Almost all of my opera knowledge comes from a Pavarotti album my parents owned when I was a kid — The World’s Favourite Tenor Arias (pictured at right).
We would listen to this album while shooting pool in the finished basement of our northern Virginia house. And while I expect most teenagers would cringe at the idea of having to both hang out with their parents AND listen to opera, I loved doing both.
Next up in Opera Week is perhaps the most celebrated aria in history, and certainly one of my very favorites.
Leoncavallo’s ‘Vesti La Giubba’ wraps up the first act of Pagliacci, a tragic tale of a clown and his unfaithful wife. In this aria, lead character Canio discovers his wife’s infidelity but must go on with the show. Sometimes the English translations of great arias are kind of silly — is she really singing with such passion about a trade agreement? But in this case, the English translation reads as powerful and poignant as the Italian sounds.
I’ve touched on almost every genre over my 1,200+ Songs of the Day but to this point I’ve never featured any opera. This week, no doubt to the consternation of many, I will remedy that.
I’m not an opera fan, by any means… the only complete opera I’ve ever sat through was a Broadway staging of La Boheme by Baz Luhrman. That was a beautiful piece of work, but you won’t catch me dropping the $20 to catch the next IMAX showing of Turandot at my local Muvico.
Because the Concert in Central Park was originally intended to be a Paul Simon solo gig, many of the featured songs are from Simon’s solo albums.
I imagine the setlist was changed a bit once Garfunkel’s participation was assured (‘Old Friends,’ for example, had to have been an addition meant for the duo) but many of the tracks would likely have been performed whether Garfunkel showed up or not. And that gives listeners the treat of hearing what Paul Simon’s solo records might have sounded like had he never split with Garfunkel.
In September of 1981, a planned Paul Simon solo concert turned into a generation-inspiring event when Simon invited Art Garfunkel to join him onstage in Central Park. Half a million people gathered on the Great Lawn to witness the historic reunion.
The resulting album is a lovely, touching document of the event and a hell of a batch of songs, too. It has a charmingly rough quality, including some flubbed verses and musical stumbles, which only serve to highlight the spontaneity of the show.
