In our Opera Raps to Go series, opera artists, opera professionals, and opera lovers share how they came to love the art form. When we asked you how you fell in love with opera, you delivered fascinating stories about our performances at the Cincinnati Zoo, inspiring teachers, visits to Europe, and more! Read on below, and feel free to share your story with us any time!
The Zoo Opera Days
My mother took my three siblings and me to the Cincinnati Zoo to see Aida back in the 1960s. Our father couldn’t go because he had to work, but we excitedly gave him all the details when we returned home. It was a wonderful day, topped off with a couple of rides in the Dark House and the whirling swings in the Zoo’s amusement area, then our usual homemade family dinner.
—Loretta Dawson
Photo: Cincinnati Opera’s Aida, 1973.
Fallen in Love With Opera Several Times
I have fallen in love with opera several times in my life. My mother tells me that I first loved opera as a tiny child listening to the radio with my father. Mom said I would giggle and laugh at the high soprano notes as my father would explain what we were listening to in a very serious manner. Then, when I was 14 years old and I attended my first live opera at the New York Opera. I fell in love with La Traviata, and my life was forever changed. Then again, several years ago at Cincinnati Opera when I had the pleasure of attending several performances of Frida. This was another music-life changing event. I have always sternly only supported "the classics," but the genius of Frida opened by ears, eyes, and world to modern opera in a wonderful way. So I have fallen in love with opera as a continuous journey. Opera is truly the love of my life—I travel all around the USA and Europe from Florida to attend many operas a year, such is this love I have for opera.
—Nadia Greenidge
Photo: Cincinnati Opera’s Frida, 2017. Philip Groshong
Generations of Opera Lovers
I fell in love with opera by listening to a collection of opera recordings that my father inherited from his father and by being taken to concerts by my parents when I was a kid. My father actually heard Enrico Caruso in person in 1922 in Havana when the Italian tenor in the company of several stars (Maria Barrientos, Riccardo Stracciari, Gabriella Besanzoni, José Mardones, Tulio Serafin) came to do Aida in Havana by the invitation of President Menocal.
My father and his oldest brother traveled by train from Santiago and when they got there all performances were sold out. Upon learning that a huge crowd of disappointed fans had gathered in the Paseo del Prado fronting the theater, Caruso ordered the side and front doors of the theater opened so that the crowd gathered in the promenade could enjoy the opera for free.
My father used to tell how he was able to hear every note Caruso sang that night. Between hearing stories like that one and torturing our neighbors by playing over and over recordings of Caruso and Ruffo and Schipa and Gigli and singing along with them, I grew up loving opera. I was hooked for life when in 1957 Renata Tebaldi came to Havana to sing in the same two-week mini-season La Traviata, Adriana Lecouvreur, and Aida.
I never got cured.
—Rafael de Acha
Opera Kept Calling Me Back
I have been going to the opera in Cincinnati for many years. I would see one a year. Probably my favorites were Aida and Dead Man Walking.
A few years ago I went to two, then the next year three. Last year during Porgy and Bess, I realized I was in love with all of it. I realized the joy I had been experiencing over the years. Thinking about it I am filled with joy.
I think opera kept calling me back until I could not deny my passion.
—Eileen Lee
Photo: Cincinnati Opera’s Porgy and Bess, 2019. Philip Groshong.
A Teacher’s Impact
When I was in the second grade, I hung out a lot with the school librarian. I loved to read, and she loved having someone who felt that way.
She was also the school music teacher. She found out pretty quickly that I loved to sing. My mother had taught me all of the traditional songs before I even started school, so when we were in class for the first time, I realized I knew everything the music teacher had pulled out for us. She asked, “Who is it in the back that is singing out so loudly?” I shrunk into my seat, and all my friends, like typical second-graders who could smell the blood in the water, pointed at me and shouted, “It’s Jill!”
She asked me to stand up and then gave me the once-over. She asked, “Do you know these songs?”
“Yes’m,” I whimpered.
“Would you like to come down in front of the class and like to lead us in them?”
“YES MA’AM!”
She found out a couple of things right then and there: (1) I could sing on pitch and I was loud, and (2) I loved an audience.
One day, when she and I were the only ones in the library, she called me over and asked if I liked to play play pretend. “Yes, ma’am,” I replied. She said, “Well, I know you like to sing and I also know you like to perform, so listen to this.” She got her little box record-player and pulled out an LP. As she got the record going, she gave me the album cover to look at. All sorts of fantastical creatures were on it. I was enchanted.
Then the music started. I had never heard such singing! I couldn’t get enough of it! It was Mozart’s “Queen of the Night” aria from The Magic Flute. When it was over, she stood there and looked at me. Then she said, “This is opera. When you grow up, you’ll be able to sing like this, too.”
I’ll never forget that moment. It changed my life forever. I did grow up to sing opera (not the Queen, though—more Puccini). Knowing Mrs. Cope was the best thing that ever happened to me. RIP, Mrs. Cope.
—Jill Dew
The Sound of Peacocks
I fell in love with opera as a child at the Cincinnati Zoo Opera. My mother and grandfather took my sisters and I for picnics and performances every summer season. I will always associate the sounds of peacocks and cicadas with opera, and although I appreciate an air conditioned environment and more comfortable seats, no opera setting stays in my memory as much as those evenings at the zoo!
—Marcia Hartsock
Photo: The cast of Cincinnati Opera’s Andrea Chenier, 1949.
A Year in Rome
I spent a year in Rome studying vocal music with a Italian tenor and have loved opera ever since.
—Barbara H.
Starting Young
I first became entranced with opera at the age of 11, by listening to the 1961 Met Radio Broadcast of The Ring with Birgit Nilsson as Brunhilde. My mother encouraged me to listen, and I was absolutely fascinated by this magical music, and received a recording of “The Ride of the Valkyries” for a subsequent birthday. My family also regularly watched the Christmas broadcast of Amahl and the Night Visitors; we had a recording of that which we played over and over; my sisters and I memorized it, and used to sing parts (in harmony) while we were doing the nightly supper dishes!
My first live opera was Die Fledermaus at the Zoo when I was 13; I was too young and unsophisticated to “get” it and our seats were terrible—BUT—the following year I saw Carmen there with Rosalind Elias, and was captivated once again. During the first act—as she was singing the Lilas Pastia aria—I remember being worried because she was wearing a low-cut top that kept slipping down her shoulders and I realized she had no way to pull it back up since her hands were tied behind her back!!
These early immersive experiences set the stage for my life-long love of opera.
—Elaine Billmire
Inspired by Carmen
When I went to college to get a degree in voice performance, I had no idea I was going to be trained in classical singing. I had heard plenty of arias, but never took the opportunity to see an entire opera. In 2014, my cousin and I decided to see Carmen performed in Cincinnati Music Hall. I was absolutely blown away at the entire opera! After that performance, I made the decision to pursue an opera singing career. I hope to perform at Cincinnati Music Hall someday!
—Hannah Petry
Photo: Cincinnati Opera’s Carmen, 2014. Philip Groshong.
Playing in the Pit
I fell in love with opera when I played string bass for the pit orchestra at [Brigham Young University]. The first one was La Bohème, which made me cry. Later I got to travel around Europe and see a few [operas] in Vienna and Berlin. I adored The Magic Flute. Who can resist opera? There’s no medium that uses so many art forms at once! I even got my husband hooked.
—Doren Cook
Opera at the Zoo
When I came to the old College-Conservatory of Music in 1965, I was able to attend my first opera at the Cincinnati Zoo. I believe it was Così fan tutte. I am now a big fan of Puccini’s Tosca, Madame Butterfly, and Turandot!
—Kenneth Harshbarger
Thank you for sharing your stories with us! We hope the memories bring you as much joy as they bring us. Have an Opera story you’d like to share? Send it to us any time!