I Went To The Opera Last Night

[querelle]

It was a local opera conpany's production of Barber of Seville. It was very well done and I enjoyed it immensely but I just couldn't help but think of that old classic Bugs Bunny cartoon. The Rabbit of Seville. I found it on YouTube and here it is!

Q

Tell me what you think.

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

[GoddessOfGuinness]

1. I love that cartoon!

Which Barber of Seville did you see? Rossini? Mozart?

[querelle]

3. Rossini

It was really great. I'm a huge baroque opera fan (Rameau is my favourite) so this was the first comic opera I ever saw. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

Q

[CTyankee]

4. Mozart did not write a version of Barber of Seville. You mean

his "Marriage of Figaro." Figaro was a popular character.

[Bear down under]

18. Mozart and Rossini

set different plays by the French writer Pierre Beaumarchais (1732 -1799) -- Le Barbier de Séville (premiered in 1775) and its sequel Le Mariage de Figaro (1784). Figaro appears in both, as do Count Almaviva and Rosina, whom the Count woos (with Figaro's assistance) and marries in the first play (and Rossini's opera) and who is the Countess in the sequel and in Mozart's opera.

Beaumarchais wrote a third play in the sequence, La Mère Coupable, in 1792, but this was not made into an opera until 1966, by Darius Milhaud.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

23. I don't know why I typed Mozart...I meant Paisello...

Duh...

I saw the Paisello done by an Italian opera company years ago (I can't remember which one). It was my first opera. I was in my early teens, and enjoyed it; even though it was before the days of over-the-stage-libretto, and I couldn't understand what they were singing.

[CTyankee]

24. Growing up in Dallas in the 50s, the Met Opera road company would

come to town. I remember my aunt with her paper libretto, a beautiful little book actually, and running her finger under the text as the singing went along. I find the over the stage libretto distracting. The old librettos were lovely, but you really needed to read it beforehand rather than read it as the singing was going on. You have to "lose" yourself in opera.

[Radio_Lady]

2. The older cartoon packages used a lot of classical music for their

sound tracks, including opera. That's because classical pieces are in the public domain and the cartoon makers didn't have to pay for their usage!

I was co-host on a children's show "Popeye Playhouse" in Miami the 1950s and I was also a classical music fan, so I recognized many of the themes.

Thanks for sharing! Brings back a lot of memories!

[CTyankee]

6. I love hearing opera themes in commercials!

There is that beautiful intermezzo in "Cavallerio Rusticano" that Prego used in its pasta sauce commercial some years back. Also, how many times have we heard "Un bel di" from Madama Butterfly or "Nessun Dorma" from "Turandot", or "Mi chiamino Mimi" from La Boheme. And of course, to round out the PUccini operas, "O mio babbio caro" from Gianna Schichi or "Vissi d'arte" from Tosca.

What is your favorite?

[querelle]

8. My Favourite?

Back in the 80's, Mars Bars had a commercial here in Canada (don't know if it aired anywhere else) that featured Ebben? Ne Andro Lontana from the Catalani opera La Wally. That ad would transfix me every time until it finished. It was a very popular aria at that time because of the movie Diva.

Q

[CTyankee]

9. Ebben? It sounds German.

I'm not too up on my German opera. I love the Italian opera so!

[querelle]

10. The Title May Have Been A Mix Of German & Italian

The opera takes place in the Tyrolean Alps (modern Austria?). Perhaps Catalani used a bit of artistic licence when writing the aria, but La Wally is definitely an Italian opera. I too adore Italian opera but my firat love, as mentioned above, will always be baroque 18th century French opera.

Q

[CTyankee]

11. Tell me why. I am so entranced by 19th century Italian opera

I do slight the baroque French. I need to be educated.What do you think is the major differences? I realize Western European music took a major turn from the Classical period to the Romantic era. Mostly, I think in terms of Mozart and Haydn for the Classical. Late 19th century for Italian Romantic. So I'm sketchy on French Baroque.

[querelle]

13. I'll Try.......

Baroque is very rigid and disciplined in it's structure. Harmony and complex melodies seem to blend seamlessly. I find that 19th century Italian opera is more flambuoyant and was meant to appeal to a wider audience. It was the pop music of it's time. To me the difference between the two is very pronounced. In the mid 1800's, perhaps the young listened to the romantic music where their elders preferred the baroque stuff and denounced the modern music pretty much the same as older people put down hip-hop today.

Over simplified I know, but the best I can come up with right now.

Q

[tjwmason]

15. Well put.

I'm with you on Baroque opera too - I went to a stunning Giulio Cesare last summer, and instantly fell in love with at least two of the counter-tenors. :eyes:

[querelle]

17. Are You A Fan Of Handel?

I know so little of his compositions. Please enlighten me.

Q

[Captain Hilts]

5. SAME thing happened to me at the Bolshoi in Moscow 1980

All I could think of was Bugs Bunny and I heard people around me mentioning Bugs.

[Bear down under]

16. Some years ago

I went to a concert given in St Francis Xavier's Cathedral in Adelaide to inaugurate the new organ there. It began (but of course!) with Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor -- and as those great opening chords rang out through the cathedral a woman two pews in front of me squawked at the top of her voice "Omygod, it's just like a horror movie!"

[crim son]

7. I don't know the cartoon.

I'd love to see the opera though. Too bad the Bangor Opera House is newly renovated to be a bank building!

[YankeyMCC]

12. Any incidental knowledge I have of Opera and

much of my classical music knowledge (well perhaps all because I don't remember much from that one class I took in college) comes from Bugs Bunny cartoons.

:)

[querelle]

14. You And Many Other People

Myself included. If it were not for Bugs Bunny cartoons, I may have never discovered classical music. I never heard it at home because both my parents were (still are) jazz devotees. WB cartoons made me curious about classical music at a young age and it developed into a love of classical and opera. Thank you Chuck Jones!

Q

[Radio_Lady]

19. Querelle, in our family, Dad played violin (badly) and Mom played

piano. I didn't get much out of piano lessons, so I call myself a classical listener rather than a player.

[Radio_Lady]

20. Have you have seen the two movies Fantasia (1) and Fantasia (2)...?

I recall Mom and Dad took me when I was a little kid.

It came out in 1940 and still gets a 7.8/10 at the Internet Movie Database.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032455/

I immediately fell in love with "The Nutcracker" and "Night on Bald Mountain"...

I just love Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky and Stravinsky!

The second one is Fantasia (2000), actually released in 1999.

Still getting 7.3/10 although it wasn't as well received as the original film.

http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0120910/

[swimboy]

21. Ah, you are my type of guy!

Let me straighten your tie, and I shall dance for you.

:rofl:

[Aristus]

22. "Welcome to my shop. Let me cut your mop. Let me shave your crop.

DAAAAAAAIN-TI-LEE! Daaaaaain-ti-lee!"