# Opera music in mainstream movies



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

I found this interesting list:

http://listverse.com/2007/10/26/top-10-best-uses-of-opera-in-movies/

Too bad that some clips have been removed due to copyrights.

I love the Lakmé segment in The Hunger.

And the Lucia aria in The Fifth Element is beautiful.

Still, the list doesn't include movies like Amadeus, Le Maître de Musique, or Farinelli.


----------



## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Or the Shawshank Redemption. Although I didn't think about it consciously, I think that was part of what got me into listening to opera in the first place. It wasn't even that I looked up that particular piece (from Marriage of Figaro I believe?) But that scene in the movie kind of sat around in the back of my head and combined with a few other things that got me into listening.


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Sonata said:


> Or the Shawshank Redemption. Although I didn't think about it consciously, I think that was part of what got me into listening to opera in the first place. It wasn't even that I looked up that particular piece (from Marriage of Figaro I believe?) But that scene in the movie kind of sat around in the back of my head and combined with a few other things that got me into listening.


I saw this movie years and years ago, and don't remember what aria was in it. Any details?


----------



## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

Almaviva said:


> I saw this movie years and years ago, and don't remember what aria was in it. Any details?


The Duettino between Susanna and the Contessa in Act 3. Better known as the "Sull'aria".

Strangely, it isn't even one of the high points of the opera for me, and I love _Le Nozze di Figaro_ to death (It's my favorite opera, and one of my favorite musical works overall).


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Air said:


> The Duettino between Susanna and the Contessa in Act 3. Better known as the "Sull'aria".
> 
> Strangely, it isn't even one of the high points of the opera for me, and I love _Le Nozze di Figaro_ to death (It's my favorite opera, and one of my favorite musical works overall).


It's not bad at all... Here in a rare occasion with a great soprano and a great mezzo together.






Or here, even better:






But you're right, this opera is so full of beautiful moments... It's like a long series of high points...


----------



## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

Oh, no, I do like it very much, it's just that it's not my favorite part by a long shot. And yes I own the Janowitz/Mathis - heavenly.


----------



## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I'd have to agree....I like it, but it's not close to my favorite aria in general (With regards to Figaro-specific, I haven't listened through enough to know which parts are my favorites). But it was enough to be an impetus to get me into opera. Shawshank is one of my absolute favorites, and I loved the way they used the opera music in that scene. It was a very moving moment. 

Almaviva, I know you probably would have taken Andy to task for not reenacting Figaro in shadow puppets for the other prisoners, since opera needs to be seen and not just heard.  I'm teasing...hope I didn't go too far?


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Sonata said:


> I'd have to agree....I like it, but it's not close to my favorite aria in general (With regards to Figaro-specific, I haven't listened through enough to know which parts are my favorites). But it was enough to be an impetus to get me into opera. Shawshank is one of my absolute favorites, and I loved the way they used the opera music in that scene. It was a very moving moment.
> 
> Almaviva, I know you probably would have taken Andy to task for not reenacting Figaro in shadow puppets for the other prisoners, since opera needs to be seen and not just heard.  I'm teasing...hope I didn't go too far?


Hey, you know, that's how these guys end up in prison, they don't do anything right!:lol:

As for Le Nozze di Figaro arias, try _Non più andrai_; _Porgi Amor_; and _Voi che sapete, _among many other exquisite moments.


----------



## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Godfather? The Untouchables with Costner? Real Italian gangsta always has opera scene in such movies.

Also "Lost Weekend", famous movie about alcoholism has a scene when the maich character goes to performance of Traviata and can't stand still at drinking scene in act I knowing that he left bottle of whiskey in his coat.


----------



## Dulcamara (Sep 22, 2010)

"I have no idea to this day what them two Italian ladies were singin' about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I like to think they were singin' about something so beautiful it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it." - Red (Morgan Freeman), in _Shawshank Redemption_

The interesting thing is that, while poetic and all, they're really just singing about their plans to trick Almaviva, which seems to be a lot more mundane than what Red imagined. Nevertheless, the point of this music does go beyond the plot of libretto, no? That's such an awesome opera.

Although set in the Amazonian rainforest, opera drives the whole plot of the excellent Werner Herzog film Fitzcarraldo.


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Cavalleria's intermezzo in _Raging Bull_:


----------



## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

Couple others:


----------



## AnaMendoza (Jul 29, 2011)

Babbete's Feast--not exactly mainstream.


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

AnaMendoza said:


> Babbete's Feast--not exactly mainstream.


By mainstream I meant non-operatic movies.


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

_Senso_ - Visconti


----------



## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Can't find a clip, but in _Anna Karenina_ (1948), Vivien Leigh and Ralph Richardson go to the opera--and the music we hear is from Tchaikovsky's _Eugene Onegin_.

Tolstoy's novel was completed in 1877, so it's anachronistic to have the characters attend an opera that premiered in 1879.

Still, by Hollywood standards, it's not so bad.


----------



## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Another classic film where a man and woman go to the opera. And I *do* have a clip for this one . . .

Carol Reed was the brilliant director of such suspenseful classics as _The Third Man_ and _Odd Man Out_. In his 1953 thriller _The Man Between_, as James Mason and Claire Bloom attend the opera in Berlin, they (and we) get to see Ljuba Welitsch perform Strauss's _Salome_.


----------



## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Somewhat cheesy traditionalist scenes from Tristan and ending of Gotterdammerung from the movie "Interrupted Melody", a biopic on Marjorie Lawrence. Opera quiz people: You can see her ride Grane in the second one! Yay! Eileen Farrell provides the singing for the actor.


----------



## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Couchie said:


> Somewhat cheesy traditionalist scenes from Tristan and ending of Gotterdammerung from the movie "Interrupted Melody", a biopic on Marjorie Lawrence. Opera quiz people: You can see her ride Grane in the second one! Yay! Eileen Farrell provides the singing for the actor.


Great clips, Couchie!

Apparently the film is called _Interrupted Melody_ because, in both cases, the damn audience couldn't wait for the music to end before they started applauding!


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

amfortas said:


> Can't find a clip, but in _Anna Karenina_ (1948), Vivien Leigh and Ralph Richardson go to the opera--and the music we hear is from Tchaikovsky's _Eugene Onegin_.
> 
> Tolstoy's novel was completed in 1877, so it's anachronistic to have the characters attend an opera that premiered in 1879.
> 
> Still, by Hollywood standards, it's not so bad.


Something similar occurs in _Les enfants du Siècle_, by Diane Kurys, based on the tumultuous love affair between George Sand and Alfred de Musset.

Both lovers travel to Venice, and Musset go to La Fenice, where a staging of _Beatrice di Tenda_ is taking place. However, the opera was given in March, 1833, while Musset and Sand arrived to Venice in December. A small poetic liberty.

This is the film trailer:


----------



## MAnna (Sep 19, 2011)

How about Woody Allen's "Match Point" and the opening "Una Furtiva Lagrima"? I think the whole aria was played at the beginning of the movie.


----------



## ooopera (Jul 27, 2011)

Henry Purcell: The Fairy Queen in Almodovar movie Hable con ella. Unfortunately I can't find a clip.


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Yep, Woody Allen's Match Point has no less than 9 operatic areas in its sound track.


----------



## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

I wonder if there is a list somewhere of movies that have used the Habenera from Carmen. I'll bet it would be long. (The most recent example I can think of is the Pixar film Up.)

Also, has anybody seen the movie Moonstruck (in which the main characters attend a performance of La Boheme)? I guess it's kind of cheesy, but I like it a lot.


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

A performance of Mozartian's Abduction in the movie _Guarding Tess_.


----------



## jflatter (Mar 31, 2010)

Can't find clips but James Bond has a couple of pieces that spring to mind. Quantum of Solace has the end of Act 2 of Tosca and the Living Daylights has some of the Le Nozze di Figaro. Sorry I am bit of a Bond fan!


----------



## jflatter (Mar 31, 2010)

Anyway isn't Star Wars just some giant futuristic Wagnerian singspiel?


----------



## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

jflatter said:


> Anyway isn't Star Wars just some giant futuristic Wagnerian singspiel?


----------



## jflatter (Mar 31, 2010)

Wonderful!


----------



## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

amfortas said:


>


This MAY have to become my desktop background:lol:.


----------



## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

amfortas said:


>


Hm that could almost work.

Wotan: Walse never told you what happened to your father.
Siegmund: ???
Wotan: Siegmund ... *I* am your father.
Siegmund: No, that's not true. That's impossible!
Wotan: Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
Siegmund: Nooooooo


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

_Aria_ was an interesting experiment.

Ten movie directors were offered to shoot their favourite Opera scenes.

This was the list:

Un Ballo in Maschera - Nicholas Roeg
La Forza del Destino - Charles Sturridge
Armide - Jean-Luc Godard
Rigoletto - Julian Temple
Die Tote Stadt - Bruce Beresford
Les Boréades - Robert Altman
Tristan und Isolde - Franc Roddam
Turandot - Ken Russell
Louise - Derek Jarman
Pagliacci - Bill Bryden​
The results are uneven, but in the whole it makes for a nice viewing. My favourite scene is this "Glück das mir verblieb", with a very young (and very beautiful) Elizabeth Hurley:


----------



## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

rgz said:


> Hm that could almost work.
> 
> Wotan: Walse never told you what happened to your father.
> Siegmund: ???
> ...


Sieglinde: Siegmund, don't talk that way. You have a power I--I don't understand and could never have.

Siegmund: You're wrong, Sieglinde. You have that power too. In time you'll learn to use it as I have. The Force is strong in my family. My father has it...I have it...and...my sister has it.

[_Sieglinde stares into his eyes. What she sees there frightens her. But she doesn't draw away. She begins to understand_].

Siegmund: Yes. It's you, Sieglinde.

Sieglinde: I know. Somehow...I've always known.


----------



## Morgana (Mar 2, 2011)

"Addio, senza rancor" from "La Boheme" from the movie "Moonstruck." They also use "O soave fanciulla" and "Quando m'en vo." I'm pretty sure Tebaldi is the soprano on the soundtrack.


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Interesting use of operatic music in _Heavenly Creatures_, (Peter Jackson, 1994):


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

In _Meeting Venus_, István Szabó uses the world of Opera and a staging of Tannhäuser for one of his English-language films.


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Could it be that _Casta Diva_ is the most used operatic fragment outside of Opera?

Perhaps, in any case it's a serious candidate.

In _2046_ it sounds in several scenes (sung by Angela Gheorghiu), and in the DVD there is this extra:


----------



## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Terrence Malick's _The New World _(2005) opens with the arrival of British colonists in Virginia--to the prelude from Wagner's _Das Rheingold_.


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

*Fellini - E la nave va*


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

schigolch said:


> _Aria_ was an interesting experiment.
> 
> Ten movie directors were offered to shoot their favourite Opera scenes.
> 
> ...


Yes, I've seen it, and yes, it is very uneven, although some of the scenes are quite erotic (e.g. the Liebestod scene).


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)




----------



## AmericanGesamtkunstwerk (May 9, 2011)

Herzog - FITZCARRALDO. oh man, i love this movie sooo much you all need to see it. This guy (Kinski, who's father sang in the opera) is hellbent on building a grand opera house in the thick of the amazon jungle. whats more, is he plans for Enrico Caruso to sing at the premiere.

more Herzog - a documentary called Lessons of Darkness has some brilliant use of Gotterdammerung.

Herzog again - the Rheingold clip thats in The New World is in his Nosferatu remake.

A friend told me of a movie (french i think. or maybe it was italian.) that had characters watching a production of Tristan, footage in the theater juxtaposed with episodes in their lives. Which, of course, paralleled. I hear it was a great example of Schopenhauerian cinema (naturally), and it literally runs on Wagner references. but OF COURSE i forgot the name. baaahhhhhh i blew it.

Life is Beautiful - wonderful italian fable. The Hero finds out the girl of his dreams is going to the theater to see Offenbach. while they're there there's actually another interesting Schopenhauer reference.

BUT I DIGRESS: this thread was inquiring to MAINSTREAM movies, a restriction we have all neglected to follow.

Paul Thomas Anderson - Magnolia. includes a use of Habanera, but its WAY more inventive than any other use of Habanera.

While we're on the subject (and New World was already brought up), I want to say that *I LOVE TERRENCE MALLICK*. Have you guys seen Tree of Life? it is, bar none, The Most High-end instance of director-as-connoseaur in the soundtrack, but there's not really much opera persay, its still relevant. more vocal music than normally gets used in pictures. lots of latin. Actually the movie in general, i consider it The Original Wagnerian Cinema. But i don't want to get this thread toooo off.

(still didn't get any really mainstream movies. i don't think anything listed had more than a limited release, lol!)


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

I think we meant mainstream as in non-operatic, that is, not filmed opera. Of course most movies that do use opera are made by more discerning directors and are not likely to be your usual Hollywood blockbuster. Still, some mainstream movies in the latter sense have used opera, like The Fifth Element, Philadelphia, and The Shawshank Redemption. 

By the way, I wouldn't classify Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia as mainstream either.

Yes, Fitzcarraldo is great, and so is the Nosferatu remake, one of the few successful remakes in movie history - as good as the original, in my opinion.


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Give stage directors some latitude and we will soon open a thread about mainstream movies in Opera.... 

This has already happened many times, the last one I watched live was in a Makropulos by Krzysztof Warlikowski, where Emilia Marty was Marilyn Monroe in _The Seven Year Itch_, Rita Hayworth in _Gilda_, Fay Wray in _King Kong_ and Gloria Swanson in _Sunset Boulevard_... :lol:


----------



## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

John Boorman's somewhat cheesy but often beautiful 1981 Arthurian epic _Excalibur_ makes apt use of music from several Wagner operas--_Tristan and Isolde_ for the adulterous love of Lancelot and Guenevere, _Parsifal_ for Sir Perceval's search for the Grail, and, in this final scene, Siegfried's Funeral March from _Götterdämmerung_ for Arthur's death.


----------



## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Hehe it might be cheesy but I love that movie. And T H White's book "The once and future king".


----------



## AmericanGesamtkunstwerk (May 9, 2011)

EXCALIBUR. the way that that slipped my mind baffles myself... Yeah, Excalibur. Definitely.


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

*La caduta degli dei - Luchino Visconti.*

A drunkard singing the Liebestod:


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

*Hereafter - Clint Eastwood*


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

*Les Témoins - André Techiné*


----------



## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

We've left out a pretty good movie:






The music for the voice lesson is of course "Una voce poco fa" from Rossini's _Il Barbiere di Siviglia_. The live performance features a non-existent opera, _Salammbo_, the aria written by the great film composer Bernard Herrmann (who would later go on to write a complete opera of his own, _Wuthering Heights_). Interestingly, Salammbo's Aria has since been recorded by such prestigious artists as Kiri Te Kanawa.

Notice at 4:10 that Joseph Cotten, bored with the performance, passes the time by designing the set for Robert Lepage's Met Ring cycle.

Later in the movie, Welles repeats the operatic performance from another, even more damning critical perspective:






Sigh . . . well, OK, you can't watch the clips here. But if you click on the YouTube buttons, you'll see them there.


----------



## AmericanGesamtkunstwerk (May 9, 2011)

> Notice at 4:10 that Joseph Cotten, bored with the performance, passes the time by designing the set for Robert Lepage's Met Ring cycle.


AHAHAHHAHHAH. very funny!

Kane did occur to me, but i would've had to admit that I didn't know the information about which aria or which opera it was, and i was embarrassed. Imagine my shock when I found that Hermann in fact came up with an Aria for a fake opera. That is truly an excellent piece of information, thank you. I haven't heard Hermann's wuthering heights, i would like to.


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Well, let's look for another pretty good movie. _The Dead_, by John Huston.

At 8:40 this hearbreaking shot of the aging Aunt Julia celebrating young love in "Arrayed for the bridal", and English adaptation of "Cinta de Fiori".


----------



## ooopera (Jul 27, 2011)

amfortas said:


> Notice at 4:10 that Joseph Cotten, bored with the performance, passes the time by designing the set for Robert Lepage's Met Ring cycle.


haha 

tralala


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

_Le Goût des autres_, by Agnès Jaoui (2000). Nominated to an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and César Award for Best Film.

Caro nome or Juanita Banana?


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

*Beetlejuice - Regnava nel Silenzio*


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

schigolch said:


> _Le Goût des autres_, by Agnès Jaoui (2000). Nominated to an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and César Award for Best Film.
> 
> Caro nome or Juanita Banana?


 Oh yes, I love this movie, and I remember this scene quite well. And for a laugh, here is Juanita Banana:


----------



## AmericanGesamtkunstwerk (May 9, 2011)

Melancholia - Lars Von Trier

actually, Bayreuth approached Von Trier to do a Ring, I think I saw him say "I don't know why they asked me, I don't know anything about Opera"


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

This fact doesn't deter some stage directors...


----------



## hutchscott (May 13, 2011)

The movie "Milk" has the finale of "Tosca", and then later, when he is shot, his last glance is out the window to the San Francisco Opera house.


----------



## vasysm (Oct 27, 2011)

I'm so sorry I can't find a clip, but...

I nominate the opening of "My Left Foot", with a haunting rendition of Mozart's "Un'aura amorosa" which sets up the whole movie, the long quest for true love which the main character, a disabled artist, is living. A splendid start for a terrific movie.


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

schigolch said:


> This fact doesn't deter some stage directors...


Lars von Trier is well established enough as one of the greatest film directors of the 20th century and beyond, to be in a position to say so. He doesn't need the attention and the ego boost that some of these Regie directors seem to need.


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

_La donna più bella del mondo_ (Beautiful but Dangerous), premiered in 1955, was a biopic of Lina Cavalieri, starring Gina Lollobrigida, arguably the most beautiful woman in the world at that time, indeed.

Ms. Lollobrigida performed all the singing herself, including this 'Vissi d'Arte':


----------



## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

There's Dario Argento's film called... well... _Opera._ If you like opera and you also like people being stabbed to death, you will like that movie.


----------



## AmericanGesamtkunstwerk (May 9, 2011)

regressivetransphobe said:


> There's Dario Argento's film called... well... _Opera._ If you like opera and you also like people being stabbed to death, you will like that movie.


I've heard about it. a synopsis-


> A young opera singer (Betty) gets her big chance when the previous star of a production of Verdi's Macbeth is run over by a car. Convinced the opera is bad luck she accepts, and becomes the target (in Argento's unmistakable style) of a psychopath - a man she has been dreaming of since childhood.
> 
> 
> > I was always wonderfully unsurprised that someone made a thriller out of the superstitions regarding the scottish play, and its cool that it was about the opera.


----------



## Festat (Oct 25, 2011)

schigolch said:


> Ms. Lollobrigida performed all the singing herself, including this 'Vissi d'Arte'


 Ooh, I didn't know that. It just makes Gina more... amazing than she already is.

Edit: I love Argento's _Opera_!


----------



## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

No singing involved, but in "Bad Teacher" we get this scene as Mark, Elizabeth's rich fiancé, breaks up with her, thus providing the plotline which drives the rest of the movie.

Elizabeth: I don't love you? I have been listening to you whine about opera for the last year!
Mark: Okay, if the younger generation doesn't get into opera, then guess what? No more opera! An art form has died! If opera goes away we're f**ked!


----------



## Bardamu (Dec 12, 2011)

Fellini masterpiece 8 1/2 is full of Opera music ( Wagner, Rossini ...)


----------



## perempe (Feb 27, 2014)

Alien: Covenant (2017) - Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla (Wagner - Das Rheingold)


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Naxos selling a box with almost all classical music used in movies.


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Meaghan said:


> Also, has anybody seen the movie Moonstruck (in which the main characters attend a performance of La Boheme)? I guess it's kind of cheesy, but I like it a lot.


Kind of cheesy?
It is a work of art!!!


----------



## Annied (Apr 27, 2017)

Several years before I got into opera, I watched "The Year of Living Dangerously" and liked "Beim schlafengehen" so much that I bought a copy of Four Last Songs.






It was another Mel Gibson film, Gallipoli that introduced me to "Roses from the South" and "Va pensiero".


----------



## Jemarchesurtousleschemins (Apr 3, 2017)

Not a movie, but there was a scene in some episode from _The Crown_ where Isolde's Liebestod played in the background when, if I remember correctly, a couple danced and then it ended up at an opera house... can't find a clip, though.


----------

