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Date:         Thu, 27 Aug 1992 15:00:59 -0500
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From: James Swanton <swanton@aecom.yu.edu>
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Michael J. Costin, HKU Library writes:
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Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 09:23 +0800
From: "Michael J. Costin, HKU Library" <HRULCMJ@HKUCC.bitnet>
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Enjoyed the message about someone warming up to opera.  It is indeed
a terrible addiction.  I have enjoyed it in so many forms for so long,
but there are exceptions, such as outdoor performances where the sound
is all blown away.  Just less than one year ago, the University where
I work allowed its big playing field to be used for just such a mess.
The production of "AIDA" was on a grand scale, with hundreds of choristers
and various supernumeraries, droves of livestock including horses and
camels (they could not get permits to import elephants).   The sound system
was tremendous.  It was a great circus,  hardly an opera.  The site is
just below an area of staff housing with several hundred flats, among
which is mine.  Some had a good view from their balconies.  We did not,
but for several nights of rehearsal and performance, we heard it all.
I declined either to participate or to attend.

Since I have been living here in Hong Kong, I usually do participate in
opera productions.  They are generally done with visiting international
principals backed by a locally recruited chorus.  Most recently, I sang
in the chorus of "TOSCA" featuring Josephine Barstow and Giacomo Aragall.
Terrific !  Over the years, I have done "Macbeth", "Cosi fan tutte",
"Barber of Saville", "Faust", "Flying Dutchman", "La Traviata", and
others.  It is a great avocation.   Then sometimes I just sit in the
audience.

Over the years, I have enjoyed so many operas on the radio, starting with
Met broadcasts on Saturday afternoons from the early forties onwards,
to recordings, to productions in some of the fine houses including
San Francisco, Chicago, and, once the Met itself !  The trouble is
that one's list of what one still wants to see and hear, where one
wants to go, keeps growing.  STill, I guess I keep a special place
for those I have enjoyed from backstage and on stage.

I can only encourage others to enjoy as well.

        Mike Costin
        University of Hong Kong




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