New Years Resolutions for Opera Characters:

Salome-           Ich vill nicht shtripen

Wotan-    I will finally use birth control because I do not want any more noisy daughters. (Besides, I can't pronounce their names.)

Iago:    I will act like a cutesy little Teddy Bear.

Tristan-     I respect older people in the theatre with bladder problems so I will take only 10 minutes to die.

Violetta-    I will only take the E  flat in Sempre Libera if They triple my salary.

Andrea Chenier    I will be calmer lest I lose my head.

Amfortas-    I will stop being such a big baby and stop kvetching

Tosca-      The next time I will NOT hit the trampolin.

Witch in Hansel and Gretel     I will go on a total vegetarian diet

Lucia    I will stop imitating that Australian girl and clean up my diction.



De Grieux    The next dude who calls my girlfriend a hooker has to deal with me!

Falstaff    OK, I will cut down on 10 pizzas a day to only 9.

Elsa        I will mind my own business and stop asking people for their name.

OK...add more.............................Charlie (not even drunk)

As we look back on 2014, we must remember with affection so many celebrities who gave the world so much.

 Magda made it to age 104. She is a "baby" here at 83 in 1993.  Who else could achieve this????? Bless her memory forever. Riposa in Pace.

Love and best wishes to you all!! You make my life a pleasure and a treasure!!!!

Giordani, said to me once...., "I know Piotr is your favorite tenor...I love him too....." I did not respond..although Piotr,who was born Dec.28,1966, IS the best thing to come along in many years...Not the size or a lot of squillo..but beauty,style,elegance..No wonder his fav.tenors are Gedda and Wunderlich.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Charlie

Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji urodzin

Do you now realize why I was almost NEVER home as a new opera lover?

 This is Zinka at her greatest..Note the "ferma" offstage and coming onstage..and the section that follows is for my sensational!!!!!

Amazing lady....a bit "eccentric" vocalism,but still a legend and still performing. Dec.23, 1946 birthday.

  I LOVE the "scooooops" into the high notes!!!

May all of you have a wonderful Holiday wherever you are!!!!!!!!!

Tauber is such a great guy!!!!!!

               Love,   Charlie

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season!!!!!!!

                      Charlie Handelmaniac

Jussi wishes you a wonderful Holiday Season,as do I...to you wonderful people!!!!!

• I had posted on “learning a language through opera.” If all you know is what you know from opera, you surely can uses these phrases (and produce hilarity for the natives.):

  1. Lousy meal: “Eh cameriere…questo piato puzza di rifritto.”

  2. Nasty Hotel Clerk: “Va….fuggi”

  3.Very angry at someone “Cruda, funesta smania”

  4.Crying at a film in Paris: “Pleurez,pleurez,mes yeux”

  5. Trying to make out with someone: ” Du bist der Lenz”

  6. Homesick: “O Patria mia”

  7. During sex with “Cortesan”(I didn’t say “Putana”): ” Basta,Roberti” OR”Basta,Roberta.”

  8. Bad food: “Ohime, morir mi sento.”

  9. Fire in your hotel room “Di quella pira.”

  10. Hating a mean landlady: “Maledizione” OR “A terra…e piangi” OR
  ” Man tote dieses Weib”

  11. Kept up by orchestra on the plaza: “Nessun Dorma”

  12. Departure: “Addio,senza rancor.”

  13. They came into your hotel room and robbed some furniture:
  “Adieu,notre petite table.”

  14. I can’t sleep in this dump. “Ich habe nicht gute Nachte”

  15. Bad service at Easter GUESS!! (a te,la mala Pasqua.”

  Come on..nutcases like me..Let’s hear some of yours!!!!

Let us celebrate the birthday of Giacomo Puccini,born Dec.22, 1858 .We would need  5000 towels to catch all the tears he makes us shed in a lifetime. Diana Soviero sings the Suor Angelica Finale here.

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• Rita Gorr, at a Dallas I rehearsal, yells at Mario del Monaco for being out of costume.
• The famous "Dristan und Isolde" -- where Jon Vickers tells the audience (Dallas again..maybe it is the climate?) to "shut up with your damn coughing!"
• Franco Bonisolli, famous for his outbursts, calls for "Wasser" just before he takes the first high C in "Di Quella pira" in a Hamburg performance. I guess they brought it to him, because he then unleashes a mighty one! (after some booing)
• Montserrat Caballé faints halfway through a rendition of "Addio del passato" in 1972 at the Paris Opera. But give her credit at least for trying! Five years later, when she canceled the opening night of Turandot at La Scala, Maestro Zubin Mehta had to go out and announce the bad news to the audience.
• The funniest soprano in the world (yes, even funnier than Florence Foster Jenkins), Mari Lynn, of public access television fame, reads the letter from La Traviata..which sounds much closer to La TraviYENTA! I played this for Diana Soviero, telling her this was a "Violetta the likes of which she had never seen before" and she almost fell off the couch!
• More inimitable performances: Madame Lynn sings "Sempre libera"
• An insane lady in the City Opera audience lets out a blood-curdling "primal scream" just before tenor Henry Price begins act two Traviata aria.Worse than Klytaemnestra being murdered!
• And speaking of screams, here's a re-engineered version of the final scene from Tosca...

  GUESS THE SCREAMS and you get to bring a U-Haul to my house and take.please!!!!!!! all my lp's that are never played....ORRRRORE!!!!

In the old Met we stood all the way down near the orchestra..Boxes hardly were overhanging. One night when Renata hit the high A on "amore,addio" (and you cannot tell from the video) my friend standing next to me lost control,hit me in the ribs, and I almost ended up like Cio-Cio San.....NO ONE here could imagine...Think of a jet plane landing in your living room

What nostalgia as Renata returns to us in 1995. Piangero per sempre!!!!!!

  Ten years since she left us on Dec.19, 2004. Never to be forgotten!!!!!

  Ten years ago, on Dec.19, 2004, our beloved Renata Tebaldi departed this world, but those of us who knew her can never forget what she meant to us on and off stage.

 My mother's first opera was a Traviata in 1957, and I spoke Spanish to her,since I had not yet learned my operatic Italian and her English was limited. Every time we met she would say, "Carlos, com'e la mamma??"  (Carlos...not Carlo,because I started with her in espanol.)

We spoke on many birthdays in later years. You know we first met her oin Feb.1, 1955, after her Met Desdemona debut,which was Jan.31.Little did we know it was her birthday!!!!!

Non posso scordare la mia Renata..Sempre nel mio cuore!!!

One of the STARS of the Internet is "Coloratura Fan," who compiles an incredible number of material, and who is a STAR of the opera-loving Internet world. Here is an example. Just go to his page and enjoy!!

Happy Dec.15 birthday to a marvelous soprano who showed so much emotion and who could thrill audiences for so long!!!!!!

I am just thinking about Tebaldi a lot this week...I recall she went to Phila. for a perf...the Met used to go there. We saw her off in the last car...the baggage handler opened the door and she said, "Spoletta, CHIUDI." 
 

At a big affair once she was cutting the cake,held the knife up, and said, "Questo il bacio di Tosca."
   See how much fun we had with her.......
  

Also, at a Bell Tel.Hr.at Carnegie, we sat in the first row..She looked down at us "kids", winked...and then launched into "Inflammatus." She made us feel so important."
 Ten yearsthis week (Dec.19),Renata has been gone........and anyone who knew her from 1955 will treasure her memory..

Wolfgang!!!! I hope you do not have Internet. This is not boring. Some love the "crazy" productions for their "entertainment." value...but others curse like mad!!!

On the old Met standee line, we killed time (freezing)  by making up crazy opera scenes. Little did we know what was to come!!!!!!!

This clip sent to me by baritone (Marcello) David Bizic.

Another great singer the Met never engaged.......My favorite Mimi.....will post her in Boheme.

Dec.11, 1892....I bet his first words were "All'armi."

Here he is at 85...as calm as always!!!!!

88 years old here...Born Dec.11,1892

Slightly egoista....un po pazzo!!!!! But I would love to have heard him live!!!!!

  I was 15.....I saw them together in my first opera ever..Zinka's lows are so gorgeous......Just fabulous.

Nice to find a new singer..great Marcello last week at the Met!!!!

Just experimenting and so here is the late great Magda Olivero in Manon Lescaut.

Trying to use new Libsyn format.

For Maria's Dec.2 birthday, an AMAZING recording.

Ed Rosen and Carlo Handelmania attempt to sing Puritani Duet. (He always holds the last note LONG!!!)

On her Dec.2 (or 3) birthday, we must bless her for what she did for opera!!!!!!!!

Wonderful voice

soprano