NationStates Jolt Archive

Out of all the music threads I've seen here, I can't remember seeing one on musicals or operas.


In that light, lets discuss musicals and operas.

First question: what's your favorite?

I saw the Phantom of the Opera performed at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, and I'd have to say that's probably my favorite.

The King and I.

My favourite opera is Lakmé by Delibes.

Favourite arias from it are "Où va la jeune hindoue..." ("Air des clochettes") (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmYRQWYlDbM) and "Viens, Mallika" ("The Flower Duet.") (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWqup5t1FHU)

As you can see, I have a thing for Natalie Dessay. She rocks.

I saw Faust in Seattle when I was in high school. It was so dark and seductive and...well..evil. It completely changed my view of opera.

I love crap, cheesy, sing-a-long musicals like Grease :D :cool:

I know nothing about opera.

My favourite musical, though: Hair. *insert rainbow coloured peace sign*

The Marriage of Figaro
Rigoletto
The Pirates of Penzance
The Mikado
HMS Pinafore
South Pacific
Phantom of the Opera
Oklahoma
Carousel
Ragtime
Chicago

Hmmm, that'll do for the moment. :p

I enjoy operettas most, especially "Die Fledermaus".

Out of all the music threads I've seen here, I can't remember seeing one on musicals or operas.


In that light, lets discuss musicals and operas.

First question: what's your favorite?

It's a toss up between Phantom of the Opera (though I didn't like the movie much, the guy they had playing the phantom really couldn't sing, his acting was great, but that part has some amazing singing parts that he couldn't manage), and Les Miserables.

"The Phantom of the Opera" as performed on the stage in London :)

I have to say the Phantom of the Opera, particularly at the Pantages Theatre in Toronto, Ontario. I first saw it when I was a kid, and I saw it there three or four times, even though I've never lived less than a few hours from Toronto. I was quite disappointed when they stopped the production.

My favourite opera is Lakmé by Delibes.

Favourite arias from it are "Où va la jeune hindoue..." ("Air des clochettes") (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmYRQWYlDbM) and "Viens, Mallika" ("The Flower Duet.") (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWqup5t1FHU)

As you can see, I have a thing for Natalie Dessay. She rocks.
I adore Natalie Dessay; her voice just makes me melt. The Flower Duet is also one of my favourite arias, but the Charlotte Church version makes me cringe.

I don't think I can single out one opera as a favourite, though, and I don't know very much about musicals.

My absolute favorite is Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years. I do love Les Miserables, though... Oh, and Sunset Boulevard. And Gypsy!

"Funny...I'm a stranger myself here...small world, isn't it?"

I'm not sure about my favorite opera. There are individual arias that I like a lot, but I don't know enough about it. I should learn more... (Though I think technically, Les Mis IS an opera.)

I know nothing about opera.

My favourite musical, though: Hair. *insert rainbow coloured peace sign*
Like this one?
http://www.nationstates.net/images/flags/uploads/german_nightmare.jpg

Like this one?
http://www.nationstates.net/images/flags/uploads/german_nightmare.jpg

Took you a while, didn't it? ;)

(Actually, I had written "*waits for German Nightmare to find a rainbow coloured peace sign smiley*", but then I figured you probably wouldn't look into this thread and edited it. :p)

Phantom of the Opera
Beauty and the Beast
Notre Dame de Paris
Global Warming the musical. :p

I adore Natalie Dessay; her voice just makes me melt. The Flower Duet is also one of my favourite arias, but the Charlotte Church version makes me cringe.

Could be because Charlotte just simply doesn't have the voice for it... that and the production just being a hack job that butchers the song.

I don't think I can single out one opera as a favourite, though, and I don't know very much about musicals.

You are allowed to mention multiple. I had to really bite my tongue and not mention Turandot and Die Zauberflöte (oh, and not to omit La Traviata or Carmen or Tosca or Manon Lescaut) in only narrowing myself down to only Lakmé... but Lakmé is so freaking hard to see performed nowadays (has it always been this rare?) it manages to win out on sheer ability to stay novel.

Took you a while, didn't it? ;)

(Actually, I had written "*waits for German Nightmare to find a rainbow coloured peace sign smiley*", but then I figured you probably wouldn't look into this thread and edited it. :p)
:fluffle: Yeah, well, I'm "happily" raging along in my own thread "over there".

You do know that this is my nation's flag, right? Right? ;)

[There is no rainbow colored peace sign smiley. :eek: I might need to change that. But not now, and not today. If I tried that, it would turn out as a blood-dripping war smiley. Not good...]

Could be because Charlotte just simply doesn't have the voice for it... that and the production just being a hack job that butchers the song.
True and true.

You are allowed to mention multiple. I had to really bite my tongue and not mention Turandot and Die Zauberflöte (oh, and not to omit La Traviata or Carmen or Tosca or Manon Lescaut) in only narrowing myself down to only Lakmé... but Lakmé is so freaking hard to see performed nowadays (has it always been this rare?) it manages to win out on sheer ability to stay novel.
In that case, at the top of my list: Carmen, Aida, Cosí Fan Tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Turandot and Der Rosenkavalier. Of the ones you mention, I haven't seen Die Zauberflöte, La Traviata, Tosca or Manon Lescaut.

I've never managed to see Lakmé performed; I've wanted to see it for years but it's never been part of the season for any opera companies reasonably close to where I've lived.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it I did see a student production of The Magic Flute several years ago. Don't know how I managed to forget that.

Hrmmm ... toughie ...

I'm not a huge fan of musicals. I don't like people to stop what they're doing and sing ... I prefer the music to carry the storyline. Although, I did enjoy Evita and I will still watch The Sound of Music because I'm a huge Andrews fan ...

Opera is tough. I love a lot of Opera. I recently saw a rare production of Simon Boccanegra - with the delicious Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Simon. Aida is brilliant as is Don Giovani. Sven David Sandström is a brilliant composer (see Staden) as is Francesco Uttini (Thetis and Pelée).

Couldn't really answer, I guess.

I can't believe that nobody's mentioned Chess yet...

Oh, and Cats isn't bad either...

The Phantom of the Opera and Cats are my favorite musicals.

I loved Notre-Dame-de-Paris and the Don Juan musical, but it's a Quebecers' creation and probably nobody here's know about it so...

As for operas and operettes... hmm... I don't really have a favorite... I know very well of Carmen, and I found "La flûte Enchantée" (the Enchanted flute? (don't remember the Deustch name...))
I'd love to see Karmina Burana, Turandot or Mme. Butterfly tough...

i don't like musicals, but i had to sit trough some of them because my sister plays in them (and not even important roles) wich only made me hate them more.
the 'afterparty' in the VIP-lounge was cool though.

i haven't really seen a lot of opera's in school we watched some parts, and it was ok, not really my thing and i could't watch a whole one, but i kind of liked the fragments.

I haven't seen a lot of operas, but I liked Aida. As for musicals I liked Camelot. It was my first, saw it with Julie Andrews when I was in grade school.
I enjoyed Cats and Phantom a lot too.

I've been to Boadway probably four times, and only twice in the last five years. I saw The Producers (amazing) and The History boys (a play). So I would say the Producers. Especially the tourist who sat next to me who gasped at anything they thought was offensive; I thought they were going to pass out by the end.:p

My school also put on a good version of The Little Shop of Horrors. I've never seen an opera.

This is very unoriginal, but it's The Phantom of the Opera.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a nice musical, as well.

Tommy and Quadrophenia.

I am a big dork for Rogers and Hammerstien in general, but their Cinderella is my absolute favorite, despite being a huge Julie Andrews fan I love the version that was made for TV in 1965.......

my junior year we did Return to the Forbidden Planet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_the_Forbidden_Planet), and that is my #2 all time favorite musical. It was so freaking fun.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a nice musical, as well.

Oh, girl, you know it. I love Hedwig. Love, love, love, love her inch. You should see Shortbus, John Cameron Mitchell's not so new not so old one. Don't view it with your mother, though.

The Phantom of the Opera is my favorite musical. I liked it better on stage than in any of the movie versions of it I've seen, but not as much as the original novel.

I've only seen one opera live, and it was back in fourth grade so I really can't remember it well at all.

I sadly don't have tons of exposure to operas (though, more than most guys my age), but I really enjoyed the ABC's (Aida, La Boheme, and Carmen). I saw Pirates of Penzance, but I was far too young to remember anything about it.

For musicals, Ragtime (probably the only musical that has a script that is really good), Batboy, Rocky Horror, Into the Woods, Cabaret, and Chicago.

Still need to see Wicked.

Tie:
Quadrophonia
and
The Music Man

Honorable Mention:
West Side Story
and
any G&S

Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat, Cats, West Side Story, Chicago are all great.

But my all-time absolute favourite musical is Rocky Horror ;)

I actually don't generally like vocal music a whole lot. Aside from excerts from operas, the only one I've actually seen (in .avi form on the computer, btw) is Der Ring, which was cool, though really, really long (not to mention taking weeks to download).

Die Zauberflöte (music by Mozart)
Don Giovanni (Mozart) (actually kinda boring for the most part, but the finale is one of the greatest pieces EVER: "Don Giovanni, a cenar teco/m'invitasti, e son venuto!")
Guglielmo Tell, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Cenerentola (Rossini)
Das Ring der Nibelungen (the whole tetralogy, Wagner)
Tannhäuser and Der fliegende Holländer (Wagner)
Aida (Verdi) (Yay! this year the "prima" at La Scala!)
Igrok (Prokofeev)

added:
West Side Story (Bernstein)
Příhody lišky Bystroušky, Z mrtvého domu (Janáček)

West Side Story FTW

Die Zauberflöte (music by Mozart)
Don Giovanni (Mozart) (actually kinda boring for the most part, but the finale is one of the greatest pieces EVER: "Don Giovanni, a cenar teco/m'invitasti, e son venuto!")
Guglielmo Tell, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Cenerentola (Rossini)
Das Ring der Nibelungen (the whole tetralogy, Wagner)
Tannhäuser and Der fliegende Holländer (Wagner)
Aida (Verdi) (Yay! this year the "prima" at La Scala!)
Igrok (Prokofeev)

added:
West Side Story (Bernstein)
Příhody lišky Bystroušky, Z mrtvého domu (Janáček)

Ah, Wagner! The Van Halen of opera ;)

Ah, Wagner! The Van Halen of opera ;)

I also happen to like metal a lot... mere coincidence?:D

YEAH! YEAAAAAH! METAL AND WAGNER AT FULL VOLUME THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT! 300 W OF RAW POWER FROM MY SPEAKERS!

Oops. Got carried off a bit.:rolleyes:

My favourite musicals are Guys and Dolls and Grease.

As a straight man I have no qualms at all in saying that my fave musical is fiddler on the roof, Tradition!:D

Cat's beets it al :D I'm gonna be seeing it in december again, can't wait!

Cat's beets it al :D I'm gonna be seeing it in december again, can't wait!

What can you do after you write a musical about Jesus Christ? Write one about cats!

Not to disparage Sir Weber, whose work is very popular, but it does not compare to the sheer joy of G&S.

Phantom of the Opera
Cats
Les Misérables
Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat
Miss Saigon


and that's all I've seen... :(

My favorite musical is probably Sweeney Todd, which I consider to be Sondheim's masterpiece. I find it harder to choose one favorite opera - there are simply too many contenders for that position. :)

All time favorite:
- Iolanthe (Gilbert & Sullivan). It cracks me up. I know the whole thing almost by heart. Full libretto:
http://www.karadar.com/Librettos/sullivan_iolanthe.html

Other operas -- I like Janacek:
- The Cunning Little Vixen
- The Makropoulos Case

Musicals -- the classics:
Guys and Dolls
Damn Yankees
7 Brides for 7 Brothers
Kiss Me, Kate
The King and I
Kismet
etc.

One I really really really want to see is Avenue Q!

This can also go in the Guilty Pleasures thread, I suppose. I like Guys and Dolls. A lot. Frighteningly so.

All time favorite:
- Iolanthe (Gilbert & Sullivan). It cracks me up. I know the whole thing almost by heart. Full libretto:
http://www.karadar.com/Librettos/sullivan_iolanthe.html

Other operas -- I like Janacek:
- The Cunning Little Vixen
- The Makropoulos Case

Musicals -- the classics:
Guys and Dolls
Damn Yankees
7 Brides for 7 Brothers
Kiss Me, Kate
The King and I
Kismet
etc.

Iolanthe! How appropriate for two days after an election!


SONG – PRIVATE WILLIS.
When all night long a chap remains
On sentry-go, to chase monotony
He exercises of his brains,
That is, assuming that he’s got any.
Though never nurtured in the lap
Of luxury, yet I admonish you,
I am an intellectual chap,
And think of things that would astonish you.
I often think it’s comical – Fal, lal, la!
How Nature always does contrive – Fal, lal, la!
That every boy and every gal
That’s born into the world alive
Is either a little Liberal
Or else a little Conservative!
Fal, lal, la!

When in that House M.P.’s divide,
If they’ve a brain and cerebellum, too,
They’ve got to leave that brain outside,
And vote just as their leaders tell ’em to.
But then the prospect of a lot
Of dull M. P.’s in close proximity,
All thinking for themselves, is what
No man can face with equanimity.
Then let’s rejoice with loud Fal la – Fal la la!
That Nature always does contrive – Fal lal la!
That every boy and every gal
That’s born into the world alive
Is either a little Liberal
Or else a little Conservative!
Fal lal la!

I'm going to go with Phantom. I saw it in Chicago's Cadillac Theater.

Personally I'm going to have to go with Lohengrin by Wagner. And for the record, Cats is absolutely horrible but Phantom of the Opera has got a nice charm. Risottia's got great taste!

Personally I'm going to have to go with Lohengrin by Wagner. And for the record, Cats is absolutely horrible but Phantom of the Opera has got a nice charm. Risottia's got great taste!

Cats was okay. The trouble when I saw it was, the road company had arrived in Denver only a few days before the first performance. Now, at 5,280 feet above sea level, there's rather a bit less oxygen in the air. That, combined with the microphones the dancers were all wearing, well ... you could hear them huffing and puffing through the whole performance.

Phantom of the Opera
Cats
Les Misérables
Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat
Miss Saigon

and that's all I've seen... :(

Thank goodness my date was also a stagehand. We spent the show marveling at the production, ignoring the entirely forgetable story :eek:

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
The Wagner series.
I saw Lea Salonga in Miss Saigon in London
The Phantom of the Opera in London
Le Miserables
Many assorted operas as my wife is an Opera singer.....

Cabaret is by far my favorite musical. I have not seen any opera, but I want to see Wagner's Ring Cycle and Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt.

Any thoughts on these operas or other opera recommendations?

Cabaret is by far my favorite musical. I have not seen any opera, but I want to see Wagner's Ring Cycle and Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt.

Any thoughts on these operas or other opera recommendations?
Never, ever watch a Wagner opera unless the production includes dragons, dwarves, and if possible, goats. If it's one of those all-slate-gray productions, like one they did in NY once, skip it. Wagner needs the goats. Trust me.

Most definitely the Man of La Macha. And absolutely no one's heard of it. It's based on the novel Don Quixote.

Iolanthe! How appropriate for two days after an election!
Why do you think I like hanging out here? It's "A Night At the Opera" every day. :D

"When all night long a chap remains" should be the forum anthem. Maybe also, the March of the Peers, in honor of our goodly hosts:

CHORUS.
Loudly let the trumpet bray!
Tantantara!
Proudly bang the sounding brasses!
Tzing! Boom!
As upon its lordly way
This unique procession passes,
Tantantara! Tzing! Boom!
Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes!
Bow, bow, ye tradesmen, bow, ye masses!
Blow the trumpets, bang the brasses!
Tantantara! Tzing! Boom!
We are peers of highest station,
Paragons of legislation,
Pillars of the British nation!
Tantantara! Tzing! Boom!

Most definitely the Man of La Macha. And absolutely no one's heard of it. It's based on the novel Don Quixote.

What do you mean no one's heard of it? It's a classic from the "Camelot" era.

Internet Broadway Database entry:
http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4727

And here are the lyrics, in case you feel like singing any of the songs :):
http://www.stlyrics.com/m/manoflamanchadonquixote.htm

Most definitely the Man of La Macha. And absolutely no one's heard of it. It's based on the novel Don Quixote.

Who is this "no one" you speak of? Man of La Mancha is extremely well-known, and you'd have a fairly hard time finding anyone over 20 years old who hasn't heard "The Impossible Dream."

Ok, I admit I am a total Webber fan boy. I also love G&S, and Sondheim. And, oddly, I still like Paint Your Wagon.

For opera... Well, my favorite will always be, "A Night at the Opera"... And two hardboiled eggs.