In honor, or more likely to spite, Valentine's Day, a few opera characters looking for love in all the wrong places:
- Kundry tries the ol' "Too bad about your mutter...wanna do it?" line...it kind of works. mp3 (Kollo/Ludwig/Solti)
- Tannhauser tells that pansy Wolfram what he thinks of his "hohe Liebe." mp3 (Domingo/Schmidt/Sinopoli)
- Marie takes a break from her boyfriend's descent into madness by submitting to the lust of a sadistic drum major. Way to make those healthy choices, Marie. mp3 (Silja/Uhl/Bohm)
- Thrown in the river by lousy cockteases Alice Ford and co., Falstaff gives it up for his real love: getting trashed. mp3 (Gobbi/Karajan)
7 comments:
Can you do more wacked out than Die Gezeichneten? Deformed nobleman loves woman with weak heart, woman gets bagged and tagged by other nobleman and dies, hunchback goes insane? That's a champion in the category of Strange Opera Plots.
uhh ... Samson et Dalila! I love that the Met chucked the obvious valentines day opera (Romeo & Juliet) and went instead with a misogynist gay biblical fantasia the moral of which is (to quote Mr. Garrison) "poontang is poontang." Dalila = the great succubus.
(speaking of which, have you *seen* all the hot bods on display in that production?! my opera glasses were fogging up this evening)
Oh, jeez. Where to begin... Vanessa? A Kekszakallu Herceg Vara? (Ok I'm showing off my four words of Hugarian. It's Bluebeard's castle.) Turandot? [Dating tip: if she spent most of the opera trying to have you beheaded, even once she's decided she digs you, it's probably still going to be a pretty wacky relationship.]
Good point.
I almost used the "just not that into you" line. Jinx, almost.
"Kundry tries the ol' "Too bad about your mutter...wanna do it?" line..."
You know what Mrs. Parker said: a girl's best friend is her mutter.
Incidentally is this a Schreker fan club I see forming, because sign me up.
WHen talkin' bout mesed up love, one can't get more messed up than the love pentagon in Salome: Herodias is married to Herodes, who is in love with Salome, who is in love with Johnny, and is also loved by Narraboth, who's page friend probably wants to get into his pants. (Brokeback Cisturn, anyone?)
Are there any operas where people are looking for love in the RIGHT places? Without some hideous obstacle/disaster, there ain't no opera. I'm sure one day someone will write a nice opera about well adjusted people going through life hassle free, I certainly won't go to it.
I think Elektra has to take the cake. She loved Daddy WAY too much, loses him, associated her sister (actually a nice person) too much with her Mother, and the second another male family member comes along...wham, all the love she had for Daddy is transferred to Oreste.
Salome also has Daddy issues. Her father is killed by the man who marries her Mama (not a nice person) and leches after her the whole time. Jokanaan is a father-leader figure she latches onto bcause he's the first person ever to say 'no' to her.
Die Frau in 'Erwartung', I always thought if she would just buy a map she would find her way outta that damned forest...
Post a Comment