Kyle is to SEC football as Neil is to :
- The Collected Works of Jacqueline Susann
- The Art of Famous Dadaist Marcel Duchamp
- Wagnerian Opera
If you answered #3 move to the head of the class!
Me and the Wanker.
Yes, he is a rabid, painting his face, big foam finger fan of Richard Wagner's operas. Has traveled all over the world to see productions of them, and lucky for him, this season the New York Metropolitan Opera company is doing the entire RING CYCLE. ( google if you must.. or just let art flow...). Tickets to the real deal are eight million dollars and down in NYC, BUT!! lucky for opera fans all over the world the Met along with M. Bloomburg do a live simulcast of the events in movie theaters. Live and in HD. Last night , was a re-play of the opening weekend's production of Das Rheingold. They really do just set up cameras, live right there inside the Met and show you everything. I mean, it looks like for all the world that you are watching a movie, but it is live ( well, not in our case, but if you go on the Saturday afternoon,..) live tv, with coughing, and mishaps and everything. It really is a very cool thing, for opera fans.
There were a lot of people there to watch, Neil was the second youngest one in the room. You all do know a little bit about this series of operas, you just know it as Kill the Wabbit ( which is from the NEXT opera, not this one )
There were a lot of people there to watch, Neil was the second youngest one in the room. You all do know a little bit about this series of operas, you just know it as Kill the Wabbit ( which is from the NEXT opera, not this one )
I really do know next to nothing about opera, but this not at all what you would expect. Huge, complex staging with this very modern, very Cirque de Soleil event. Rheinmaidens fly and sing at one point two of the main characters are going down into hell or gnomeland or somewhere, and the whole stage becomes a series of steps, BUT, you are viewing it from on top... so they are walking sideways on the stage. A little hard to explain, but very trippy.
Video: 'Das Rheingold' at the Met - nytimes.com/video from The New York Times on Vimeo.
Not 100% sure this would be the best choice for ones very first opera, but I enjoyed it, only drifted off once, and really the damn Rheinmadens just went on and on about that gold. The whole process is pretty fun, I would do it again, maybe with some light flirty Italian opera. ( not that we will not be back for the remaining THREE operas left over the next two years.) At least I do know the story, its kind of Thor comic books brought to life.
The NYT Review
1 comment:
Kyle, if Neil is such an opera fan, you should rent Aria from Netflix (if you haven't already seen it). It features a bunch of opera music videos, more or less - retellings of the stories set to the music. The segment for Wagner's Tristan and Isolde featured Bridget Fonda. Aria came out sometime in the late 80s or early 90s, so if Neil missed it then, he might enjoy seeing it now.
As for me, the Bugs Bunny version of the Ring remains my favorite opera interpretation of all time. Particularly the part where a lovestruck Elmer Fudd serenades Bugs in dress and Viking-helmet drag: "Oh, Bwunhiwda, you'we so wuvewy" "Yes I know it, I can't help it" "Oh Bwunhiwda, be-e-e my WUVVVV...."
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