Opera on Broadway?

[Unmasked05]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 9:08am

Has there ever been an Opera on Broadway?

Updated On: 5/15/07 at 09:08 AM

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 9:16am

This was a different thread a minute ago.

And off the top of my head I can think of La Boheme.

[misschung]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 9:20am

do rock operas count?

[Katie2]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 9:24am

Candide.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 9:29am

Many MANY operas have appeared on Broadway. Some of the best have been Giancarlo Menotti's masterpieces, The Medium (And The Telephone), The Saint of Bleeker Street and others. Also I believe that Virgil Thomson's opera Four Saints in Three Acts (another American Masterpiece) opened on Broadway as well.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 9:32am

Well, PORGY AND BESS is considered an OPERA to many, many people, so I shall ad that to the list.

[whatever2]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:41am

lots and lots. top of mind:

kurt weill's "street scene", now generally presented in opera houses, premiered on the great white way.

ditto blitzstein's "regina".

[LittleFish8386]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:53am

They should definitely do more operas on Broadway.

[whatever2]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:58am

the Met does ~ 26 operas a season, City Opera ~ 15. two more stops on the B/D, one more stop on the 1.

the city's also rich in off-broadway" operas: di capo, amato, gotham chamber, the occasional production at julliard, one of the cultural societies, yadda yadda.

it's all out there already.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 11:08am

Fenchurch forgot to mention Menotti's THE CONSUL.

In the 1950s I saw a Broadway version of Verdi's AIDA, called MY DARLIN' AIDA. The production used Verdi's original music but the time and place was changed to the American south during the Civil War. The two leading ladies, Dorothy Sarnoff as Amneris(Lady Thiang in the original The King and I) and Elaine Malbin as Aida (Marsinah in tours of Kismet)were magnificent. The set and costumes designed by Lemuel Ayers were outstanding. Unfortunately the show lasted a mere 89 performances. However, the most recent Broadway reincarnation of AIDA would probably have only lasted 5 performances given the better taste of Broadway critics and audience in that era

[keen on kean]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 12:21pm

Too expensive.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 12:34pm

MT singing is just too different from classical for it to work IMO. Unless they get successful crossover people like Kelli O'Hara and Anthony Warlow, I can't see it working.

[AC126748]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 12:36pm

If you were doing 8 performances a week and using opera singers, you would have to have at least 2 (possibly 3) alternating casts. There's no way that you could sing operatic music for close to a year straight without completely blowing your voice out.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 12:46pm

MT singing is getting closer and closer to opera singing, and vice versa, But I agree with the fact that you would need alternating casts.

And Kelli O'Hara is NOT a crossover artist, she couldn't cut an opera if her life depended on it.

[misschung]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 1:35pm

the Met and I think NYCO do student rush tickets

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 1:45pm

Well, she won the Met Opera Competition, so I'm assuming that she has some experience in the area. But I suppose you're right in that she hasn't received a Masters in opera performance.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 2:43pm

Gershwin himself considered P&B to be an opera, though it wasn't performed in an opera house till the 80s, I believe. The first Broadway revival cut of a lot of the "operatic" elements, making it more "Broadway."

Pirates of Penzance, an operetta, has been on Broadway.

Several other Broadway shows are considered to be very close to being considered in the opera genre such as Most Happy Fella and Candide.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 2:51pm

O'Hara was a met competitor? Wow, I never would have guessed from her Piazza performance. I do not like her voice.

Updated On: 5/15/07 at 02:51 PM

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 3:04pm

I love opera and Kelli O'Hara. I think that with her larger and more resonant voice, she'd be a lot better at singing opera than Kristin Chenoweth (who AFAIK was microphoned during Candide.) According to her website, she's a lyric coloratura.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 7:34pm

Wicked, Porgy and Bess was performed by Opera houses WAY before the 80s--it played La Scala in the 50s (although I don't think it regularly played American opera houses till the 60s or 70s)

Wasn't there actually a producer who tried to run a theatre just for oper aon Broadway? I believe Suskin mentions him in his online review of the Bazz Lurhman La Boheme Broadway production.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 9:17pm

One of my teachers alternated the role of Bess and Clara in P&B on Broadway. I also personally consider Phantom to be an opera, and Piazza to be an operetta.

[John3]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 9:22pm

I am pretty sure that Kelly O'hara did not win the Met Council Auditions. I just checked and she wasnt anywhere on the list on the Met website. She studied classically, and she might have won or placed at the regional auditions.

As for Kristin Chenoweth being wearing a mic in Candide, all the others were wearing mics as well. It wasn't just her. With an orchestra that large and sharing a stage with the actors, I think most opera singers would have difficulty singing without a mic of some sort.

[LostLeander]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:06pm

Sweeney is sometimes performed in Opera Houses.

O'Hara is like Classical Lite.

[AC126748]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:36pm

Kristin is going to be in the Metropolitan Opera revival of The Ghosts of Versailles in the 2009-10 season, and there are rumors that Peter Gelb wants Audra McDonald for the company premiere of Dr. Atomic in 08-09. So, as far as wearing mics goes, neither of them will wear one at the Met.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:38pm

I dunno, people have been microphoned at the Met before (like Kathleen Battle, or so I've heard.)

Apparently Kelli won the State Met competition. Whatever that is, haha.