It's Question Month on LJ

And a lovely and inquisitive young fellow asks:

Pick 5 albums that are important to you, not because they are your favorite musically, but because they trigger some important memory or sensation.

Oh my! They would all have to be LPs. From before you were born. Let's see:

	This was back in the day when opera singers would appear on The Tonight Show. Back when The Tonight Show was watchable. That's how I became acquainted with Marilyn Horne, my first opera idol. She also appeared in at least one episode of "The Odd Couple"! Needless to say, this album is out of print, and you can only get it from other collectors.
	Carmen was the first complete opera I saw live. I was 17. Since I was already a Marilyn Horne fan, I had to have this.
	The duet "Mira o Norma" was on the Marilyn Horne disc, and I fell in love with it! I had to have the full opera. I never actually saw the entire opera until I did chorus in it at Greater Miami Opera. (Carol Neblett and Jacques Trussel--pron. Jack Trustle--if you must know.)
	Another album from my early years--I nearly wore out the grooves! My first exposure to "Der Hirt auf dem Felsen", "Variations on Ah vou dirai-je maman", "The Soldier Tir'd", etc.
	Let us not forget my beginnings as a piano student. Some said I should have majored in piano. Some said accompanying. In any case, I listened again and again and again to this recording, and learned to play nearly all of the music on it. Some pieces better than others.
	Bonus LP! Classical Barbra. At age 15. If my parents didn't already know by then.... And it introduced me to some important pieces of music--Fauré's Pavane, Lascia, ch'io pianga, In trutina from Mr. Orff's Carmina Burana, etc.