Anyone here an opera fan?

[badbadboy]

I guess I got hooked on classical music when I worked in the Outback in Australia years ago. The only person who was organized enough to bring tapes was a classical and opera fan. No biggie, it was better that working in silence.

First on my list is "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi. Still love it to this day.

Next on my list was the first Three Tenors Concert in the Roman Baths known as Carracella. It has become an annual affair with making pasta and italian appetizers etc while listening to the concert. Fabulous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Tenors

 

[normisanas]

Opera + New Wave + Outer Space = Unique sounds of opera from Nomi land!

Ahh poor Klaus Nomi. Only the good die young, don't they?


Now if I could just please tempt the patience out of the lot of you, here is an especially beautiful rendition of "O Mio Babbino Caro" by a largely unknown Japanese soprano, Maki Mori.

 

[badbadboy]

I should add that I saw Jeff Beck play here last year and the final song of the night was his instrumental version of Nessun Dorma Me like

 

[normisanas]

This is tenor Ramon Vargas singing "Per La Gloria D'arodarvi" (For the Glory of Adoring You), an aria by Bononcini (in the opera "Griselda") written sometime 1600-1700. A beautiful song to this day.


Curiously the pop singer Jewel tried her hand at it.... not bad for a pop singer, but it never fails to bring a warm smile to my face:

 

[normisanas]

Ha ha, I like to sing Queen of the Night

Heh... like this HEROIC German soprano, Diana Damrau?

 

[mimi]

Carreras-yes!!!

Kathleen Battle, although she was reputed to be a bitch she is one of few who can sing without music in front of her and she can move into jazz and sound 'real'...seamless voice.

Operas...Mozart definitely. Always funny. Porgi Amour is my favourite aria.

La boheme is an oratorio, not a musical.

Lucia di lammermoor is possibly the worst I have seen and if I had had a gun I would have finished the heroine off myself...my ass was pretty sore at the end of that one...an Italian should never have attempted to write about life in the Scottish highlands.

There is a new Opera out, locally written (Nelson BC) that sounds quite promising and the sample of voices I heard on CBC was very encouraging. So far it is performed in Nelson using locals (very talented, but, Nelson is the place for talent)

Oh, loved, loved, loved The Flying Dutchman, partly because the bass is the hero and the tenor is the villian, and the set was spectacular! And at half time we got to hang around and watch the set being 'reset'...very cool! Wagner added some humour as well, so there was a leitmotif of 'the chuckles' spiffing through the gloomy plot.

 

[normisanas]

10,000 people singing Beethoven's Sym. 9, "Ode to Joy":