Thank-you gift for a performer and opera-lover?

June 10, 2008 10:52 AM

I'm looking for a thank-you gift to give to my good friend, who is an aspiring vocal coach and a big fan of the opera.

I don't know what's in his record collection or anything, and I don't want to get him just any CD or DVD, but an interesting item that he can either use or display. Price range between $30 and $60, but I'm willing to go a bit higher depending on the gift.

He is a recent graduate in his mid-twenties, working as a waiter while auditioning for parts and saving money for a graduate program in Music Education. His favorite diva is Beverly Sills.

(I apologize for the vagueness, but I've got absolutely no idea about what's out there. Any suggestions will be gratefully considered.)

posted by muddgirl to shopping (7 comments total)

How about a pair of Opera Glasses? Link is just an example ... you can find lots of them at antique stores as well.
posted by gyusan at 11:01 AM on June 10, 2008 [1 favorite]

A fabulous scarf. Singers -- and other people -- really do wear them. Unfortunately it's June, so unless you're in Australia, good luck with that.

A water bottle cozy, maybe one with a good carrying strap.

A small recording device for recording his own practices. I'd recommend the Zoom H2 (I lo-o-o-ve mine) but it's $200. If you're really a huge friend, you could get his other friends to pitch in. I'm serious. This thing is an awesome tool for a singer (provided he has a computer he can download the recorded files into). The recording quality is much better than any of my previous methods, and it's small and portable.

A nice full-length mirror, if he doesn't have one already. He'll need one for himself and for his students.

If you know what song literature he has already, you could find a good collection of arias for him to draw from for his students.

Of course, tickets to an actual opera performance could be just the thing, and potentially hit squarely in the sweet spot of your price range.
posted by amtho at 12:00 PM on June 10, 2008

Where do you live? Or where does your friend go to the opera? Opera companies often have fantastic artwork as their promotional posters. You could buy a poster and put it in an affordable frame. Here are some examples from The Santa Fe Opera.

If you like the water bottle idea, check out Sigg aluminum bottles. When I was studying voice a few years ago, everyone was using Nalgene, but these are all the rage (at least among non-singers) these days. They look great, never get a funky taste, and don't release toxic chemicals into your water, if that is a concern.
posted by TrixieRamble at 12:10 PM on June 10, 2008

Sorry, my friend lives in Los Angeles. I thought about tickets to the LA Opera, but their season ends in June, can't figure out how to get tickets for next season, and I'm presenting the gift in July. So, yeah, I'll have to work on that.

(I love my Sigg bottle - I wonder if it's personalizable).
posted by muddgirl at 2:04 PM on June 10, 2008

Seconding opera glasses. They're classy.

As an opera lover myself, I would actually appreciate dvds of live operas. They're expensive enough (usually around 40$ for a 3 hour opera) to make it a good present.

Otherwise, tickets are good, OR the IOU of a ticket for when he travels to a city which has a really good opera company.
posted by Planet F at 2:53 PM on June 10, 2008

A little late to the party, but a book of libretti with side-by-side English translations. Something like this.
posted by turbodog at 12:04 PM on June 12, 2008

For future reference, I ended up buying him a signed photograph of Beverly Sills in Anna Bolena, along with a signed program. He liked it very much.
posted by muddgirl at 3:17 PM on December 8, 2008