Off the wall question. In this episode Barbara and Ed are at the opera. You see some scenes of an opera on stage in progress and hear some of the music/singing.
I am an opera aficionado but don't recognize one single thing about this opera. Anyone know what opera it is they are watching?
I'm pretty sure it's ficticious. A parody that would bore more people than just Ed. Period costumes, repetitive music, a plot that is difficult to follow, and you have the idea that even after a full hour nothing has happened...The main reasons why some people hate the opera.
I, personally like the opera, but I prefer Wagner over those "dancing peasants" operas. A kind of Music that definitely profits from being listened to live, and there are great modernized adaptions. I watched the Ring of the Nibelung with a Jewish friend of mine, and we both agreed that this kind of music is beyond good and evil, it's like it's from another world.
You may cross-examine.
Thanks for the reply. I had no memory of asking this question.
You are likely correct in that the opera depicted was fictitious. Something to evoke what people think being at the opera is like without actually being one.
Ah, Wagner. I keep trying to like it. I do. And I don't. Musically I agree he was unique. Even inscrutable. A force of nature. But opera is more than *just* "the music". Why 4 hours for everything? What he could do with an orchestra is divinely inspired. Or if you prefer, inspired by a One-of-a-Kind Muse. Everybody (well, the "dancing peasant" lovers) say he influenced everyone but Verdi. Nope. Even Verdi finally broke down and Wagnerized at the end.
Also, and even most Wagner lovers I know will admit this if you brow beat them enough, Wagner's music always has the air of "pompous ass" about it. As if he knew it and he knew the audience knew it. And the audience knew he knew they knew it. Sort of a Ted Baxter with talent. He doesn't reach out to be liked. You have to want to like him. Try to like him. And in the end he seems as if he doesn't care if you like him.
The length is Indeed an issue. I wonder how Ed would have reacted if he had agreed to watch the Twilight of the Gods with Eve. The opera that reportedly inspired the saying: It's not over until the fat lady sings. Well, Brünnhilde sort of finishes the opera, although Hagen still has a line and there's a long afterlude.
For some reason, those good people in Bayreuth decided to make people sit on wooden chairs. The Rheingold lasts 2 1/2 hours and has no intermission, the Valkyrie lasts 3 1/2 hours, Siegfried lasts 3 hours, the Twilight of the Gods lasts 4 hours. Nothing is a guarantee, of course. My Jewish boyfriend and I owned the whole Ring in DVD, the Weimar National Theater version. I remember I once stopped during (use your imagination) to turn up the volume at the beginning of the third act of the Valkyrie. The Ring is best listened to at two volumes: Loud, and extra-loud. And you still don't get Bayreuth into your bedroom.
When we seperated, my boyfriend got custody of the DVDs.
You may cross-examine.