by

Song of the Day #1,239: ‘Che gelida manina’ – Luciano Pavarotti

I’m wrapping up my week of opera arias with my very favorite — ‘Che gelida manina’ from Puccini’s La Boheme. As I mentioned on Monday, La Boheme is the one opera I’ve seen in its entirety (Baz Luhrmann’s version on Broadway).

This is among the best-known, best-loved and most referenced operas of all-time (it was the inspiration for Rent and features prominently in Moonstruck — remember Cher’s memorable line, “I didn’t think she was gonna die. I knew she was sick… I mean, she was coughing her brains out, and still she had to keep singing!”?).

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #1,238: ‘E lucevan le stelle’ – Luciano Pavarotti

I apologize to those who might find fault with my choice of Luciano Pavarotti as the singer of most of the arias I’m featuring this week. As I posted yesterday, my introduction to these songs came from a Pavarotti CD my parents owned, and therefore I will always make that association.

Based on comments I’ve read around the Web, some people are decidedly anti-Pavarotti, dismissing him as overrated because he’s one of the few opera singers who enjoyed a measure of crossover popularity.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #1,237: ‘Nessun Dorma’ – Luciano Pavarotti

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.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #1,236: ‘Vesti La Giubba’ – Luciano Pavarotti

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.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #1,235: ‘O mio babbino caro’ – Maria Callas

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.

Continue reading →