Opera

[Doubleshadow]

A completely random status update on Facebook alerted me to the face that I am, despite my expectations, not the only person I know who likes opera. On the off chance I'm not the only person on this forum who likes this type of music, why don't we discuss it?

I prefer listening to individual pieces versus the entire opera, and focus on my favorite performers, unlike my friend who likes the opera in its entirety and doesn't pay much attention to individual singers.

My all-time favorite artist is Maria Callas, whose rendition of the aria Vissi d'arte from Puccini's Tosca in 1958 made me fall in love with opera. I also am a fan of modern singers like Albanian Inva Mula-Tchako, whose version of the Mad Scene from Donnizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, and accompanying Diva Dance as performed in the movie the Fifth Element, is one of my favorite performances, American Jessye Norman, for unique style and musical attitude, Australian Lisa Gerrard, for how haunting I find her voice and solid technique, and Armenian-Canadian Isabel Bayrakdarian who you might know form the sound track for LOTR II, and whose performance of Angelicus with Delerium is one of the most moving music videos, in fact I'd call it a genuine short film, I ever seen.

A bunch of others too, but let's see if anyone else likes opera first. XD

[Callisto]

How cool, somebody here likes opera. I've been getting more open minded and curious about it lately, as I've been listening to a band called "The Eccentric Opera" for several years. I'm not sure what other kind of music you listen to, but if you love opera, chances are you'll find The Eccentric Opera interesting. Or insulting... XD. The Eccentric Opera is made of two women (and at one time a man). One woman does all the mixing and the other does all the vocals, and is amazing, especially when you hear her singing so many parts of a song and realize how much work she put into it. They take well-known classic and opera songs (like "Amarilli, Mia Bella" and "Bolero") and essentially recreate them.

Anyway, enough gushing over TEC (my poor family hears this all the time). Like I said, listening to them has really opened my mind and interests towards the original stuff, and I've found myself wanting to become an opera singer or pianist or something like that.

I don't really pay much attention to the entirety of the opera, though I have enjoyed them, but I'm much more interested in the small details that make up the opera- the singers' voices, the composition of the songs, the instruments that sound best, the costumes...

But I'm babbling. ^_^;.

[EricTheFred]

Never really got into the Italian Grand Opera thing, so I'm not up on the singer names, etc. But I love a lot of the 'light opera' of the 19th - 20th century. My favorites are probably 'Mikado', 'Pirates of Penzance' and 'Candide' (the Bernstein one.)

I also am a big fan of Barber of Seville. Not sure why, I've just always loved it.

Choral music is often more to my taste. I'm a big fan of Gorecki, and one of my favorite Yoko Kanno albums is one where she mostly stays out of the pop / jazz arena and does choral works. It's called 'Song to Fly'.

[Doubleshadow]

What country is The Eccentric Opera from?
Eric, have you ever heard Godsibb by Yuki Kajiura? If you like choir, try that one. I also tried some of the Song to Fly songs. Why does she ever leave that genre?

I've spent recently digging into the classics songs people would recognize but not know where they are or where they're from such as O Mio Babbino Caro or Laschia Ch'io Pianga.

Although, right now my listening obsession is Siuil a Run performed by Orla Fallon.

[Callisto]

The Eccentric Opera is from Japan, but I don't believe I've ever heard them do any songs in Japanese.