# Operatic Oddities



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I love cats. I ran across this Rossini duet in a 'best of' 2-CD, and then found it on YouTube. Are there any other oddities out there I should know about?


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

An aria on only one note. A duet where the tenor only responds in vowels. A funeral for a constipated parrot. A diarrhoea quartet. A trio in made-up Italian. A quartet in gibberish 'Chinese'.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Blacher+Egk's 'Abstrakte Oper' (1953)

https://www.boosey.com/pages/opera/moreDetails?musicID=7332
https://phys.org/news/2019-10-opera.html


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

La Nilsson could have danced all night. And who would dare refuse her! :lol:


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Beverly Sills and Danny Kaye sings together in a memorable and hilarious opera parody.


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> A quartet in gibberish 'Chinese'.


Are you thinking of Offenbach's _Chinoiserie_ operetta _Ba-Ta-Clan_? I'm rather fond of this mad ensemble from that work:


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Muppet Songs: Beverly Sills and the Pigs - Pigoletto:lol:


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

I was at the première of Stockhausen's _Mittwoch aus Licht_ in 2012, in a production by Birmingham Opera. The final scene, named "Michaelion", features a camel which - among other things - has its hooves shoe-shined, engages in a "bullfight" and excretes seven planets from its anus. Here's a clip from that same production:






An earlier scene, "Orchester-Finalisten", requires the instrumentalists to play whilst suspended above the audience, and a trombonist who falls into a paddling pool:






_Mittwoch_ also includes the (in)famous _Helikopter-Streichquartett_, in which the individual members of a string quartet play whilst being flown around above the auditorium in four helicopters:






Completely bonkers, but strangely rewarding. Everybody left the theatre (actually a disused factory) with huge smiles on their faces.


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

When Opera was less niche it was even parodied in cartoons






and Nelson Eddy sings all the voices in Bellini's Sextet!


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## Duncan (Feb 8, 2019)




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## Duncan (Feb 8, 2019)




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## Duncan (Feb 8, 2019)




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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

*Real Fake News - Opera vs. Trump (Rossini Edition)*


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## Duncan (Feb 8, 2019)

At the 1:00 mark the scriptwriter "explains" the plot -

"I found that it was very hard to compose Trump's love stories... and there are many secrets.

Then an idea came into my mind that was inspired by the story of Obama... Since Obama has a half-brother living in Shenzhen and running a BBQ restaurant... Trump could also have a brother in China... and his name could be "Chuan Pu" ("Trump" in Pinyin)…"

And that's the part that actually makes sense... I've watched it twice and I still can't figure out why "Trump" starts singing "Edelweiss" from "The Sound of Music" at the 1:36 mark...

At the 2:59 mark the scriptwriter explains the "theme" of the show - "It is dangerous when someone is the only person making decisions and they overturn everything".

At the 3:38 mark Mr. and Mrs. Kim Jong-un make an appearance and greet Trump and his daughter Ivanka.

At the 3:57 mark Kim Jong-un and Trump sing a brief duet... (Editor's Note: if you're actually at the theatre watching this it's safe to assume that you can leave after the intermission without missing much as the eleven o'clock number isn't exactly "Rose's Turn" from "Gypsy"...)

For the time being at least "Turandot" still reigns as the "Greatest Opera Set In China"...


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)




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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

_Sillsiana_.
Run, do not walk to find this hilarious and beautifully done CD masterpiece by Bubbles herself.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

nina foresti said:


> _Sillsiana_.
> Run, do not walk to find this hilarious and beautifully done CD masterpiece by Bubbles herself.







:cheers:


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

Kimchilia Bartoli sings Vivaldi.


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

Cats swallow canaries. So the original post reminded me of Telemann's "Canary" Cantata. OK if it's not strictly opera?


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)




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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

Does Kelli O'Hara get to call herself an opera singer? I saw her in a Met production and she was treated by interviewers as an opera amateur who had the talent to be a real opera singer, she just modestly wouldn't declare herself as one. It annoyed me, all the attention she was getting for being non-operatic yet succeeding.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Open Book said:


> Does Kelli O'Hara get to call herself an opera singer? I saw her in a Met production and she was treated by interviewers as an opera amateur who had the talent to be a real opera singer, she just modestly wouldn't declare herself as one. It annoyed me, all the attention she was getting for being non-operatic yet succeeding.


Good! Anything that shatters your illusions of what or who is "operatic" is pure pleasure to me!


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## JoeSaunders (Jan 29, 2015)

For anyone who can only find daft Regies of Wagner productions, this dude has been uploading full subtitled Wagner operas staged with Lego!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBBgrZaWYWmY6NsKmKbpeVg/videos


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Rogerx said:


> Muppet Songs: Beverly Sills and the Pigs - Pigoletto:lol:


Great singing, shame the acting was somewhat hammy!

N.


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)




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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

Those are hilarious and adorable XD


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

well mayb not opera but weird.............


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

ldiat said:


> well mayb not opera but weird.............


Very impressive!


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

My favorite opera oddity is OPERA BOMBING . . . the art of taking pop, country, rock, or broadway songs and giving them the Legit or Opera treatment.

Here's one of my faves: Ticket to Ride by Cathy Berberian


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## Saxman (Jun 11, 2019)

The Conte said:


> Great singing, shame the acting was somewhat hammy!
> 
> N.


That was awful!! More please!


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Saxman said:


> That was awful!! More please!


Well, I can't Handel that Berberian aria!

N.


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)




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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

ldiat said:


>


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)




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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)




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