Opera Small Talk

[Aksel]

Turns out, the brindisi from Traviata is a good soundtrack for a house paint commercial. Libiamo indeed.

[Anne of Green Gables]

Leśny Dziad (The Forest Geezer)

Personas:

Leśny Dziad (The Forest Geezer) - bass-baritone
Kruk Ptak (Crow the Bird) - cracking tenor
Some Maiden - soprano
Her Lover - tenor
Chorus of forest's spirits, flowers, birds

Time of action: more or less ancient times
Location: haunted forest

Plot:

The choir of spirits, flowers and birds announce that the sunset is coming and soon The Forest Geezer shall appear among his courtiers. On one of branches, Crow the Bird taunts them and claim that he will spoil their night fest. The Forest Geezer appears and the ballet begins, but it's soon interrupted by off-stage cries of soprano. Soon she appears on stage singing that she is lost in the forest. So far hidden creatures of the night burst out from their hiding places and force poor, frightened maiden to dance with them until the sun rises. The wild dancing procession slowly comes off the stage, leaving the Crow the Bird alone (though he was dancing too, mind you). Maiden's lover appears on stage and in Norma-rip-off scene he first express his anguish for his lost lover, then hear off-stage singing of the spirits and finally sings heroic cabaletta expressing his readiness to face all horror to save the maiden. Crow the Bird attempts to talk with him, but suddenly The Forest Geezer appears in disguise. He is dressed for wood nymph, but being massive and bearded geezer he looks terrible. The lover asks him if he have seen the maiden but Geezer refuses to help him until he will pay tribute to his "beauty and grace". The lover agrees, and kneeling praises the Geezer-nymph. In the meantime, Crow the Bird brings the maiden to hear this scene and make her belive that she has been betrayed.

I don't know what will happen then, yet.

And this is how The Forest Geezer looks like:

[CountessAdele]

Leśny Dziad (The Forest Geezer)

Personas:

Leśny Dziad (The Forest Geezer) - bass-baritone
Kruk Ptak (Crow the Bird) - cracking tenor
Some Maiden - soprano
Her Lover - tenor
Chorus of forest's spirits, flowers, birds

Time of action: more or less ancient times
Location: haunted forest

Plot:

The choir of spirits, flowers and birds announce that the sunset is coming and soon The Forest Geezer shall appear among his courtiers. On one of branches, Crow the Bird taunts them and claim that he will spoil their night fest. The Forest Geezer appears and the ballet begins, but it's soon interrupted by off-stage cries of soprano. Soon she appears on stage singing that she is lost in the forest. So far hidden creatures of the night burst out from their hiding places and force poor, frightened maiden to dance with them until the sun rises. The wild dancing procession slowly comes off the stage, leaving the Crow the Bird alone (though he was dancing too, mind you). Maiden's lover appears on stage and in Norma-rip-off scene he first express his anguish for his lost lover, then hear off-stage singing of the spirits and finally sings heroic cabaletta expressing his readiness to face all horror to save the maiden. Crow the Bird attempts to talk with him, but suddenly The Forest Geezer appears in disguise. He is dressed for wood nymph, but being massive and bearded geezer he looks terrible. The lover asks him if he have seen the maiden but Geezer refuses to help him until he will pay tribute to his "beauty and grace". The lover agrees, and kneeling praises the Geezer-nymph. In the meantime, Crow the Bird brings the maiden to hear this scene and make her belive that she has been betrayed.

I don't know what will happen then, yet.

And this is how The Forest Geezer looks like:

I love it!! You have to keep us updated!

[Anne of Green Gables]

A new photo of Puccini has been discovered:

http://operachic.typepad.com/photos/...inihuntr01.jpg

[Soave_Fanciulla]

A new photo of Puccini has been discovered:

http://operachic.typepad.com/photos/...inihuntr01.jpg

Well, apart from the big head, it's absolutely credible seeing the wholesale slaughter Puccini liked to inflict on the local wildlife at Torre del Lago!

[sospiro]

Have just found out about this interesting company called Co-Opera.

The workshops sound very interesting. Unfortunately I can't make any of them as I have other commitments, would definitely have gone to the Verdi, but hopefully there will be more in the future.

[Almaviva]

Have just found out about this interesting company called Co-Opera.

The workshops sound very interesting. Unfortunately I can't make any of them as I have other commitments, would definitely have gone to the Verdi, but hopefully there will be more in the future.

Wonderful. I love the concept, and love their posters. I guess it's similar to what the A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute does around here - providing a sheltered experience to young singers and musicians, but not compromising on quality.

Annie, why don't you interview the head of the company for Opera Lively?

[Elektra]

Don Giovanni :P

[emiellucifuge]

I dont really have a feel for how active this forum yet, but reading through existing posts its clear to me that there is a great group of knowledgeable opera lovers.
It would be interesting to see how a voted list of top operas would compare to the one Almaviva moderated at TC.

[Almaviva]

Thanks, Emiel. It's been very active with an average of 80 new opera posts per day, and 1,500 page reads per day. But we've just started three months ago, therefore, it can still become much more active as we acquire new members. Our site doesn't just have a forum but is rather a full-blow web site; please notice our journalistic area on the Home page, and the section widget from where you can navigate to many exclusive articles and exclusive interviews.

About a list of top operas, we do have in our educational area a list of 100 operas that we consider to be important. An editorial decision was to not submit those to a vote, but rather list them and start treating them in-depth through our Opera In-Depth series, of which there are already four installments: La Traviata, Die Tote Stadt, Il Trovatore, and Eugene Onegin. We will continue to write them up until we reach all 100, which is of course a project for several years. You can find the list here:

http://operalively.com/forums/showth...iewed-in-Depth

But hey, I miss you here. I was excited when you joined, since you are capable of very high level contributions, so please keep posting, both about opera and classical music in general; we do have a small forum for Non-Operatic Classical Music and would love to see it grow.

[emiellucifuge]

Hi Alma!

Thanks for the link, I had discovered the other sections of your site this morning and began exploring.

Ive been quite busy lately settling back into civilised life, which explains my absence. BUT, im becoming much more interested in opera and it has become the genre I listen to primarily in the past weeks. As a result, I hope to divert some of the time I spend on TC over to here.
You've really done a great job building this place.

[Anne of Green Gables]

You can't do it with Wagner:

[MAuer]

Oh dear, poor Carreras and Caballe . . .

[Amfortas]

You can't do it with Wagner:

Wait 'til I finish synching Brünnhilde's Immolation to that clip. Then we'll see.

[treemaker]

I'm looking for a place to post, perhaps here.

Opera greats on Facebook, well, yes, I'm connected to some. Renee Fleming just announced a small US tour starting with the San Antonio Symphony. Most of the playlist seems good enough, but she will sing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". Sorry, Renee, but that gives me the heebee jeebees. And in fact (now I'm learning) she has recorded several crossover songs from various rock sources. The good news is she is working with the same conductor for the entire tour [name?] and I like that...I think it's very efficient in the long run.