Pick your own

People who don't know much about opera often wonder about what exactly to see.

The Met has taken a small step to help them.

You answer four simple questions  - the reason you go to the opera, and which languages, style of opera and type of story you prefer - and the Met website will suggest which of their 2013-14 productions will suit you best.

It's not perfect, and it presupposes a little existing knowledge, but I was quite impressed with the the suggestions it made for me.

Give it a go.

Comments

[Hariclea]

not bad at all, with one exception, when i said German opera i meant Wagner, NICHT Strauss ;-) but other than that i would see all it offered :-)

[Operaramblings.wordpress.com]

"lavish productions" not "thought provoking" or "dramatic" or "groundbreaking".

Gah!

[Lisa Hirsch]

I was surprised to be offered Andrea Chenier in the first round, but other than that, yeah, impressive!

[bryan]

Well I tried it and with the possible exception of Norma in the first five and Falstaff in the second five nothing I intend to see came up. In the second five it gave me the two Strauss operas I don't plan on seeing (only intend to see Frau) Hariclea no Wagner (but 3 Bellini--all in supercrappy productions) at the Met next season which is why you got Strauss when you selected German.

[Diane]

I got the same three supercrappy Bellini productions because I selected Italian as one of my language preferences, I guess. I also drew Cenerentola and Werther - the only two I would be interested in from my first round.

[Alexander]

wonderful marketing tool for novices ... When I stated I had no language preferences etc ( but great singers of course) - I was entitled to attend Onegin, Werther , La Cenerentola,L'Elisir and Norma .
Why not?;)

[Miriam]

I have tried it twice and got the same five operas as you both times. The thing I did different the second time was to put "no preference" for the type of story instead of "romance" as I did the first time.

For the first question I answered that my main reason for going was "to expand my operatic experience". But they don't know what my experience is, so they cannot tell what I need to see to expand it.

Although I love all five operas they suggested, I did not think having three by Bellini included was a very balanced selection. If choosing for myself I would have wanted to see The Nose! I said langauges I liked included Russian but got nothing in that.

[Henry Holland]

Wozzeck, Rosenkavalier, Arabella, Frau, Prince Igor.

Since "Rosenkavalier" is one of those operas I'll never listen to again and "Arabella" bores me to tears, I think it says more about the Met's offerings than my tastes.

[Sarah R]

The operas which I never wish to hear (or see) again are Falstaff, Pelleas et Melisande and Parsifal. The Met came up with Falstaff for me, but the other slections were fairly accurate.