Opera and/or ballet.

[trof]

I consider myself to be a fairly well educated, well read man.
I don't mean to sound elitist, but I think I have a pretty good grasp of things cultural.

I won't get into my preferences in the arts, but...
I have just never enjoyed opera or the ballet.
Is it just me?

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Love opera, can tolerate ballet

I'm more into modern dance than ballet. Ballet gets old after a while for me. But stuff like Harlem Dance Company, Mark Morris, Pina Bausch, Chandraleka - I love those dance forms.

[stlsaxman]

7. agreed- prefer modern dance

but still find opera unlistenable.

[GirlinContempt]

2. I adore Opera

[swag]

3. Love both, contingent on composers, choreagraphers, performers.

The Alvin Ailey company doing "Firebird" or "Dougla" is really transporting. Oregon Ballet Theatre has some incredible moments.

Opera: I've seen good performances of "Marriage of Figaro" and "Turandot" that really thrilled, and "Tosca" is a killer.

And I don't know if the snobbery toward Puccini still exists in some circles. There are kitsch moments, certainly, but the beautiful passages justify it all.

I'm no snob, I just like quality entertainment.

[FuzzySlippers]

11. I'll cop to loving Puccini too. n/t

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. There's this idea going around among American men that

they're not "supposed" to like opera or ballet.

Hey, guys, ballet consists largely of pretty young women in skimpy costumes assuming interesting postures. I am mystified as to how appreciating ballet came to be thought of as a gay thing.

[swag]

5. The pretty young women in skimpy costumes also have

fantastic buttocks.

But really, the dance can move you to joy and to tears.

[JVS]

10. Be prepared to be de-mystified

[stlsaxman]

6. I prefer ballet to opera...

With the exception of Amahl And The Night Visitors, all opera sounds like people are dying. yeah i know- they didn't have mics back then and had to sing over an orchestra. but damn- do they always have to use that annoying vibrato?!?!

besides, ballet has hot babes, opera has fat dudes... heheheh

[NYdemocrat089]

8. I love opera.

Carmen and La Boheme are my favorites. I always feel so bad at the end of La Boheme when he cries out, "Mimi....Mimi!"

I'm not so fond of ballet.

[CBHagman]

9. Classic Arts Showcase addict here.

"Hi! My name is CBHagman and I'm a Classic Arts Showcase addict."

"Hi, CB!"

For those who don't know about it, Classic Arts Showcase is free cultural programming (music videos, film clips, dance sequences) that runs for free on some public and educational stations. Given that there are fewer and fewer broadcasts of classical music and dance in this country, I rely a lot on CAS.

I went to my first opera at age 11 (La Traviata) and have never looked back.

On edit: I don't think anyone has mentioned the Paul Taylor Dance Company (or however it's called these days), so I will. I so enjoyed one of their performances on PBS.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. Would you believe that no cable system in the Twin Cities carries it?

The cable system in Portland carried it, and I often enjoyed watching it late at night, because you just never knew what was going to pop up: a Swiss orchestra performing Rhapsody in Blue, a cartoon about a lonely cat set to a piece by Sibelius, three women from the early 1960s recording a song from a Broadway play, Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians dressed up in geeky robes with childish looking bows at the neck singing The Holy City, clips from classic films, the "Oh, Damn, I Threw the Wrong Baby into the Fire" aria from Il Trovatore, and clips from the days when commercial TV carried arts programming, including The Voice of Firestone, Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts, and The Bell Telephone Hour.

Many was the time I tuned into the middle of something and had absolutely no idea what it was until the end, and sometimes the video-like titles at the end were little help.

I wish it were available online as well as "on selected cable systems." (I checked their website to see if it was available anywhere locally.)

[shimmergal]

12. Ballet is just a complete treat for the visual senses,

among other neat things.

Opera has always seemed rather overwrought to me. I like the theater--well, at least many plays in both the modern repertoire and before--and enjoy most American musical theater. I think it's the indecipherable lyrics in foreign languages that turn me off of grand opera, plus the implausible plots.

[bridgit]

13. if i must it is: opera...

something twyla, cunningham-esque, or modern, if it must be dance :thumbsup:

[swag]

15. I'd love to see Robert Rauschenberg on parachute-propelled roller skates

in a Merce Cunningham piece.

Since Robert is so frail now, maybe his son Chris would fill in.

p.s. - can't believe Twyla Tharp choreographed Billy Joel songs, but I suppose she deserved a paycheck after all that work.

I'd add Michael Clark ballet company to your great picks. But I wouldn't know about them if they hadn't collaborated with the Fall and Liegh Bowery.

[bridgit]

16. tharp's 'in the upper room' is noteworthy...

with a score by: glass, the final movement is a joyous cacophony imo of sight & sound
http://www.twylatharp.org/archive/dance_page.asp?danceSelected=85

i love the stuff robert was doing w/merce, cage et al...but then i'm a sucker for that stuff :shrug: i do however hear'ya on the billy joel excursion...girl's got'a make a living reckon

[swag]

17. I'm a sucker for that stuff too.

I used to have a nice lp of proto-electronic music by Cage that came with a score for the listener, with notations directing the listener on how to adust volume, tone, and balance controls as the piece went on. I played it a few times, trying to interpret the score (indeterminacy held sway, of course, as was the composer's intent), and enjoying it all very much.

I still have a copy of "Indeterminacy." I should listen to that again soon.

I wish I had seen "The Upper Room." I'm terribly envious.

[AlwaysQuestion]

18. Love ballet; smidge tolerant to opera

I love ballet but only classical. Full operas are just too hard for the ears, but many of the arias from the various operas are quite easy to listen to.