Budoja
August Jaresch, Theophilus
Waldemar Kmentt, Dandini von Grosseto
Georges Müller, Bischof von Fiesoli
Franz Bierbach, Bischof von Feltre
Theo Baylé, Avosmediano
Walter Raninger, Spanischer Bischof
Karl Gmachl, Junger Doktor
Otto Wiener, Bischof Ercole Severolus
Max Lorenz, Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina
Elisabeth Söderström, Ighino
Jean Madeira, Silla
Hilde Rössel-Majdan, Erscheinung der Lukrezia
Chor der Wiener Staatsoper
Vienna Philharmonic
They were doing Flying Dutchman at Bayreuth at about the same time. Have no idea about casts.
Regina Reznik as Musetta? Someone thought that was a good idea?
9/25…Falstaff baby:
Sir John Falstaff…….Giuseppe Taddei [Debut]
Alice Ford…………..Adriana Maliponte
Ford………………..Brent Ellis
Dame Quickly…………Fiorenza Cossotto
Nannetta…………….Mariella Devia
Fenton………………Dalmacio Gonzalez
Meg Page…………….Gail Dubinbaum
Dr. Cajus……………Charles Anthony
Bardolfo…………….Anthony Laciura
Pistola……………..Ara Berberian
Mistress of the Inn…..Constance Webber
Innkeeper……………Merle Schmidt
Conductor……………James Levine
Production…………..Franco Zeffirelli
Stage Director……….Bodo Igesz
Designer…………….Franco Zeffirelli
Lighting designer…….Gil Wechsler
Choreographer………..William Burdick