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Jan. 8th, 2008 04:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
polutropeWell, it's reading period, and I don't actually have any sit down final exams, Athena or whoever arranged that be praised, but there's gotta be something to procrastinate about - my paper, which really should be easier to write, considering that I've breathed Indo-European mythology for the last four months, and my take-home final.
So, to that end, I've compiled a list of operas that FOR SERIOUS need to be brought back, regardless of musically quality:
La prova d’una opera seria
Because: It is really good parody. “O felicitissima felicità!”
La prosperità di Elio Seiano
Because: OMG, an opera about Sejanus! With Caligula and Livia! (There’s more than one. Now, I know libretti were reused. I’m fine with that [please, someone {and by “someone” I mean Ramon Vargas, Magdelena Kozena, Sandrine Piau, Philippe Jaroussky, and David Daniels (and definitely not Cecilia Bartoli)} do either Hasse or Gluck’s Clemenza di Tito] , but – why this of all things? )
La caduta di Elio Seiano
Because: Sequels rock. Also see above.
L’ultimo giorno di Pompei
Because: Eruption of Vesuvius as a plot device? Sign me up!
Jone
Because: See above.
Attila (di Pietro Andea Ziani)
Because: Unlike Verdi’s, it pretends to some historical accuracy, and has Honoria, who is one of my favorite people, if only for her sheer stupidity. She proposed to Attila, offering him half the empire, as a way of getting out of a marriage her brother the emperor had arranged for her. Well done, Honoria! Also, Attila’s a soprano, which is the height of hilarity.
Le convenienze e le inconvenienze teatrali
Because: Opera seria parody will never not be funny. Has a “skirt role” – the segunda donna’s mother is a bass. Although the question arises, why would anyone ever act in this? The singers are all horribly arrogant and stupid and the foreign tenor is made fun of, albeit hilariously, because the only thing funnier than a German accent in French is a German accent in Italian. (His name is Antolstoinoloff.)
Per me non trovo calma,
per te non trovo pace,
per lei non trova l'alma
la sua felicità. »
«Per me, per te, per lei,
pe' tuoi, pe' suoi, pe' miei
deh, fate lume, o dèi...»
«...in tanta oscurità.»
«Il bel piacer m'innonda.
«Ersilia tua sarà.» It is very right.
Gli Orazi e i Curiazi
Because: Well, it actually is good drama. But! OMG, oath of the Horatii! In these times we could really do with real Romans like the Horatii and Mucius Scaevola, when upstarts like Cicero can get to power – and worse, blasphemers like Catalina can get an army. Did you hear he slept with a Vestal Virgin? … Oh, sorry, it’s not 49 BC? Whatever.
Henrico Leone
Because: It’s about Henry the Lion, duh. (God, I remember trying to win that scenario in Age of Empires II, in which we learn that if I had been in charge of things, Fredrick Barbarossa would have died at about twenty.)
Fetante
Because: For the special effects! Look who’s in the chorus: Sacerdoti. Le tre Sirene. Tritoni. Nereidi. Naiadi. Limniadi. Divinità de' ruscelli, e de' fiumi. Mori pedestri. Guerrieri egizi. Guardia nobile di Climene. Ufficiali maggiori del regno de' Giacchi. Paggi. Popolo abitatore della città di Vamba. Gran sacerdote, e Ministri sacri d'Apollo. Temide. Felicità. Tempo. Aurora. Anno. Secoli. Giove. I mean really.
L’ebreo
Because: The “Twenty Years After effect.” In the book of that name, things just get more and more ridiculous and, well, stupid. This is similar. The King of the Moors! Isabella and Ferdinand! The Grand Inquistion! (And I’ll bet Issàchar didn’t expect that.)
So, to that end, I've compiled a list of operas that FOR SERIOUS need to be brought back, regardless of musically quality:
La prova d’una opera seria
Because: It is really good parody. “O felicitissima felicità!”
La prosperità di Elio Seiano
Because: OMG, an opera about Sejanus! With Caligula and Livia! (There’s more than one. Now, I know libretti were reused. I’m fine with that [please, someone {and by “someone” I mean Ramon Vargas, Magdelena Kozena, Sandrine Piau, Philippe Jaroussky, and David Daniels (and definitely not Cecilia Bartoli)} do either Hasse or Gluck’s Clemenza di Tito] , but – why this of all things? )
La caduta di Elio Seiano
Because: Sequels rock. Also see above.
L’ultimo giorno di Pompei
Because: Eruption of Vesuvius as a plot device? Sign me up!
Jone
Because: See above.
Attila (di Pietro Andea Ziani)
Because: Unlike Verdi’s, it pretends to some historical accuracy, and has Honoria, who is one of my favorite people, if only for her sheer stupidity. She proposed to Attila, offering him half the empire, as a way of getting out of a marriage her brother the emperor had arranged for her. Well done, Honoria! Also, Attila’s a soprano, which is the height of hilarity.
Le convenienze e le inconvenienze teatrali
Because: Opera seria parody will never not be funny. Has a “skirt role” – the segunda donna’s mother is a bass. Although the question arises, why would anyone ever act in this? The singers are all horribly arrogant and stupid and the foreign tenor is made fun of, albeit hilariously, because the only thing funnier than a German accent in French is a German accent in Italian. (His name is Antolstoinoloff.)
Per me non trovo calma,
per te non trovo pace,
per lei non trova l'alma
la sua felicità. »
«Per me, per te, per lei,
pe' tuoi, pe' suoi, pe' miei
deh, fate lume, o dèi...»
«...in tanta oscurità.»
«Il bel piacer m'innonda.
«Ersilia tua sarà.» It is very right.
Gli Orazi e i Curiazi
Because: Well, it actually is good drama. But! OMG, oath of the Horatii! In these times we could really do with real Romans like the Horatii and Mucius Scaevola, when upstarts like Cicero can get to power – and worse, blasphemers like Catalina can get an army. Did you hear he slept with a Vestal Virgin? … Oh, sorry, it’s not 49 BC? Whatever.
Henrico Leone
Because: It’s about Henry the Lion, duh. (God, I remember trying to win that scenario in Age of Empires II, in which we learn that if I had been in charge of things, Fredrick Barbarossa would have died at about twenty.)
Fetante
Because: For the special effects! Look who’s in the chorus: Sacerdoti. Le tre Sirene. Tritoni. Nereidi. Naiadi. Limniadi. Divinità de' ruscelli, e de' fiumi. Mori pedestri. Guerrieri egizi. Guardia nobile di Climene. Ufficiali maggiori del regno de' Giacchi. Paggi. Popolo abitatore della città di Vamba. Gran sacerdote, e Ministri sacri d'Apollo. Temide. Felicità. Tempo. Aurora. Anno. Secoli. Giove. I mean really.
L’ebreo
Because: The “Twenty Years After effect.” In the book of that name, things just get more and more ridiculous and, well, stupid. This is similar. The King of the Moors! Isabella and Ferdinand! The Grand Inquistion! (And I’ll bet Issàchar didn’t expect that.)
