# Opera that make you laugh



## The nose (Jan 14, 2014)

What's the most funniest opera you've ever seen?
What's the scene that even the hundredth time still make you laugh?


----------



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

I've never seen an opera live but my favourite cd for laughs is probably Offenbach's Orphee aux enfers. One bit that always makes me grin like an idiot is when the gods on Mount Olympus collectively groan like a classroom of ten year olds when told it's ambrosia and nectar for dinner again.


----------



## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Carmen by Bizet

Toreador-ah
Don't spit on the floor...
:lol:


----------



## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

Le Nozze di Figaro, when the Count opened the closet and he found Susanna instead of Cherubino.
Falstaff, the last scene in Windsor Park is superb funny.


----------



## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

silentio said:


> ...opened the closet and he found Susanna...


I'll have one of those installed


----------



## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

_Rosenkavalier_: "Papa! Papa! Papa!"
Hans Sachs' trolling scene in _Meistersinger_.


----------



## Fagotterdammerung (Jan 15, 2015)

Intentionally or not?

Intentionally: Zerbinetta's consoling aria in Strauss's _Ariadne Auf Naxos_. The premise is great, and rather meta for opera, given its multitudes of moping femmes.

Unintentionally: too many corny lines in Britten's _Rape Of Lucretia_. "The oatmeal slippers of sleep" ... really!? :lol:


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Figaro when there count finds Cherubino hiding under a sheet then finds he's heard everything. Then later when Figaro discovers his parents!


----------



## SilverSurfer (Sep 13, 2014)

Intentionally:


----------



## perempe (Feb 27, 2014)

Antonio is so drunk (in Budapest) that he bumps his head into the windows in our Figaro as he tries to move next to the wall. funniest directing ever.

I saw it only twice.


----------



## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

We have to admit that even opera's most popular comedies don't exactly have the audience rolling in the isles. Usually the raw material is there and it comes down to how well the directors/designers/performers can build on it.

The king of opera comedy is (surely?) Rossini, but I've been to *Barbers* and *Cenerentolas* that evoked barely a chuckle.

Although *Falstaff* is regarded as 'difficult' or 'for the connoisseur', I still think it has the most built-in laughs for a director to build on. But you need a comedic and exuberant singer for Falstaff, and I think translations here (i.e. English) are completely valid.

*L'Italiana in Algeri* by Rossini is another that should put everyone in a good mood. It's sunshine on an opera stage. Surely the tunes must make the singers happy.


----------



## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Dulcamara's patter song in L'Elisir.

A scene in the Dessay-Florez Fille du Regiment where Dessay is ironing in time to her aria. And later muttering to herself in an inimitably gallic way while peeling potatoes.

The scene in L'Incoronazione di Poppea when Arnalta is looking forward to all the fawning and flattery she will receive as the Empresse's nurse.

The scene in Albert Herring when Albert returns from his drunken escapade and stands up to his bossy mother.


----------



## DonAlfonso (Oct 4, 2014)

The announcement before a performance of Salome that the portly soprano will be substituted for the Dance of the Seven Veils due to a "twisted ankle".

Intentional: Much of Despina depending on the soprano's acting skill


----------



## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Gilbert and Sullivan - _Mikado_. The plot just gets more and more twisted as it goes along.


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

It's almost totally unknown outside of the Czech republic although it has had occaisional performances elsewhere, but "The Devil and Kate " by Dvorak is a laugh riot ! It's the comic counterpart to the 
tragic and poignant Rusalka . 
It's the story of Marbuel, an assistant devil to Lucifer in hell, who has been sent to earth to investigte rumors about a wicked countrss who has been oppressing her people and imposing forced labor on them . Marbuel comes to a tavernat night to enquire the townsfolk about the wicked countess , and meets Kate, an overweight and talkative young woman who can't get anyone in the tavern to dance with her . 
She says she would dance , even if it were with the devil, and Marbuel shows up ! He tries to flirt with her clunsily and they dance . Then he tempts her with stories about a wonderful castle he knows where he will take her to live with him . She agresss , not knowing it's hell ! And the two go down to the netherworld !
Jirka the shepard, who has been fired for insubordination , vows to resue her as the 1st act ends with everyone in hsock, including Kate;'s distraught mother . The second act takes place in hell, which is depicted as a fun place, and the devils are just a bunch of good old boys who like to drink and have fun ! Marbuel and Kate enter, and Kate is furious at him for misleading her . She won't get off his back, and Marbuel is a really wimpy devil ! Then Jirka comes in and a deal is struck ; if he can get Kate to leave , they will be very grateful . 
Marnuel will come to earth again in the 3rd act to drag the wicked countess down to hell . 
All the devils and Marbuel rejoice as they are now free of the awful Kate !
In the last act, the countess has heard about her impending doom ,and feels terrible guilt at whatshe has done to her people . Then Marbuel comes in and menaces her with being sent down to hell . But Jirka sics Kate on him, and he flees in terror ! The countess is pardones, grants freedom to the people , and Kate is given a nice house to live in ! Everything ends happily ! 
Sounds like fun, doesn't it ? I have the Supraphon recording, and a DVD sung in English from the Wexford festival in Ireland . The audience has a ball ! Try these ! You'll really get a kick out of it !


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I am not normally turned on by buffo operas but Falstaff is probably the one I like best.


----------



## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*The Last Savage and The Nose*

Over the past few years my wife and I have seen some really funny operas.

At Santa Fe we saw Menotti's _The Last Savage_. It was a riot. The audience was laughing their heads off. I am amazed that it is not more frequently performed.

We also saw the HD Met performance of Shostakovitch's _The Nose_. The plot would make Monty Python proud.

Last summer at the Ojia music festival my wife and I saw the premier of Steven Stucky's (Music) and Jerimy Denks's (Libretto) opera _The Classical Style (An Opera of Sorts)_.

One should also check out the following thread which also has some marvelous suggestions: http://www.talkclassical.com/29003-funniest-comic-opera.html#post555176


----------



## DonAlfonso (Oct 4, 2014)

Britten's Midsummer Nights Dream


----------



## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

DonAlfonso said:


> Britten's Midsummer Nights Dream


How could I forget. My wife and I was it at the Met.

Britten's _Albert Herring_ is also very amusing.


----------



## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

Overall I love _Falstaff_, which I think is a comedic masterpiece--- though I've never seen it staged.

For my favorite comedic _moment_ it has to be a tie between Callas in _Il Turco in Italia _and Schwarzkopf in _Falstaff_:

All of Callas' minxy admonitions to her husband for (rightly) suspecting her of flirting with the Turk always make me smile, and even laugh.

And of course Schwarzkopf has me _howling_ when she compares Falstaff's love letter to herself with the one he also gave to Meg-- and how Schwarzkopf starts off the aria with this _GORGEOUS _cascade of sound-- like something you'd hear out of _"Tu che la vanita"_ from _Don Carlos_-- as serious and gushing a love aria as you'd ever hear-- and then it cuts off suddenly, in mid climax-- and then Alice, Quickley, Meg, and Nanetta all start laughing cattily at how feckless Falstaff's charms are on them.


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Act 3 of Siegfried where out hero discovers Brunnhilde lying on a rock and exclaims, "this is no man!"


----------



## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

DavidA said:


> Act 3 of Siegfried where out hero discovers Brunnhilde lying on a rock and exclaims, "this is no man!"


Do you think Wagner was looking for a laugh? In the same opera we also have the bear and Siegfried's attempts with the woodbird pipe. That pretty much adds up to more laughs than the Meistersinger.


----------



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

Alexander said:


> Do you think Wagner was looking for a laugh? In the same opera we also have the bear and Siegfried's attempts with the woodbird pipe. That pretty much adds up to more laughs than the Meistersinger.


The first time I heard Das Rheingold I found myself involuntarily sniggering when Alberich was slapping his brother Mime about as he darted around him invisibly after putting on the Tarnhelm. Am I weird?


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

This one (though I would have picked a better cover photo; the dress is horrid):


----------



## The nose (Jan 14, 2014)

arpeggio said:


> We also saw the HD Met performance of Shostakovitch's _The Nose_. The plot would make Monty Python proud.


:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:


----------



## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

elgars ghost said:


> The first time I heard Das Rheingold I found myself involuntarily sniggering when Alberich was slapping his brother Mime about as he darted around him invisibly after putting on the Tarnhelm. Am I weird?


That's pretty hilarious. I think the involuntary vocalizations would have come on strong with me too if I saw that live.

In fact, it kind of reminds me of the biological androids I see every day, with a Bluetooth wired into their Borg head, talking into the air, while walking out into traffic, with their head buried in their smart phone.


----------



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

Marschallin Blair said:


> That's pretty hilarious. I think the involuntary vocalizations would have come on strong with me too if I saw that live.
> 
> In fact, it kind of reminds me of the biological androids I see every day, with a Bluetooth wired into their Borg head, talking into the air, while walking out into traffic, with their head buried in their smart phone.


Yeah - I'd like to see Alberich slap a few of those as well.


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Melchior was apparently once playing Lohengrin. When he was about to sail off at the end the swan went without him! He turned to the audience and said: "When does the next swan go?"


----------



## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Alexander said:


> Do you think Wagner was looking for a laugh? In the same opera we also have the bear and Siegfried's attempts with the woodbird pipe. That pretty much adds up to more laughs than the Meistersinger.


I think _Siegfried_ was adapted from a comic opera Wagner was working on before he decided that the protagonist was really a Walsung.


----------



## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Often the production and singers can fail to achieve the right note of levity.

Two Opera's where I recall really laughing out loud.

Don Giovanni, Directed (I think) by a young Adrian Noble for Kent Opera at the old Sadlers Wells (I sound ancient!). I'd already seen a different production and several since, but this was the only one where there was real humour. Knockabout stuff with Leporello and Massetto cruelly treated. To this day I recall my surprise and I wonder if I'd still enjoy it.

I think I've seen three productions of Gianni Schicchi but the one by English Touring Opera at Hackney Empire a couple of years ago was really funny. Not just the old man impersonations but the whole scheming family. A Joy.


----------



## The nose (Jan 14, 2014)

Belowpar said:


> Don Giovanni, Directed (I think) by a young Adrian Noble for Kent Opera at the old Sadlers Wells (I sound ancient!). I'd already seen a different production and several since, but this was the only one where there was real humour. Knockabout stuff with Leporello and Massetto cruelly treated. To this day I recall my surprise and I wonder if I'd still enjoy it.


Don giovanni is, as it's written, quite funny, but the romantic taste had a huge influence on the way many conductor directed it.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

It takes a long, long time to occur, in the opera Siegfried, when Siegfried sees Brünnhilde lying on the rock and exclaims "das ist kein mann!" I never fail to laugh. Many others usually join me. Ha! Ha! Ha!


----------



## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

"My god why must I die so young": Violetta

"My children. I'm dying. My children. I'm dying": Gustav III of Sweden


----------



## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

elgars ghost said:


> Yeah - I'd like to see Alberich slap a few of those as well.


Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. . . a little horn tap from the unusually loud horn on my car reels them back into reality. _;_D


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

arpeggio said:


> "My god why must I die so young": Violetta
> 
> "My children. I'm dying. My children. I'm dying": Gustav III of Sweden


Yeah. So many ludicrous libretto lines. "Das ist kein mann!!" Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!


----------



## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Big fun: libretto, music, interpretation, ensemble play









Humour with big choruses, really infectious laugh-along


----------

