My Birth Opera

La Cieca has a great idea: check out what the Met was performing on the day you were born (assuming you were born during the Met season), using the indispensable Met archive. It turns out my birth opera is Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, one that has always held a place in my heart. The cast includes one famous debut:

Metropolitan Opera House
October 13, 1964
DER ROSENKAVALIER {191}
R. Strauss-Hofmannsthal
Octavian.....................Lisa Della Casa
Princess von Werdenberg......Elisabeth Schwarzkopf [Debut]
Baron Ochs...................Otto Edelmann
Sophie.......................Anneliese Rothenberger
Faninal......................Norman Mittelmann
Annina.......................Mignon Dunn
Valzacchi....................Andrea Velis
Italian Singer...............Sándor Kónya
[snip]
Conductor....................Thomas Schippers

It just so happens that I own a recorded excerpt from the Met broadcast of that run (December 19, same year), with Schwarzkopf in all her mannered glory.

Interestingly, Cieca's birth opera, Don Giovanni, shares with mine some notable cast members.