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?
The best it could be.
Exact date and year
12/7/1955
Callas/Norma/La Scala
Callas
Del Monaco
Simionato
And I can buy it on cd!!!
LOL
PS The MET was a ballet I believe, so I have to turn to another theatre.
I stand corrected! Learn something new everyday. I also had a great perf at the MET to commemorate my arrival:
LOHENGRIN 12/7/1955
Lohengrin……………Brian Sullivan
Elsa………………..Eleanor Steber
Ortrud………………Margaret Harshaw
Telramund……………Hermann Uhde
King Heinrich………..Otto Edelmann
Herald………………Arthur Budney
Noble……………….Charles Anthony
Noble……………….James McCracken
Noble……………….Calvin Marsh
Noble……………….Louis Sgarro
Conductor……………Fritz Stiedry
well I share a birthopera with our hostess, and an equally stellar cast:
DON GIOVANNI {187}
Don Giovanni…………George London
Donna Anna…………..Eleanor Steber
Don Ottavio………….Nicolai Gedda
Donna Elvira…………Lisa Della Casa
Leporello……………Ezio Flagello
Zerlina……………..Laurel Hurley
Masetto……………..Theodor Uppman
Commendatore…………Giorgio Tozzi
Conductor……………Karl Böhm
November 25, 1956: Act II of Tosca in the Ed Sullivan show. Callas and London. Not too shabby.
Looks like I’m a Magic Flute baby! Cast isn’t too shabby, either! It was a Monday night, so it wasn’t broadcast, but one can’t have everything!
Metropolitan Opera House
January 19, 1959
In English
DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE {138}
Pamina………………Lucine Amara
Tamino………………Cesare Valletti
Queen of the Night……Roberta Peters
Sarastro…………….Jerome Hines
Papageno…………….Theodor Uppman
Papagena…………….Mildred Allen
Monostatos…………..Paul Franke
Speaker……………..Norman Scott
First Lady…………..Heidi Krall
Second Lady………….Mignon Dunn
Third Lady…………..Belén Amparan
Genie……………….Emilia Cundari
Genie……………….Helen Vanni
Genie……………….Margaret Roggero
Priest………………William Olvis
Guard……………….Albert Da Costa
Guard……………….Louis Sgarro
Slave……………….Henry Arthur [Last performance]
Slave……………….Frank D’Elia
Slave……………….John Frydel
Conductor……………Erich Leinsdorf
I’m an ERNANI baby
Ermanno Mauro and Leona Mitchell!!! WAAAAAHHHHH!
great, I am a bat….
and Madeira was the only one worthwhile…..
Born on a Sunday, dammit.
Born three weeks too early for the 1959-60 Met season–so I checked San Francisco Opera and got Carmen with Gloria Lane, Mary Costa, Jon Vickers & Mario Zanasi. Oh, well…
well, shit, neither the met, sf opera, or salzburg seem to have productions up on may 8, 1970. darn! i’ll keep searching.