Opera connoisseurs may debate the merits of beautiful voices, but for people who believe in opera as theater, as characters in vocal action, the German soprano Anja Silja has to count among the supreme performers.
On the other hand opera connoisseurs who value the literary component of the art form have long disdained those who prize singing above all else.
Opera 'CENDRILLON' (Tonight and Sunday) Massenet's version of the Cinderella fairy tale, first seen in 1899, is not produced that often, which is surprising, since French opera connoisseurs consider it among his finest and most approachable works.
Ms. Mayes's top-of-the-line style does not negate a best-of theme when it comes to developing new audiences in new places, her customary audiences often including theater and opera luminaries and other connoisseurs of the high art of song.
An opera lover and wine connoisseur who relaxed by smoking one of his many hand-carved pipes.
"Only those who knew him well," Mr. Talese added, "or with whom he was sufficiently impressed and thus responsive, sensed the interesting man beneath — the connoisseur of opera, the serious man married to a tall, blithe student of modern dance, the superb mimic of W. C. Fields, the charming dinner guest".
Terrence McNally, a connoisseur of opera -- by his admission, an out-of-control fanatic -- pulled off a remarkable feat, turning elitism into a popular Broadway entertainment, striking box office gold with a work about a prima donna assoluta dispensing words of high art and terminal egotism to observers of a master class in singing and acting; to Callas, the two were truly one.
But Margie is a connoisseur of opera so what the heck, a short recital in an exquisite jewel box of a setting was quite inviting.
It's irrelevant to them that parents can make their children into opera buffs, water-skiers, food connoisseurs, bilingual speakers, painters, trumpet players, and churchgoers — that parents have the power to introduce their children to the whole supra-biological realm — for the fundamental reason that science cannot comprehend what it cannot measure.
This Biblical grand opera has always been considered by connoisseurs to be one of Rossini's finest achievements, but it is rarely staged in the U.S. (New York hasn't seen a full production in over a century).
The enthusiasm for Mr. Corelli among the rank and file of opera fans was not always shared by connoisseurs and critics.
