Opera

[James 1]

Hi hopefully people will start sharing their views on operas/ opera singers and composers. To start off I'd like to say that that my favourite opera singer is Pavarotti. Although he doesn't have the biggest or greatest voice in the world I feel that his technique is unrivalled. I feel the best voice opera has ever heard in modern times is Franco Corelli (hope I’ve spelt it correctly). Does anyone use the technique of controlling the ego?

[Lady Die 63]

I don't really "do" opera, but I am partial to a bit of operetta a la Gilbert & Suillivan. HMS Pinafore is my fave.

 

What's any of this got to do with Deathlist?

[Tuber Mirum 126]

Pavarotti used to be a great singer but he should have retired 15 years ago.

 

Corelli was very good it's true but he died in 2003. Gilbert and Sullivan have been dead for slightly longer.

 

Perhaps Harrison Birtwistle will die soon, we can only hope. Or Peter Maxwell Davies. Or Malcolm Arnold, who didn't write any operas.

[TLC 9]

Hi hopefully people will start sharing their views on operas/ opera singers and composers.

I think this site is more about de-composers really, not that I'm trying to put you off.

Does anyone use the technique of controlling the ego?

I never have, I prefer to let it perform as nature intended. But that's because I'm almost over-gifted, over-intelligent and generally rather special. Just ask my mum, you don't just become her little soldier by being ordinary I can tell you.

 

Have fun on the DL,

 

TLC

[maryportfuncity 10,684]

Used to rate Corry but Emmerdale has improved and passed it of late.

[DevonDeathTrip 2,366]

Maria Callas. Or Killing Joke.

[Twelvetrees 10]

Can't see this thread lasting, so I'd better mention Wagner, Wagner and more Wagner. Then again, I'll watch most opera - off to see Gounod's Faust this evening as a matter of fact. And that includes modern opera, particularly Birtwistle and Max - though I cannot generally bear operetta - and Gilbert and Sullivan in particular. I'd rather listen to Gilbert and George.

 

Ultimately, though, it has to be Tristan und Isolde - three and a half hours of foreplay followed by a twelve minute orgasm. And nearly everyone dies as well.

 

Also, trying vainly to keep it relevant, two different conductors, Felix Mottl (in 1911) and Joseph Keilberth (in 1968) both died whilst conducting performances of Tristan in Munich. It hasn't been programmed there for this season though.

[Anubis the Jackal 77]

Uh-oh, Culture on Deathlist...now where did I put Hermann Goerings' revolver?

[The Pooka 26]

Hi hopefully people will start sharing their views on operas/ opera singers and composers. To start off I'd like to say that that my favourite opera singer is Pavarotti. Although he doesn't have the biggest or greatest voice in the world I feel that his technique is unrivalled. I feel the best voice opera has ever heard in modern times is Franco Corelli (hope I’ve spelt it correctly). Does anyone use the technique of controlling the ego?

James. You seem to be a long way from home.

[Dave to the Grave 11]

three and a half hours of foreplay followed by a twelve minute orgasm. And nearly everyone dies as well.

This thread may stay. There is one on football after all, which is no more relevant. However, if it does go, the above quote was worth the thread's short life. If I ever need to describe the attraction of opera, I now have a nice concise way.

[Tuber Mirum 126]

three and a half hours of foreplay followed by a twelve minute orgasm. And nearly everyone dies as well.

This thread may stay. There is one on football after all, which is no more relevant. However, if it does go, the above quote was worth the thread's short life. If I ever need to describe the attraction of opera, I now have a nice concise way.

That's not Opera, that's one particular opera.

 

You couldn't describe Ligeti's Le Grande Macabre like that. The orgasms all take place under a trapdoor under the stage, and you don't know when they are, just that they happen. In Satyagraha by Philip Glass there are no orgasms at all, and in R. Strauss' Rosenkavalier they happen at the end of the overture before the curtain goes up.

[Twelvetrees 10]

Uh-oh, Culture on Deathlist...now where did I put Hermann Goerings' revolver?

 

Just to be ridiculously pedantic, the quote about reaching for a revolver is actually from Hanns Johst's 1933 play Schlageter, a delightful entertainment first performed for Hitler's birthday.

 

Incidentally, Hitler also liked operetta - more than he like Wagner, in fact. He was particularly fond of The Merry Widow. Not that Eva Braun ever got the chance to play the role.

[Dave to the Grave 11]

three and a half hours of foreplay followed by a twelve minute orgasm. And nearly everyone dies as well.

This thread may stay. There is one on football after all, which is no more relevant. However, if it does go, the above quote was worth the thread's short life. If I ever need to describe the attraction of opera, I now have a nice concise way.

That's not Opera, that's one particular opera.

 

You couldn't describe Ligeti's Le Grande Macabre like that. The orgasms all take place under a trapdoor under the stage, and you don't know when they are, just that they happen. In Satyagraha by Philip Glass there are no orgasms at all, and in R. Strauss' Rosenkavalier they happen at the end of the overture before the curtain goes up.

I of course bow to your superior operatic knowledge Notapotato, you being a professional musician and me a mere 'appy amateur. My search must therefore go on.

 

You do realise that you are discussing opera with someone who considers this music.

 

P.S. A bit of Verdi or Puccini usually does it for me. The advertising executive's favourite I know, so very unfashionable at the moment, but la petite mort awaits. Sometimes more than one.

[Brinsworth House Baiter 12]

Opera? F*****g opera?

 

There's too many poofs around this place...

 

Huh, I'm off to hang around the football thread to look all masculine and hairy.

 

F*****g opera! Pah! What next, a F*****g thread dedicated to ballet?

[Alphonsin 1]

I've been enjoying Einstein On The Beach recently.

 

(Do I get a prize for most uninteresting post of the week, by the way?)

[Magere Hein 1,400]

I've been enjoying Einstein On The Beach recently.

Ah, Glass. I couldn't be arsed to see that one, it being opera, and that. I like his work, though. like Songs from Liquid Days.

(Do I get a prize for most uninteresting post of the week, by the way?)

I've read worse.

 

regards,

Hein

[Tuber Mirum 126]

Ah, Glass. I couldn't be arsed to see that one, it being opera, and that. I like his work, though. like Songs from Liquid Days.

 

I saw Satyagraha. It was pretty long, but the hypnotic effect of all those repeated figures made it seem like about 10 minutes. I shouldn't worry about it being hard work, or boring.

 

 

The chap who sang the role of Mr. Gandhi was, as opera singers tend to be, somewhat fatter than he should have been in his loincloth.

[Cowboy Ronnie 78]

Opera? F*****g opera?

 

There's too many poofs around this place...

 

Huh, I'm off to hang around the football thread to look all masculine and hairy.

 

F*****g opera! Pah! What next, a F*****g thread dedicated to ballet?

 

Actually, BHB, there's a bit of a link between football and opera. We all recall the Three Fatties Tenors and their singing around the 1990 World Cup, but did you know some fans in Europe (Italy, and I think maybe Ajax) have a song to the tune of the Triumphant March from Aida?

[Phantom 2,550]

Do rock operas qualify? If so, I thoroughly enjoy listening to "Cheryl" by John Otway and Attila the Stockbroker, which is a tale of drug abuse, trainspotting and unrequited love.

[Magere Hein 1,400]

Do rock operas qualify? If so, I thoroughly enjoy listening to "Cheryl" by John Otway and Attila the Stockbroker, which is a tale of drug abuse, trainspotting and unrequited love.

So it's sex and drugs and rock'n'roll without the sex, but with trainspotting. Sounds like Real Life for nerds.

 

regards,

Hein

[Phantom 2,550]

Do rock operas qualify? If so, I thoroughly enjoy listening to "Cheryl" by John Otway and Attila the Stockbroker, which is a tale of drug abuse, trainspotting and unrequited love.

So it's sex and drugs and rock'n'roll without the sex, but with trainspotting. Sounds like Real Life for nerds.

 

regards,

Hein

 

Oh he has sex with Cheryl, you have to really listen to the opera to find out what happens

[Josco 49]

I've been enjoying Einstein On The Beach recently.

 

(Do I get a prize for most uninteresting post of the week, by the way?)

No.

[Twelvetrees 10]

Actually, BHB, there's a bit of a link between football and opera. We all recall the Three Fatties Tenors and their singing around the 1990 World Cup, but did you know some fans in Europe (Italy, and I think maybe Ajax) have a song to the tune of the Triumphant March from Aida?

 

And don't forget Mark Anthony Turnage's The Silver Tassie, an opera about football (and war). Dmitri Shostakovich even wrote a ballet (The Golden Age) that features football prominently, saying that "Football is the ballet of the masses"

[Lady Grendel 139]

Do rock operas qualify?

 

I quite often listen to The Who's rock opera 'Tommy', the original version not the goddawful soundtrack to the movie.

[CarolAnn 926]

Do rock operas qualify?

 

I quite often listen to The Who's rock opera 'Tommy', the original version not the goddawful soundtrack to the movie.

 

Yeah, but everyone should see "Tommy" at least once, if for no other reason then to see Tina Turner vibrate. It scarred my son for life.