Any "high brows" on the BB?

Try as I will, I can't get into opera. I'd like it a lot more if they'd just sing it in English. If I had to chose, I guess my favorite is P.D.Q. Bach's "Ospite Lapidato".

But what do I know? Heck, I thought it was spelled "Nessun dorma". But I'm not losing any sleep over it.

 

Does that mean I'm a highbrow, then?

 

I wonder if that means I am, too?

P D Q Bach is one of my favorites. "The Stoned Guest," "Oedipus Tex" . . . . good memories there.

Right now I'm working up an aria from "Cosi fan tutte" for an audition for "The Pirates of Penzance." I studied opera in college (was once a vocal perf major), and am just now getting back into it.

 

Ospite Lapidato = "Stoned Guest"

And did no one catch the pun?

[ August 25, 2002, 12:16 AM: Message edited by: The Galatian ]

 

I listened to the planets by holst being played by the london symphony a few weeks ago and enjoyed it - I don't think I am very high brow though!

 

Now, Gilbert and Sullivan, I can get into.

Musically, I'm kind of a barbarian. My favorite composers are John Phillip Sousa and J.S. Bach.

If only someone would arrange "Sheep May Safely Graze" for a brass band! Or maybe "The Washington Post March" for flute and harpsichord.

I have a very nice recording of "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" played by a Jamaican steel drum band. Interesting.

[ August 25, 2002, 09:20 PM: Message edited by: The Galatian ]

 

OHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh give me Motzart or Vivaldi.

I love strings music and my favorite opera is The Marriage of Figaro.

I don't have much access to opera here in the sticks, but I love the stuff. (Being a vocal performance major in college certainly changed my taste in music.)

 

Uh-oh. You caught me. I didn't know that. *blush* Bad P.D.Q. Bach fan, Kelly! Bad! We sang a lot of the madrigals in high school - "Throw the Yule Log On Uncle John," "Good King Kong," "My Bonny Lass She Smelleth" - those were so much fun! I made my suite of girls first year in college go nuts when I played Oedipus Tex one night. We were "quoting" it for weeks. "The mooooooon is a-shaaaaaain-in' . . . " "My eyes! My eyes! Now what-am-I-gonna-do for eyes?"

But "Sheep May Safely Graze?" Yikes! Horrific memories from college choir! Ack! Ack!

Multimom: where/when did you major in vocal perf? I did a year at James Madison University, then realized I was starting to hate music. It was a good two years before I took it up again pseudo-professionally. I didn't really hate it - I just hadn't "put it together again" after learning to take it all apart. One thing it did ruin for me - singing at church. It doesn't feel like worship anymore, just performance.

 

I've never heard the Irish Tenors, but I've heard good things. I can't really get into the 3 Tenors as a trio, mainly because I'm not a Pavarotti fan. I love Carreras and Domingo, but Pavarotti could be forever silent and I wouldn't mind.

The King's Singers, on the other hand . . . I could listen to them all day long and be in bliss.

 

Been reading silently, because while I like
some opera, it is only Some. I do enjoy
the thre tenors, though, disregarding the
personality of one. However, the other day,
I turned the TV on, and a different 3 Tenors,
all African American, totally WOWED me!
They were Fabulous and extremely versatile.
Usualy, I would rather listen to instrumentals,
but sometimes the singers really blow me
away.

 

First at East Texas Baptist University then at Houston Baptist University. And yes I too began to have a hate relationship with the craft.

It didn't ruin singing for me, but it did ruin listening. Most church choirs are really bad and since my secondary performance area was Choral Conducting, it really ruined me.

I have been able to set aside all the really unnecessary techniques (apart from the actual production of the sound) and avoid feeling like its all a performance.

I don't do the over ennunciation anymore, its just too "high brow" for most people to appreciate.

 

Abiyah: Was it the Three Mo' Tenors? They are good.

When I was at JMU, I decided I didn't want to end up hating something I loved so much, and thought that if I went for a vocal career, I'd probably end up miserable. Granted, I didn't give it much of a chance, but I was miserable then, and am very happy with it as an avocation.

Oy - that would definitely be tough! I started listening to our church choir in a whole new light. I think they're one of the better ones, but I started finding all the problems I guess I'd been able to overlook before.

Like I said, I've been able to put it all back together, and having the critical ear actually makes (good) music better for me, but I still can't sing in church (particularly not in a choir) without its feeling like just another performance. I'm sure some of that comes from singing in so many churches while on tour with my second college's choir.

I've had to work on some things outside of performances - I can't exactly sing "Happy Birthday" to someone in the office using my 'professional' voice. But I have to catch myself sometimes, though.

I'm glad to be getting back into it, though. I don't know that I'll get a part in Pirates, but just working the aria and going to the audition will hopefully bring me back. DC's got too much theatre and musical opportunities to just sit back and always be an observer. I do love it.

[ August 26, 2002, 10:05 PM: Message edited by: stubbornkelly ]

 

That's right! It was them!

And I am old enough that I still have RECORDS
of PDQ Bach! I even have one 8-track, tapes
(no, I think those are gone), and CDs.

My son-in-law is a band teacher in a school,
and he has had his students play a little PDQ.
Does anyone have his "biography?" I do. Oh,
I was quite a fan.

 

I love Mozart, and Beethoven. I enjoy opera, but don't enjoy the looks I get when I show up in jeans. So I listen to it at home. I enjoy the music as much as I enjoyed the Grateful Dead concerts I used to attend. But the dead-heads were a little more forgiving of my attire.

Bach's music is beauty. Unparalleled. Mozart and Beethoven epitomized the tortured, manic side of humanity, kinda like Jimi Hendrix, or Hank Williams. I like beauty, but I tend to lean towards the artists who crawled inside themselves and tried to make sense of what they saw.

I am very Low-Brow, with some high brow tastes. I don't like cheap coffee, but don't mind shopping at Wal-Mart for t-shirts. I am extremely anal about my Cds and instruments, but don't really care that my cat has torn up my rocking chair upholstery. My stereo is Bose, but my TV is $150 Sanyo. I'll pay $1500 for a guitar, but wear $20 Converse All Stars.

 

Exactly, Curtis! How many times I have wanted
to go to the opera, but what kept me away was
my clothing. I have wanted to attend some of
the concerts around here and did not for the
same reason.

I am a very casual person. I always look decent,
but my "diamonds" are cubic zirconium, I own
no real pearls, and I will NOT wear a fur. My
best clothes are from a store much like J.C.
Penney's. As a result, I hesitate to go. This
means that the concerts I attend are at the
university, and the plays I see are amateur
theatre. I really miss going to a fine concert.

 

You never have seen ole Blackbird at the Opera! My wife won't let me go--because she says I can't "keep quiet!" Too much talkin' and clearing the throat and gettin' up to go to the bathroom--that sort of thing!

High Brow music sure beats country, though! Shoot, I listen to country long enough I get to wanting to "take a swing" at somebody, anybody--just don't get in my way when I've had enough country! High Brow calms the nerves of someone who has had enough "Willie!"

Your friend,

Blackbird