Whose Afraid of the Opera?

I was never interested in opera growing up, even though I was an avid watcher of Joan Sutherland's kids show Whose Afraid of the Opera?. I was about 5 or 6 and it was just like Kukla, Fran and Ollie but with Joan Sutherland and her huge red hair. I loved that show even though the only episode I remember was La traviata (I remember having trouble understanding where Alfredo was during the off-stage singing during Sempre libera and my mother explaining that he was singing outside her window. The subject of prostitution never came up). Anyway . . .

Fast forward to 1977. I was 12 when my 16 year old sister Annie was hired by the Metropolitan Opera as an extra dancer in the orgy scene in Tannhauser. She was so young, she had to get our parents' permission to work. Of course we had to go see her perform at THE MET! She didn't want us to go because she was embarrassed about all of the simulated sex going on in the ballet (very 1970s clutch and grope). Well, the performance was an epiphany for me! First of all, I knew most of the music because our favorite pianist at Joffrey Ballet School (technically American Ballet Center) was studying voice and was a tenor. He used to play opera all the time without me realizing it. And the costumes and the singing! Ah! This was much more satisfying than ballet! Plus Grace Bumbry as Venus was stunning, James McCracken was old and cracking as our hero, but Teresa Kubiak was beautiful as Elisabeth (though I preferred Venus, of course).  

What I wasn't quite prepared for was Bernd Weikl as Wolfram. OMG! He was gorgeous! Annie had a bit of a crush on him during the rehearsals and after that performance Mom, Annie and I each had a crush on Bernd Weikl (my poor father). He was big, dark, good-looking with incredible hair and to my novice ears, a beautiful voice. I loved Wolfram's big aria and thought Elisabeth a fool for preferring Tannhauser, and Wolfram a fool for preferring Elisabeth to Venus. I thought even at 12 that Wolfram should have said to hell with saintly love and gone off to Venusburg among the clutching and groping dancers. I even developed a small crush on our cantor who was a baritone and former opera singer with similar dark curling hair. Kind of pathetic, but hey, I was 12!

In subsequent years I saw him in Arabella (where he appeared in riding breeches. OMG! It was hard to look away), Salome and Die Fledermaus but then he didn't reappear until about 1989 or so.

Here he is in Salome. The film version with Theresa Stratas as Salome and Bernd Weikl as John The Baptist it is great fun. She is marvelous.