Maria Callas and opera in general

Poststructural Pub
1

I recently “discovered” a Maria Callas clip via YouTube (though I can’t remember which one it was), and I got chills up my spine.

I had never before listened to opera music with much intent but I found myself finding numerous Maria Callas clips to listen to, and reading about her amazing voice. One critic of her day called her "the Bible of opera singing
"

I don’t think we have many opera fans, but I thought I’d throw this out there: do any of you listen to Maria Callas or other opera music?

Here is one clip from YouTube, in which her singing doesn’t resemble (what I think of as) a human voice at all. It sounds so…perfect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiOIi1nUsM0

I wish she was still alive. Who are some of your favorite modern opera singers?

2

I enjoy listening on occasion.

Ever since my elder daughter had to study operas in a college course she’s always wanted to go to one. Just a few months ago she went to the Kennedy Center to see Rigoletto and was absolutely amazed. That was her birthday present from her DH. He expected to just “endure” the performance but came away a fan too.

Personally, anything Pavarotti sings - I like.

3

Why do you think that?

Check out Il Trovatore with Callas—it’s a classic recording and widely available, I believe. Hmmm… Verdi, belcanto at its best.

4

I’m most definitely not an opera fan. For the same reason I don’t like Barbra Streisand or Celine Dion–they’re all too loud. I find myself cringing, waiting for the high notes. But then I’m from Utah.

Susan

5

My wife loves opera, we listen to it every Saturday here. I appreciate opera but have an infortunate tendency to develop altenative lyrics which always cracks her up except when Mimi, Desdemona, Lucia, or some other unfortunate is meeting their end. I do the same thing with musicals, my oldest and favorite tee-shirt says “Salmon Chanted Evening” I have actually written a musical, “North Pacific,” about a group of salmon fishermen who always have trouble getting their Berings. We even sat through the entire Ring cycle one summer, but I heard Anna Russel in my head the whole time :laughing:

6

No opera here. Yawn.

7

I don’t know. It was just a hunch, I guess.

Check out Il Trovatore with Callas—it’s a classic recording and widely available, I believe. Hmmm… Verdi, belcanto at its best.

I’ve heard it. It’s crazy that that’s somebody’s voice, and not a really loud, exact, powerful horn of some sort.

8

My friend Zoe Mace sings opera. She started at age nine, this is her at age 11.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qeDGJ1Jtt0

On her Myspace page there is a recording of “Tears of Heaven.”
http://www.myspace.com/zoeannemace

9

nonononononono:
if you REALLY want chills, Jack/Cran:

find a recording of Christina Deutekomm singing the ‘Queen of the Night’ aria from Mozarts ‘Die Zauberflote’ (the magic flute)

ooooooo :astonished: :astonished: :astonished:


yeah, you can listen to Lily Pons, and 100 other divas,
but Deutekomm’s version will leave you…
well, you;ll just have to find out for yourself. :wink:

I used to play oboe in an orchestra which specialized in ‘concert operas’
( performing the work without staging, minimal costumes, sometime s adding narration)
Guaranteed Ive played 60-70 different works over the years, including Fidelio, Zauberflote, Don Giovanni, Trovatore, Norma, Nabucco, Impresario, Seraglio, Figaro, and G&S,
then there’s all the 'oratorios, Messiah, Mass in B minor, etc, etc, etc…

10

I don’t like opera as a performance art but love scratchy old recordings from the 78 era. That’s how I heard it as a child, on the radio in bed late at night. Strange voices coming to me from another world. Caruso and Ponselle, names as evocative of a lost world as the voices. My father also had a book of photos of early 20th century opera stars in full costume. I love leafing through that.

11

Many of my clients believe for some unknown reason that I listen to Irish Flute music exclusively. To the contrary, I rarely listen to it, since making the hardware is my 9 to 5.

I learned to like opera at age 8 with the Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts. I also found that by turning it up loud enough on a Saturday Morning that my siblings and parents who didn’t love it as much as I would clear out of the house on some excuse of “errands”. That was how I learned to love it.

In college I sang in some Mozart choruses along with some symphonic and chamber stuff and then burned my vocal chords out on the Britten War Requiem performed with the Oregon Symphony. I was in the Portland Symphonic Chorus then.

Thus ended any hopes to appear on stage as an Opera Singer though my voice has finally dropped (following my cojones several decades late) and I am now comfortable as a baritone.

I do compose music occasionally and have an Opera in works. If I live long enough I’ll get it done. No other releasable details at this time.

For years I listened to opera as I made my instruments but now my eyes tear up at sad tragic arias or less (I must be channeling my former bassett hound pets or its just declining testosterone) and so I’ve gone exclusively to jazz, especially vintage as well as Django. Marriage of Figaro is about my tolerance level. Or something modern though even some of the scenes in the following bring tears to my eyes for the sheer beauty of the music.

Loved Nixon in China and wish John Adams would do a sequel involving Watergate. This is probably one of the more important late 20th century operas and one of absolute favorite operas, period. In my Top Ten.

To quote the opera:

“News! News! News! News! News-News! News-News! News! News! Has A! Has A! Has A! Has A! Has a kind of Mystery! Has a kind of Mystery! Mystery! Mystery! Mystery”

See
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Tv3hrZmcEk

This is a pivotal scene. Especially watch how Kissenger exits…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jr0i_4jW9w&feature=related

You can’t make up stuff and lyrics like this!!! Brilliant!!!

The 1987 World Premier by Houston Grand Opera (was simulcast on NPR for best audio quality - at least in San Francisco on KQED) was brilliantly performed and dramatic, especially at the opening as the nose of Air Force One rolls onto the stage. Walter Cronkite introduced it with historical footage and commentary included of Nixon’s actual visit to China. I videotaped it but loaned this out and it was lost! Now I see that one can get a DVD of this broadcast through Yahoo for under $10. I just ordered a copy.

I was no fan of Nixon’s (we were Kennedy supporters and campaigners - and saw Bobby in Portland a few days before he headed to California 40 years and a week ago. I got to meet John Glenn as well! Swell people!) but compared with the current resident in the White House my opinions of Nixon and what he accomplished or did have loosened somewhat! At least he had a sense of history and some intelligence. And left us with the EPA among other things. He tried. But unfortunately left much in the way of evil poilitical spawn…

Speaking of Air Force One, Nixon’s actual 707 is now one of the museum exhibits at the Museum of Flight here in Seattle. You can go inside and walk around. Even see Nixon’s Throne. That is…where the man once shat on a regular basis. My daughter Lila who always laughed at my “I am not a Crook!” Nixon impersonation since early age was really impressed with this historic relic: Nixon’s personal toilet.

How did this devolve into discussing Nixonian fecal matter? We were talking Opera! It must be the Lyme Disease…

12

I have my degree in voice (classical/opera), so I love the artform as well.

If you’re interested in a really amazing new opera with Spanish influences, try Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar. I recently performed this one in concert with Dawn Upshaw, Kelley O’Connor, Emily Albrink, the fantastic flamenco tenor Jesus Montoya and the Phoenix Symphony (I was one of the 6 chorus women).

It’s an amazingly passionate and moving piece. It may seem a little prickly on first listen, but the glorious sounds of Upshaw and O’Connor and the raw energy of Montoya are sublime.

The story is about poet/dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca (played in a trouser role by Mezzo Kelley O’Connor) and his actress/muse Margarita Xirgu (the divine Ms. Upshaw). It centers on their relationship and Lorca’s murder by a Falangist death squad in 1936. The title means “fountain of tears” and is the name of the ancient canal in Granada where Lorca was killed. The opera fuses together Spanish flamenco, Middle Eastern and classical influences as well as recorded sound. It’s pretty spectacular.