1963 cultural events

This page lists 4 cultural events I attended in 1963. Movies are listed on my films page, not here. The program index page displays thumbnails of all the printed program images. Cities are in California, except as noted.

During high school I often attended classical concerts (notably the Minneapolis Symphony, then conducted by Antal Dorati), but Elektra at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 12/08/1963 is the first cultural event for which I know a specific date, and as far as I can remember it was the first opera I ever saw. And what a performance: Christa Ludwig, Walter Berry, conducted Hollreiser; thanks to the magic of the internet, the recognition scene audio is here. It's, well, Elektra-fying.

I was in Berlin with other AFS students as part of our exchange student year in Germany. Berlin was astonishing. We took the U-Bahn to get to the Deutsche Oper, and because of the bizarre geography of the Wall (then two years old), the train passed from West Berlin under East Berlin back to West Berlin, through deserted stations with a submachine-gun toting Vopo (Volkspolizist, "People's Policeman", i.e., East German policeman) at each end. When one of my AFS-mates tried to take a picture, the Vopo pointed his gun directly at him. Kennedy had been assassinated two weeks earlier, the atmosphere in Berlin was tense and somber.

I saw Elektra at Deutsche Oper Berlin again in 2016, another wonderful performance. IMHO the building's architecture has not aged gracefully, but there were certainly fewer machine guns around.


I started keeping event data in the format used by this page in 2010, so data from 2010 to date is accurate. I started keeping appointment calendar data in .txt format in August 2005. I later extracted 2005-2009 event data ex post facto, so data for 2005 to 2009 is less complete and a bit less accurate. I have older pocket calendars and hard copies of event programs going back to 1963, but I have not yet scanned programs for years before 2010 or entered event data for most years before 2005.

See also: 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1971 1981 1982 1983 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1993 1994 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 All

Click on a heading below to sort the list accordingly. Click on a Program link to see the printed program for an event. Enter a search string (e.g., "Mahler", "Berkeley", "piano") below to filter the output.


Date Category Description Performers Venue City Works
12/08/63 @ 19:30 Opera Elektra Deutsche Oper Deutsche Oper Berlin DE Strauss: Elektra
08/02/63 @ 20:30 Theater Come Blow Your Horn Edyth Bush Theatre Edyth Bush St. Paul MN Program Simon: Come Blow Your Horn
07/15/63 @ 20:00 Theater The Madwoman of Chaillot University HS Theatre Workshop Shevlin Hall Minneapolis MN Program Giraudoux: The Madwoman of Chaillot
07/11/63 @ 20:00 Theater The Summer People University Theatre Scott Hall Minneapolis MN Program Nolte: The Summer People