# What Operas (any era) Are About Sports or Athletes or Sports themed?



## MonagFam (Nov 17, 2015)

Just looking to see what operas exist that have a sports theme. Thanks in advance for any replies.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Baseball - "The Mighty Casey" by William Schuman (1953), After the poem by Ernest Thayer.

Association Football - "The Silver Tassie" by Mark Anthony Turnage (1997-99). After the play by Sean O'Casey.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Pergolesi (and I think Vivaldi) wrote operas called l'olimpiade.

N.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

I haven't seen it, but I believe Verdi's I Lombardi is about American Football.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

GreenMamba said:


> I haven't seen it, but I believe Verdi's I Lombardi is about American Football.


I'm not even going to try to top this!


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Terrence Blanchard's _Champion_ is about boxer Emile Griffith. The libretto is by Michael Chrisofer. It premiered in 2013 at Opera Theater of St. Louis. I'm excited for the chance to see it in February in a production by Opera Parallèle and SF Jazz.

_Approaching Ali_ is a chamber opera by D.J. Sparr, with a libertto by Mark Campbell and Davis Miller, about the latter meeting Muhammad Ali. It also premiered in 2013, at Washington National Opera (review).


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

_Die Fledermaus_ means "The Bat," the second act takes place at a ball, and the work was an immediate hit.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

By coincidence, I recently saw a DVD of Galuppi's opera "L'olimpiade " which I got from Netflix . It's a fairly recent production from Venice with period instruments from the historic La Fenice theater .
It's hardly one of the great operas, but entertaining enough, and you can also see it on youtube .
None of the scenes in the opera take place at the games ; they are only mentioned .
Baldassare Galuppi was one of the leading Italian composers of the early 18th century but his music is rarely heard today .


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> _Die Fledermaus_ means "The Bat," the second act takes place at a ball, and the work was an immediate hit.


Post of 2015


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Does ice skating in _Vanessa_ count?


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## MonagFam (Nov 17, 2015)

It would appear <cough> we have our bases covered.

Thanks for all the replies so far. Are any of these available digitally?

I would count Vanessa, and I think that is the only one I have heard.


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## anmhe (Feb 10, 2015)

I believe Don Giovanni's about a guy who scores a lot.


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

I could never figure out which game they play in that Verdi Opera, because the ball was masked.


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## anmhe (Feb 10, 2015)

Belowpar said:


> I could never figure out which game they play in that Verdi Opera, because the ball was masked.


Well, it takes place in Boston, so take your pick.


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## MonagFam (Nov 17, 2015)

anmhe said:


> I believe Don Giovanni's about a guy who scores a lot.


Seems like scoring is essential to classical composers.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

MonagFam said:


> It would appear <cough> we have our bases covered.
> 
> Thanks for all the replies so far. Are any of these available digitally?
> 
> I would count Vanessa, and I think that is the only one I have heard.


There is a recording of the previously mentioned _The Mighty Casey_ on Spotify: spotify:album:6LUj5BAJ6NacG8Aq22eePY

Sahsa Matson - _Cooperstown: Jazz Opera in Nine Innings_. Premiered in 2007, a recording was just released and is available on Spotify: spotify:album:0mPbGh67a931VWoSHN6oVB

_L'olimpiade_ as set by Vivaldi is also on Spotify, as is the 1778 version by Josef Mysliveček. There is also a bizarre album by the Venice Baroque Orchestra from 2012 that has the complete opera but switches between settings by 16 different composers. It uses the overture by Leo, then the first number by Hasse, the second by Galuppi, and so on. spotify:album:0UTZy4Tax6MNghvyuto12G

Others:
Daniel Sonenberg - _The Summer King_, on Negro League player Josh Gibson. Premiered in 2014 in Portland, Maine.

_Ingerland_ by Jocelyn Pook is about being an association football fan.

Jake Heggie's _Great Scott_, which just premiered in Dallas, concerns the conflict between a football championship and an opera premiere happening on the same night.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Doesn't Madame Butterfly feature Ping Pong ?


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

TxllxT said:


> Doesn't Madame Butterfly feature Ping Pong ?


No that is Turandot.


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

Some people consider hunting a sport... I won't get into that controversy, but a hunt certainly does feature in Act II of Tristan und Isolde.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

The Flying Dutchman feature diving. Tosca and Iris feature the unusual sport dry diving.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Archery? Try Parsifal or William Tell.

Swimming? Rusalka or Rheingold


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Sloe said:


> The Flying Dutchman feature Diving. Tosca and Iris feature the unusual sport dry diving.


:clap: ...............


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Shooting? Eugene Onegin?


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

DavidA said:


> Shooting? Eugene Onegin?


And Der Freishütz.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Absolutely necessary for opera goers: sport glass


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

And to bring up another sport that involves killing animals, all of Act IV of Carmen takes place during a bullfight. The choir actually gives a play-by-play of the action.

The bull, presumably, ends up as dead as Carmen.


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

There's a primitive blood sport featured in Lohengrin, where the title character and Friedrich von Telramund get into a circle of spears to do battle.

This brings up one of the funnier scenes that I have seen in a live production, one we saw in Berlin in 2008. The production and singing were excellent, but the singer playing Lohengrin had to have been about 15 cm taller, 30 kg heavier, and 20 years younger than Friedrich. The outcome of the match didn't seem to be much in doubt to me...


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## Bardamu (Dec 12, 2011)

A more serious and less comic answer could be "Partita a pugni" (1953) by Vieri Tosatti which main subject is a boxe match.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

There is an opera about almost any subject, and this also includes the world of sports. We have for instance Martin Smolka's _Nagano_, written in celebration of the Czech Republic's national ice hockey team, that grabbed the gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1998:






Or another example, an opera premiered at the Munich's Biennale, _Playing Away_, by the British composer Benedict Mason, about professional football. Terry Bond, from the City FC, is one of the best players in the world, and he is going to play in the Champions League's final, facing a fearsome rival: FC Bayern Munich. But at the same time, he is emotionally torn between his wife, a famous pop star, and his lover. Everything comes together the day of the Final...






Or wthat's about the American composer Frank Proto, that with the librettist John Chenault, and stage director Leon Major, premiered in 2010 the opera _Shadowboxer_, based on Joe Louis's 1978 autobiography, "My Life".


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Guglielmo Tell - The archery:lol:


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## MonagFam (Nov 17, 2015)

Bardamu said:


> A more serious and less comic answer could be "Partita a pugni" (1953) by Vieri Tosatti which main subject is a boxe match.


I found it on youtube and enjoyed it. Wish I understood Italian.


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