Wearing my Education Manager hat, I spent most of last week visiting schools, talking with fine arts classes and music classes about "opera" and why they should give La Boheme at the West Virginia Symphony a try on Saturday night.
One young lady from St. Albans said she didn't like opera, but when I probed a bit deeper, she had never been. I challenged her to accept a complimentary student ticket and try it!
I am anxious to hear what she thought, and what you think too.
I was pleased with the number of younger patrons we had floating around the Grand Lobby at the Clay Center.
I spoke with one adult patron who was working for a few days in Beckley. He ended up staying in WV a few days longer and was thrilled to see that La Boheme was playing in Charleston. He was far away from his season tickets at the Oregon Opera, but took advantage of our offering on Saturday night!
Another couple was seeing La Boheme for the second time as a couple. They were anxious to compare the two productions.
So, now is the chance for you to share with us your thoughts about the production. Comments are encouraged!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
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1 comments:
This weekend's performance of La Boheme was my first opera. I loved it - to my untrained ear, the lead performers sounded as good as Placido Domingo and Maria Callas. Being "semi-staged" didn't detract from the experience. I followed the performance by seeking out La Boheme recordings (found some by Caruso and McCormack at archive.org). I was already familiar with 'Rent' which helped me understand what was going on, as did the "supertitles" above the stage. I'm already seeking out more Puccini operas on DVD and hope the Symphony stages something similar in the future.
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