A Night at the Opera With Port Jefferson Library

Going to the opera can be a wonderful event. Seeing the spectacle and hearing those incredible voices live is an experience. A night at the opera, however, is not an inexpensive enterprise. Let the Port Jefferson Free Library help you have your own night at the opera- at home! Just think you can have intermission whenever you want, or eat during the performance. If don’t like a particular aria you can just skip it!

The Metropolitan Opera has a full season lined up. If you can’t make the opera live try watching  the DVD. It may not be the  same production, but the music remains unchanged.  Here are a few of the highlights from the current season with a link to the Library’s DVD version:

1. Rigoletto

2. Das Rhinegold (the first opera in Wagner's Ring Cycle)

3. Turandot

4. Carmen

Some people just like opera for the beautiful music. They don’t need to see the sets, the staging and the costumes. They want to hear the music and the incredible voices singing it. Here are some selections by well known opera singers who have chosen some of their favorite arias from a variety of operas. Listening to works like these is a nice way for opera newbies to get sense of the artists, and to hear a bit of something from a variety of different operas and composers:

1.Cecilia Bartoli (mezzo soprano) and Byrn Terfel (Bass-Baritone) both sing on Duets Cecilia and Bryn. 

2. One of the greatest tenors of them all- Luciano Pavarotti sings a variety of both arias as well as other songs on Romantica The Very Best of Luciano Pavarotti.

3. One tenor is good, but three makes it even better. The Three Tenors brought together the incredible voices of Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, and Jose Carreras. Some very popular arias are featured as well as some classic songs. The Three Tenors in Concert 1994.

4. Beverly Sills was one of the great sopranos during her nearly 20 year career.  Even though she retired from the stage she was a staunch advocate for opera and the arts. She became the General Manager for the New York City Opera and later the Chairman of Lincoln Center.  Listen to some of her greatest hits: The Great Recordings: Beverly Sills.

Want to read about some opera before listening or watching? Give these books a try:

1. The Operagoer’s Guide: One Hundred Stories and Commentaries by M. Owen Lee

2. Opera: The Rough Guide

3. The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera

4. The Metropolitan Opera Stories of the Great Operas by John Freeman

Last, but not least for those who like their opera with a side of silly try A Night at the Opera starring The Marx Brothers!