Hello from Berkhamsted, UK

[Clayton]

Hello to all the Opera Lively community.
I stumbled across this wonderful website whilst researching some information on a recording and am looking forward very much to reading the articles and opinions of all the members. I'm afraid that I am not very knowledgeable so that it will be more take than give but I am excited to learn.
I enjoyed opera as a student (student memories are more of the standby queue at Covent Garden than lectures or parties) but after that unfortunately the work/life balance was very much miscalculated and there was no time for music at all!
Happily I have now been able to redress this by taking a few years off work and whilst I consider a second career, my life is now filled with Opera, gardening and cricket (in that order)!
I am mostly enjoying Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi at the moment and am sure will be asking for all your advice and opinions in the future.
Thank you,
Clayton.
P.S. The registration and this introduction message has taken me almost 2 hours as I have also been listening to Ernani and so have not been able to think clearly at all.

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

Hello Clayton & welcome to the forum. It's great to be a member of multi-national community but it's very nice to have another Brit on board!

We're all at different levels so don't feel you have to stay silent. No question about opera is ever a silly question, but be prepared to get 57 opinions!

And nice to have a cricket fan as well. What do think about the omission of Graham Onions?

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Hello Clayton, and welcome. Glad you have some time to take in the IMPORTANT things in life.

[Clayton]

Hello Clayton & welcome to the forum. It's great to be a member of multi-national community but it's very nice to have another Brit on board!

We're all at different levels so don't feel you have to stay silent. No question about opera is ever a silly question, but be prepared to get 57 opinions!

And nice to have a cricket fan as well. What do think about the omission of Graham Onions?

Thank you for the welcome.

I will try not to be too self-conscious when asking or giving an opinion!

With regard to the squad selection...
I was disappointed when he wasn't played at Durham during the summer series; so much so that I agreed with Geoff that even if he was selected for the winter, he should decline saying he was too old to be a drinks carrier. Now he actually hasn't been included, I am just confused. He has a great style and dimension not offered by the "giants" Tremlett and Finn that would be good for the Aussie wickets and the overly-promoted-so-I-can't-mention-the-brand-name-K-ball! Also I understand he has been showing good form this summer...

However I don't want to corrupt this site with too much cricket (well not on my first few posts) so I will mention that today I also enjoyed Don Pasquale and Pagliacci.

[Clayton]

Hello Clayton, and welcome. Glad you have some time to take in the IMPORTANT things in life.

Hello and thank you for the welcome.

I understand now better about life balance and have prioritized Opera, Gardening and Cricket. Now if I can only figure out how to combine these in the best way...

[Soave_Fanciulla]

I understand now better about life balance and have prioritized Opera, Gardening and Cricket. Now if I can only figure out how to combine these in the best way...

Mozart's La finta Giardiniera, in a production that recasts the count as a fading cricketing great, renamed "Il Contino Cipolle" and unhinged into domestic fury by his deselection from the English team.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

Hello and thank you for the welcome.

I understand now better about life balance and have prioritized Opera, Gardening and Cricket. Now if I can only figure out how to combine these in the best way...

Hello, Clayton, and welcome to Opera Lively. Like our good sospiro said, over here we make a point of being welcoming and not arrogant or snobbish, so we learn with each other and couldn't care less if someone is a beginner or a seasoned listener.

About cricket, if you want to talk more about it, that's no problem at all - we do have an "off-topic" section where one of the threads is Sports. While of course we mostly talk about opera here, there is space for other topics. When we have a long-standing community people sometimes want to chat with their pen-pals about other matters and we welcome it (except that our rules ban religion and politics - you know, these often destroy friendships more than create them so we feel there are other Internet venues for these and we are not one of them).

So, the bottom line is that we look forward to your contributions, be them about opera, gardening, or cricket.

[Clayton]

Mozart's La finta Giardiniera, in a production that recasts the count as a fading cricketing great, renamed "Il Contino Cipolle" and unhinged into domestic fury by his deselection from the English team.

Now that is a production that would be very attractive! I have to propose this to the Garsington Opera at the Wormsley Estate which would be a wholly suitable venue; Opera, Gardens and Cricket! (Now I promise that is my last mention of that triad).

[Clayton]

Thank you for your warm welcome.

I hope to be able to contribute fairly to the Opera Lively community as best as I can in the future. However I shall remind myself, as my wife does for me on occasion with a subtle (but sharp) nudge under the dinner table, about appropriate conversation lengths for cricket.

On a separate subject; I enjoyed the quote on the end of your message, "J'ai dit qu'il ne suffisait pas d'entendre la musique, mais qu'il fallait encore la voir" (Stravinsky). My curiosity for music by Stravinsky has been aroused.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Thank you for your warm welcome.

I hope to be able to contribute fairly to the Opera Lively community as best as I can in the future. However I shall remind myself, as my wife does for me on occasion with a subtle (but sharp) nudge under the dinner table, about appropriate conversation lengths for cricket.

On a separate subject; I enjoyed the quote on the end of your message, "J'ai dit qu'il ne suffisait pas d'entendre la musique, mais qu'il fallait encore la voir" (Stravinsky). My curiosity for music by Stravinsky has been aroused.

This:

[Amfortas]

I'm always the last to the party. Welcome to the forum, Clayton!

[Clayton]

Thank you for the welcome.
Party? Where? WHERE?

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

Do you ever go & see live opera?

[Clayton]

In my student days and for a few years post I went to the (old) Covent Garden many times, I think about forty odd times. Many, many good memories. I even used to drink (way too much) in a bar very close by so I even had some good drinking friends from the company. Again many, many good memories. I think I have some very good (emotional/experience) souvenirs from those days that are maybe a little too good for me and should have been blessed on others more deserving.
I also went to the Met whenever work allowed and have been maybe seven or eight times. Absolutely loved it.
Then there was a seventeen year gap when I lost balance...
Since stopping work (allegedly temporary circumstance) I have been to ROH three times and have bought one ticket for the Met. Though inspired by the comments by Almaviva, I intend to look at more local smaller company and amateur performances from now on...
I do have a restriction though; I don't want my wife to be an Opera widow so I would never go without her. This means a self imposed budget of about two performances a year; just enough to keep it fun for her!
I've already miscalculated and been off balance for this many years... I don't want to lose balance again!
Maybe you were just looking for a straight "yes" or "no" answer...

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

In my student days and for a few years post I went to the (old) Covent Garden many times, I think about forty odd times. Many, many good memories. I even used to drink (way too much) in a bar very close by so I even had some good drinking friends from the company. Again many, many good memories. I think I have some very good (emotional/experience) souvenirs from those days that are maybe a little too good for me and should have been blessed on others more deserving.
I also went to the Met whenever work allowed and have been maybe seven or eight times. Absolutely loved it.
Then there was a seventeen year gap when I lost balance...
Since stopping work (allegedly temporary circumstance) I have been to ROH three times and have bought one ticket for the Met. Though inspired by the comments by Almaviva, I intend to look at more local smaller company and amateur performances from now on...
I do have a restriction though; I don't want my wife to be an Opera widow so I would never go without her. This means a self imposed budget of about two performances a year; just enough to keep it fun for her!
I've already miscalculated and been off balance for this many years... I don't want to lose balance again!
Maybe you were just looking for a straight "yes" or "no" answer...

'Yes' 'No' or in detail is all fine.

I love reading about other people's opera journeys & yours sounds wonderful. I really envy your going to the Met. Not been yet but it's on my Bucket List.