The New York Metropolitan has been trying to upgrade it's image for a few years now to make opera more accessible and I think they have succeeded. Not only are they broadcasting in HD and showing opera in theaters, they are updating in a cool way.

I've seen some of these 'updated' presentations and never liked them, but it seems that the Met is doing it right. I saw a segment on the 'Rigoletto' they did. It's set in the '60s and the evil Duke is an underworld type Don. The cast is dressed in 60s suits and the like. When Rigoletto's daughter gets murdered in the end, they stuff her into the trunk of a 1960 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. The music is not compromised one iota and the voices are stupendous. It's got me anxious to see and here more.

PS There are a lot of gorgeous women singers nowadays, too.

Here's one of many........

Anna Netrebko

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96iaZreNPCY

You mean there are people that really like opera? Huh, who would have guessed.

Opera music is some of the most lush, heart-rending music there is. I admit, sometimes the actual singing is more than I can take when the high soprano sounds like a shriek, but the instrumental versions are stupendous. There are a couple of pieces so beautiful and moving they will bring a tear to my eye every time.

Apparently, you didn't.



Seriously, what the Met is doing is to make opera more accessible for people to find out whether they like it or not because they have based their opinion on a few snatches they've heard and don't really give it a chance. For example, all coloratura sopranos don't shriek and there are many opera pieces that don't even call for it. (If you ask me mezzo sopranos are sexy as hell) But you don't find out about the excruciatingly beautiful music if you don't give it an honest try. Types of opera are as different as night and day though the themes are similar. Heroes fighting death, stolen, impossible or unrequited love, fantasy. Most of that simply makes a setting for great music. They run the gamut from light, such as where a snake oil salesman sells a bottle of cheap wine to a simple town boy and tells him it's an elixir of love. When he drinks it he can feel the 'magical effect'. Some are ponderous, such as Wagner's tales of Norse gods interacting with human s and other denizens. Your butt and your patience may pain you sitting through one of these, but your heart and mind will be glad. The first time I saw La Boheme I cried. Not because it was tragic, but because it was SO beautiful. Yes, Roadtrash. There are opera fans.

A movie version of 'Carmen' Habanera that is very well done.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djsuP0uta7s

Love is a rebellious bird
that nobody can tame,
and you call him quite in vain
if it suits him not to come.

Nothing helps, neither threat nor prayer.
One man talks well, the other's mum;
it's the other one that I prefer.
He's silent but I like his looks.

Love! Love! Love! Love!

Love is a gypsy's child,
it has never, ever, known a law;
love me not, then I love you;
if I love you, you'd best beware! etc.

The bird you thought you had caught
beat its wings and flew away ...
love stays away, you wait and wait;
when least expected, there it is!

All around you, swift, so swift,
it comes, it goes, and then returns ...
you think you hold it fast, it flees
you think you're free, it holds you fast.

Love! Love! Love! Love!

Love is a gypsy's child,
it has never, ever, known a law;
love me not, then I love you;
if I love you, you'd best beware!

Almost anything by Verdi or Puccini is worth listening to. The music is wonderfully layered and expressive. Wagner is a bit more... martial in tone, using more brass than do the Italian composers but is an excellent listen.

I started by getting the instrumental-only versions, just to listen to the music. Once the music grabs you then you want the whole enchilada.

Almost forgot: Rossini! Barber of Seville - impossible to hear it without seeing Bugs and Elmer in your minds eye.

One of our favorites. 'The Rabbit of Seville'.

Welcome to my shop o/'
Let me shave your mop o/'

There used a LOT of opera and classical music in those cartoons that were more art than animation.

Update; I forget 'Long-Haired Hare' where Bugs puts the singer through his paces, The next to last note has him squirming on the floor with his face turning every color of the rainbow.

In the final act of "Carmen", Instead of Don Jose stabbing Carmen, it would be cooler if he'd hosed her down with an AK-47. Just a thought.

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Why, I aughta.....

Sounds like a viable update to me.

Maybe Pagliacci could do Nedda with a Glock. And Siegfried could be 'accidentally' shot in the back with a .505 Gibbs. And Lucia could cap Bucklaw with a 1911. Madame Butterfly could give herself a shot to the head with a Hand Ejector (The period would be correct). HEY, THIS IS FUN!

what happend to mama Lucheia thats the only one i know

Here's a synopsis of operas that has always cracked me up: All the Great Operas in 10 Minutes

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Bob

I got hooked on the music from The Bad News Bears. I knew I'd heard it somewhere before, but what was it?

Carmen.

I bought a CD of excerpts. Good music. Several years later I bought a 2-disc set of the entire opera. DAMN good music.

This past Christmas my daughter gave me a boxed set of LPs, that came with a booklet explaining what was going on, in English, French, Italian and German. Along with the lyrics, so you can TRY to sing along.

Vinyl really does sound better.

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I always take precautions

Chuck Jones was asked why the extensive use of classical and opera music in his cartoons. His answer? "Because it's the best music."

I like to listen to opera when I work on guns.
Specifically the works of Puccini.

Thanks for this thread. Have been an Italian opera fan for over 40 years and went to the Met often. In the '70s, had the enormous pleasure of seeing and hearing Luciano Pavarotti and Joan Sutherland bring the house down in Bellini's "I Puritani" at the Met. Another highlight was a loge seat to Beverly Sills' debut at the Met in "La Traviata." "Bubbles" was quite a singer and a wonderful person. I actually exchanged letters with her. She was so gracious to write me back.

I prefer traditional settings to modern ones. I didn't like the Rigoletto staging by the Met. Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, Verdi and Puccini especially were masters of the art. Among the French, Bizet and Saint-Saens stand out. As for Wagner, I agree with Mark Twain: "Wagner's music is not as bad as it sounds." To give the Germans their due, Mozart is in the first row (even though technically he was from Austria).

The best soprano who ever lived was Maria Callas; there will never be another one quite like her. Tenors? I'll take Pavarotti over anyone, especially in a bel canto role. Placido Domingo is also a great performer.

Like most of the music... but the singing is at best described as a large buffoon bellowing at shrieking harpy.

I like opera. The music and singing. I don't think I could handle getting dressed up like a French waiter to actually go see one. (much less pony up the price) I do have several records/CD's though.

I remember once seeing a interview with Pavorati in people mag (I think) where he was asked his favorite singer. His answer? Elvis Presley

I'm not an opera fan, really don't know anything about it, but my niece studied opera,and for years I wondered to what end,then last year she got a job at the Met singing in the chorus, just goes to show you never know.

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Register & Vote

I'm certain I got it from my mother - she was abroad in France in '50, '51 & '52 - a year of which was in Paris to study opera and take voice there. She had all us kids taking piano by six years old (five for my younger sister); our house had two pianos (an upright and a baby grand) as well as one of those electric Wurlitzer organs.

There wasn't a day from the time I was six until I graduated that I didn't practice an instrument or my work on my voice. Both sets of grandparents had pianos in the house - even the ones on the farm had a small upright. Vacation was no reason not to stay in shape.

Families had music as part of their lives. A piano or a parlor organ was required. Add some combination of portable instruments and everybody singing. Who needed TV? All five of us kids were required to take piano lessons. Alas, with iphones and headphones nobody needs that any more. All the time that kids spend playing 'Guitar Hero' on the computer could be put toward learning a REAL instrument.

"What's Opera, Doc?" is even better. Real artistry.

As a child I listened to the Met radio broadcasts on Saturday afternoon because my mother loved opera.

I don't really listen to full performances anymore, and haven't for years, but recorded excerpts now and then.

Best tenors? Jussi Bjoerling, Richard Tucker (both dead) and Placido Domingo (now conducting). I wasn't much of a Pavarotti fan. Domingo could both sing and act, convincingly.

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa may be my favorite soprano, possibly my favorite ever.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Though not BIG opera singers I like McCormack and Schipa. And yeah, Kiri Te Kanawa can sing in my ear anytime. I have her on cd doing Boheme. Pavarotti was sensational, but I thought Domingo's voice more appealing, a little warmer. (He did start singing some baritone toward the end) and his acting is more convincing. I prefer beautiful voices to big voices, except in dramatic works by Wagner and the like when the heroes and villains are cracking the voice of doom.

John Vickers 'Pagliacci' in Karajan's TV movie:

Jon Vickers - 'Vesti la giubba' (Karajan) - YouTube

Cool effect - When he breaks the mirror part of the aria is sung by his reflection in the broken glass.

No kidding. This is it!!!

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...71667212,d.cGE

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Why, I aughta.....

If it's good enough for Andy DuFresne to take another hit at Shawshank and Mel Blanc to work his wonders with I may need to adjust my thinking on the subject.

I can pretty much guarantee you that 95% of the members here have listened to at least some music from an opera and enjoyed it, even if they didn't actually realize it was from an opera.

The theme from the Lone Ranger? It is the finale of the Overture for the Opera William Tell, by Rossini.

Expanding ones musical horizons is never a bad thing. I even managed to learn to like Country. Well, some of it.

Mark Twain once described going to a German opera and finding the opening to be a chorus of maniacs screeching at each other until an old hermit came out and sang his woes and they all went off to be killed. He also noted that after 2 hours he glanced at his watch and was horrified to see only twenty minutes had passed. That said my wife and I take in one opera per year mostly of the Italian variety.