Since we are now in Lent, and we’ve been operatic for a few weeks now, I thought I would share some of my favourite Lenten music. This turns out to be harder than expected, because apparently I really like obscure Lenten music.
But this anthem, by Brahms, while not much recorded in English, does seem to be quite popular in its original German.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkGeBKv32i8&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]
I know, I know, it’s more Purcell. Anyone would think I had no imagination at all. But the thing with Purcell is that if you are looking for gorgeous church music, there he is, writing it. If you are looking for delicate, beautiful artsong, there’s Purcell again, writing that, too. If you are looking for opera, or drunken rounds with impeccable music, he’s your man.
So it’s hardly a surprise that when you are in search of hilariously funny opera – in English, too, which does give us more scope, don’t you think? – Purcell is one of the names that comes up.
Incidentally, if you are watching this at work, you may want to switch it off as soon as the initial aria is finished. The aria itself is mildly naughty, but the naughtiness is largely from the words. What happens after the aria is probably not something you want the boss watching over your shoulder. (There’s no nudity, but it is still decidedly not safe for work)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJjvR8wMx2M&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0] Continue reading
Something a bit different this morning, in honour of the Lunar New Year. It occurred to me yesterday, as I sat in church, listening to the sounds of the big Chinese New Year festivities going on just outside, that I actually have no idea what classical Chinese music sounds like. In fact, my husband knows more about this than I do, because he sometimes watches Chinese films. (Well, films in general, really. I start getting restless after half an hour in front of of TV or other screen, and have a tendency to start talking to all the stupid people who need to be told. This does not make me a very desirable cinema-going companion.)
Anyway, given my penchant for singing, Chinese opera seemed like the place to start. Knowing nothing about opera, but figuring that this was the Year of the Snake, I cheerfully Googled ‘Chinese Opera Snake’ to see what happened.
This turned out to be an excellent idea, except for the part where it ate about an hour out of my evening. There is, as it turns out, a Chinese Legend of the White Snake, which has been turned into operas by a variety of different composers, in both traditionally Chinese and more conventionally Western musical styles.
Here are three different interpretations for your enjoyment… Continue reading
This is a bit of a departure from my usual Friday Fun, being largely spoken word. Anna Russell, it seems, started her career as an opera singer, and then decided that while singing opera was pretty good fun, pointing up opera’s absurdities for comic effect was even more fun. And she managed to base a career on this, which makes me deeply envious, because that sounds like the best job in the world.
Here she is, back in 1953, explaining Wagner’s Ring Cycle to the unsuspecting public. The closest I’ve come to Wagner’s Ring cycle is the Cambridge Buskers playing the Ride of the Valkyries on sopranino recorder and piano accordion, and I find it hilarious. I’m told that if you actually know the operas in question, it’s absolutely hysterical.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m69aPAo1rXE&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0] Continue reading
I’m in a bit of a Tosca mood at the moment. For reasons that aren’t clear to me, I have the Te Deum section in my head, and it won’t go away. There’s just something magnificently evil about Scarpia, and the music really works here…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbxkeQIE7c0&hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0] Continue reading
I have to admit, this particular choice was the result of a Google search for funny opera arias. I do actually know of a fair few, but remembering them late on a Thursday night when the internet is very, very slow and a post has to be written by Friday morning is another matter.
I didn’t know this one, though, so I’m very glad I did that search, because it’s magnificently silly, and I would never have gone hunting for either Victor Herbert or Dame Kiri Te Kanawa otherwise.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mku1rrKpF5g&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0] Continue reading
This post is a bit of a departure from my usual music blogging, but since I spent all of last week at an Estill Voice Training Course – and I am now really wiped out from the combination of intense concentration and a very long commute – it seems appropriate to review it, at least briefly, for anyone else who may be interested in attending.
(Edited to add: briefly, eh? I don’t think that word is actually in my repertoire…)
The first thing you need to know about Estill Voice Training is that it packs an *enormous* amount of information and work into a very short space of time. I was very glad to have an extra week off work after the end of it, because I was absolutely exhausted by the weekend – I spent Saturday and Sunday wandering around the place like a zombie, occasionally pausing to inform Andrew that he was using thyroid tilt when talking to the cats, and to inform the cats that they had *excellent* retraction. (Mystery has the low larynx characteristic of an opera singer, whereas Mayhem is more of a belter. Neither of them have any problem with anchoring, or with producing sounds that resonate very well in the 2000 to 4000 Hz range to which the human ear is preferentially attuned)
I’ve been hearing a lot about Patricia Petibon for some time, so when I found myself in a bookshop recently, with a book voucher and Patricia Petibon’s CD “Nouveau Monde”, purporting to be Baroque arias and songs themed around voyages to new lands, I decided to give it a try.
This was the first track on the CD.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sniJaV48gQ&hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0]
I’ve just finished a five-day intensive course on voice anatomy and production – all sorts of useful information on the various muscles and such involved in singing, and how to use these structures in different ways and combinations to make different sounds. And that has to be the worst description ever, but it’s been an exhausting five days, so it will do for now.
Anyway, in the course of teaching us about falsetto voicing, one of our instructors played us a brief excerpt from this clip, and I fell in love:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaoMOJq4-Uk&w=420&h=315] Continue reading
So there’s this group of talented and slightly bonkers classical musicians called Cadenza, who I’m beginning to believe can do anything at all, musically speaking. They write orchestral compositions based on mobile phone ringtones, they busk as a human jukebox, they introduce kids to classical music, and they sing lyrics that aren’t lyrics.
And they sing “It’s a Wonderful World” as Louis Armstrong could never have envisaged it…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOZb7KeJUQ8?rel=0]What I find impressive about this – aside from the consummate cleverness of it – is how impeccably each genre is sung. The Gregorian chant is spot on, as is the Baroque, the Jazz, the Disco, the Rap… and all the even more recent genres that I’ve never even heard of, being lost in classical music land for the most part.
My only quibble is that they only spend about half a minute on the pre-20th century stuff before heading into marching band territory. I realise that the 20th century was a pretty innovative time, musically speaking, but I’d have liked to hear a few more forays into the world of classical music – wouldn’t you like to know what Strauss might have done with this? Or Carl Orff? Or even Verdi?Still magnificent stuff, however, and I’ve just subscribed to their channel. I do warn you – once you start listening to this group, you will be there all morning…Or you could just have a listen to Louis Armstrong‘s version of It’s A Wonderful World, of course. I find that, for all the magnificence of Cadenza’s interpretations, Armstrong sounds even better after listening to what they’ve done with it.