Opera Singing in Germany and other adventures....

So, I have to preface this post with the disclaimer: I am not a musical theater fan (except for Rodgers and Hammerstein stuff).  Therefore, it was really quite amazing to me that I should have enjoyed the production of "Wicked: Die Hexen von Oz" as much as I did at last Wednesday's performance in Oberhausen at the Metronome Theater.  In fact, I am not ashamed to admit to my fellow Opera lovers, that it was actually the first standing ovation that I have given a performance since my attendance at NYC Opera's production of Bernstein's 'A Quiet Place', and that was back in October of 2010 and I have seen a few operas since then too! Because of my outrageous reaction to a show that was STILL not  in my native language (emphasis on the 'still' because it puts it on par then with Operas that are also written and performed in non-native languages for me) and in a genre that normally makes me cringe, I felt that this particular experience deserved some c...

This performance and piece of art merited coverage in my blog the very night that I saw it, however, due to my extreme lack of time, it is only getting its due at this point in time, much to my own personal dismay.  However, I must rejoice in the fact that at least I am getting out there my thoughts about a really underappreciated piece of art by one of America's most beloved native composers, and hopefully thereby spurring other people to try to listen or see this work whenever and where ever and by whomever it is performed. I realize that in the previous paragraph there is a multitude of praise which might seem a bit 'too generous' for a work which only had its very second performance in the states, and that actually being its very first performance in New York, the city in which Bernstein actually lived and worked for most of his life.  However, there is, to me, no lack of positive adjectives through which I can describe the sheer brilliance of this piece and of its N...