# Operas with "Silliest" Plots



## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

We know, that some operas have silly plots. But who take the 'silliest" plots. Post some of them and describe the plot..


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

Mozart's L'oca del Cairo ('The Goose of Cairo') from 1783. Mozart composed most of the first act before his exasperation with the ludicrous plot and feeble libretto (written by a priest, Giovanni Battista Varesco) bludgeoned him into submission. Why did Mozart consider it in the first place? Well, he was looking to compose a hit opera buffa and agreed out of desperation to give it a go as his chosen librettist Da Ponte was unavailable to write something better (I gather Mozart waded through numerous manuscripts before opting for this one so it makes one wonder how bad the others must have been). The brief summary of the plot - such as it is - is courtesy of Wikipedia:

'Don Pippo, a Spanish Marquess, keeps his only daughter Celidora locked up in his tower. She is betrothed to Count Lionetto, but her true love is Biondello, a wealthy gentleman. Biondello makes a bet with the Marquis that if he can rescue Celidora from the tower within a year he wins her hand in marriage. He succeeds by having himself smuggled into the tower garden inside a large mechanical goose.'

As if the sudden arrival of a huge metal goose would go unnoticed! :lol:


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

Frank Zappa's opera _Joe's Garage_ has a pretty silly plot. Joe forms a rock band with his friends but gets taken advantage of by the record company. Later on he dates a girl he met at church but she cheats on him with the entire road crew of some other rock band, leading Joe to be more loose in his relationships. He winds up with an unprenouncable disease and seeks comfort in L. Ron Hoover's Church of Appliantology, a religion for home appliance fetishists. Then.... more stuff happens. A strong theme in Joe's Garage is censorship, and government overstepping its bounds and becoming oppressive. The work has very bawdy humor, but its very clever in how its done, and the music itself is beautiful and profound, some of the best Frank ever composed. I recommend it as one of the great achievements of 20th Century music, totally serious. If you're too prudish for the content of the libretto... 
GET OVER IT.


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

Joe's Garage is inspired silliness and also contains a lot of great satire with more depth than meets the ear - I've said before that I thought it had potential as a stage work or film. I love the way it peters out with that ridiculous and completely irrelevant Little Green Rosetta song.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

elgars ghost said:


> Joe's Garage is inspired silliness and also contains a lot of great satire with more depth than meets the ear - I've said before that I thought it had potential as a stage work or film. I love the way it peters out with that ridiculous and completely irrelevant Little Green Rosetta song.


XD Me too. "Watermelon in Easter Hay" is the real finale to the work, "A Little Green Rosetta" is sort of a comic epilogue, kinda like "Her Majesty" after "The End" on the Beatles' _Abbey Road_.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I'm surprised Die Zauberflöte hasn't been mentioned. Or The Nose.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Ernani and Il trovatore always take the cake for me.

Magic Flute is not silly, it's a classic quest. But Cosi, that business with the Albanians, I don't buy it. You usually have to do something clever and post-modern with it on stage.


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

mamascarlatti said:


> But Cosi, that business with the Albanians, I don't buy it. You usually have to do something clever and post-modern with it on stage.


But it does make for some terriffic music, though.

Continuing down the Mozart path, there's always La finta giardiniera, where the pretend gardener (gardeneress?) still loves her husband, the count, who tried to kill her and left her for dead, but somehow she survived. They of course end up together in the end, perfectly happy. Did someone say Stockholm syndrome?


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Aksel said:


> But it does make for some terriffic music, though.
> 
> Continuing down the Mozart path, there's always La finta giardiniera, where the pretend gardener (gardeneress?) still loves her husband, the count, who tried to kill her and left her for dead, but somehow she survived. They of course end up together in the end, perfectly happy. Did someone say Stockholm syndrome?


Yes, pretty shocking after the graphic domestic abuse in the prologue on this DVD.


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

elgars ghost said:


> Mozart's L'oca del Cairo ('The Goose of Cairo') from 1783. Mozart composed most of the first act before his exasperation with the ludicrous plot and feeble libretto (written by a priest, Giovanni Battista Varesco) bludgeoned him into submission. Why did Mozart consider it in the first place? Well, he was looking to compose a hit opera buffa and agreed out of desperation to give it a go as his chosen librettist Da Ponte was unavailable to write something better (I gather Mozart waded through numerous manuscripts before opting for this one so it makes one wonder how bad the others must have been). The brief summary of the plot - such as it is - is courtesy of Wikipedia:
> 
> 'Don Pippo, a Spanish Marquess, keeps his only daughter Celidora locked up in his tower. She is betrothed to Count Lionetto, but her true love is Biondello, a wealthy gentleman. Biondello makes a bet with the Marquis that if he can rescue Celidora from the tower within a year he wins her hand in marriage. He succeeds by having himself smuggled into the tower garden inside a large mechanical goose.'
> 
> As if the sudden arrival of a huge metal goose would go unnoticed! :lol:


LOL.. Mozart knew it too!

*Mozart's correspondence shows he was seeking a comical plot to please the Viennese, but abandoned Varesco's libretto after six months because of its silly ending, a farcical travesty of the Trojan Horse legend.

*


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## powerbooks (Jun 30, 2012)

mamascarlatti said:


> Ernani and Il trovatore always take the cake for me.
> 
> Magic Flute is not silly, it's a classic quest. But Cosi, that business with the Albanians, I don't buy it. You usually have to do something clever and post-modern with it on stage.


On the same token, I would not say Ernani and Il trovatore are silly, but they are surely confusing!

Among the famous operas, i agree Cosi must be among the top bill for silliness!


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

powerbooks said:


> On the same token, I would not say Ernani and Il trovatore are silly, but they are surely confusing!


I don't find Trovatore at all confusing. But throwing the WRONG BABY in the fire, when you have to choose between your own and someone else's, no way.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Cosi Fan Tutte is absurd - there is no way a lover would not recognise her other half in whatever costume. But the music is so ravishing I have no trouble forgetting how silly the plot is.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

mamascarlatti said:


> I don't find Trovatore at all confusing. But throwing the WRONG BABY in the fire, when you have to choose between your own and someone else's, no way.


I agree - any mother would check.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

stomanek said:


> I agree - any mother would check.


When you pick up a baby, you know if it's your own. Others feel, and weigh, and smell, different. You don't even need to check.


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

mamascarlatti said:


> When you pick up a baby, you know if it's your own. Others feel, and weigh, and smell, different. You don't even need to check.


The thing is, Verdi is not a mother, so he wouldn't knew it.. hehehe


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## eorrific (May 14, 2011)

mamascarlatti said:


> I don't find Trovatore at all confusing. But throwing the WRONG BABY in the fire, when you have to choose between your own and someone else's, no way.


Hmm... Maybe Azucena was blind?



mamascarlatti said:


> When you pick up a baby, you know if it's your own. Others feel, and weigh, and smell, different. You don't even need to check.


AND mentally challenged?


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

mamascarlatti said:


> Yes, pretty shocking after the graphic domestic abuse in the prologue on this DVD.


Haven't seen that one, but it is rather odd that the countess would even go for such a sleazeball as the count, especially after he tried to kill her. It seems like she has serious people issues.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Shostakovich: The Nose. Very silly plot.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I'm surprised Die Zauberflöte hasn't been mentioned. Or The Nose.


But wait ... YOU just mentioned them!


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

mamascarlatti said:


> I don't find Trovatore at all confusing. But throwing the WRONG BABY in the fire, when you have to choose between your own and someone else's, no way.


Sorry, Natalie, but we must disagree. If you think the mother doesn't exist who could throw her own baby on the fire by mistake, you just haven't been watching the news. There are MANY. Take a few too many drugs, work up a good hatred for the guy whose baby you're babysitting, and presto la barba (?) ... oops! Damn!

Not saying you wouldn't feel bad afterwards ...


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## powerbooks (Jun 30, 2012)

guythegreg said:


> Sorry, Natalie, but we must disagree. If you think the mother doesn't exist who could throw her own baby on the fire by mistake, you just haven't been watching the news. There are MANY. Take a few too many drugs, work up a good hatred for the guy whose baby you're babysitting, and presto la barba (?) ... oops! Damn!
> 
> Not saying you wouldn't feel bad afterwards ...


This is exactly what I have thought. And I have been trying to find those news stories.

Obviously these things happened unfortunately "quite often"" parents' mistake!


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

guythegreg said:


> Sorry, Natalie, but we must disagree. If you think the mother doesn't exist who could throw her own baby on the fire by mistake, you just haven't been watching the news. There are MANY. Take a few too many drugs, work up a good hatred for the guy whose baby you're babysitting, and presto la barba (?) ... oops! Damn!
> 
> Not saying you wouldn't feel bad afterwards ...


Perhaps, but that doesn't fit with her circumstances in the play. And she was a good mother to Manrico after, bought up a big strapping boy very well....


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

mamascarlatti said:


> Perhaps, but that doesn't fit with her circumstances in the play. And she was a good mother to Manrico after, bought up a big strapping boy very well....


A good point, one does have to suspend a LITTLE disbelief ...


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

guythegreg said:


> A good point, one does have to suspend a LITTLE disbelief ...


Heavens I'm an opera lover. I'm an absolute black belt at suspending disbelief!


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## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

All the Puccini ones.


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

brianwalker said:


> All the Puccini ones.


This. Especially Turandot. Calaf is a damn fool.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

I think the problem I have with Turandot is the same problem I have with Carmen - neither opera is really about the title character. Norma is ABOUT Norma. Turandot is about Calaf, and Carmen is about Don Jose.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Aksel said:


> This. Especially Turandot. Calaf is a damn fool.


And Turandot a right cow. They deserve each other.

But I don't find the plots silly in Puccini, just hyped up.


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## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

mamascarlatti said:


> Heavens I'm an opera lover. I'm an absolute black belt at suspending disbelief!


I think I might take refuge in the opera forum for now. You guys are much more laid back.


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## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

guythegreg said:


> I think the problem I have with Turandot is the same problem I have with Carmen - neither opera is really about the title character. Norma is ABOUT Norma. Turandot is about Calaf, and Carmen is about Don Jose.


Maybe Puccini thought the promise of a lovely lady in the title would be irresistable to his audience?


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

crmoorhead said:


> Maybe Puccini thought the promise of a lovely lady in the title would be irresistable to his audience?


Maybe. Calaf is a selfish obsessive creep, and Don Jose a jealous clingy murderer, so they are neither of THEM wildly attractive.


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

crmoorhead said:


> Maybe Puccini thought the promise of a lovely lady in the title would be irresistable to his audience?


Except Turandot really isn't very lovely. No one is in that opera, really.


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

Aksel said:


> Except Turandot really isn't very lovely. No one is in that opera, really.


Not even poor Liu???


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

elgars ghost said:


> Not even poor Liu???


A little. But she does strike me as rather annoying as well. But a lot of it has to do with the fact that Calaf is such a stupid.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

mamascarlatti said:


> Maybe. Calaf is a selfish obsessive creep, and Don Jose a jealous clingy murderer, so they are neither of THEM wildly attractive.


Yeah, we'll see ... wait'll Jonas Kaufmann plays Calaf, then we'll find out what you really think ... lol


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

guythegreg said:


> Yeah, we'll see ... wait'll Jonas Kaufmann plays Calaf, then we'll find out what you really think ... lol


He has done several rather splendid Don Josés, mind. But the characters themselves aren't really that appealing.


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