Saturday, October 15, 2005

My Top Ten Most Influential Operas

1. Tosca. I watched on PBS once. Performed at the baths in Rome, Italy. One of the few operas where the story made sense.

2. Turandot. Just for the Nessun Dorma aria. The story about the chinese princess loses me the minute she tortures the tenor's girlfriend to find out his name and she dies and the tenor still wants to marry her and her heart melts.

3. Tommy. Yeah, it's a rock opera. But it's part of the soundtrack of my life and I get chills when I hear it today.

4. Jesus Christ Superstar. Same thing. Spent a lot of time with my best friend Curt discussing teenage theology while listening to it.

5. The Ring Cycle. Saw it on PBS. Again with the Norse stuff.

6. Carmen. She's hot.

7. Carmen Jones. She's pretty hot too.

8. Threepenny Opera. I guess it's not really an opera. But it's a fave. Let's all go barmey.

9. Ok, I guess I don't have ten.

9. William Tell

3 comments:

Donita Curioso said...

Porgy and Bess- I had the album when I was a teenager.
The Pirates of Penzance- We did it in highschool. I still sing it while cleaning house. Ok, so it's not an opera. Do operettas count?
Jesus Christ Superstar- Saw this performed live at Swing Auditorium. Blew me away. Got the LP for my 15th birthday. Played it to DEATH.


That's it.

Brother Atom Bomb of Reflection said...

OK. Gilbert and Sullivan. How could I forget. Pirates. I was in a production of that one summer. I almost killed the Pirate King one night during a tricky stunt. I'm glad i didn't.

Jim said...

I'm sure glad you didn't kill the pirate king, Babor.
I mean, it is, it is, a glorious thing to be a Pirate King.
(and before you die, go see The Ring... by Wagner...)

I'm so non-operatic, here's my list. I do realize that NONE of these are actually opera proper.

1. The Pirates of Penzance
2. JC Superstar
3. Tommy
4. Godspell
5. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (by The Beatles, NOT the Bee Gees.)
6. Dark Side of the Moon
7. Leonard Bernstein's Mass ("Half the people are drowned, and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction...")
8. Britten's War Requiem
9. Stan Freberg's Green Christmas ("we wish you a merry Christmas, now please buy our beer!")
10. Arthur, by The Kinks ("Arthur, could be you were right all along...")
11. Les Miserables
12. Evita
13. If it exists, any real opera whose singers do not maximize their vibrato.