Sex with "Turandot" playing the the background?
art
The only sense I can make of comparing opera with sex is that in opera the overtures are the best. Going even beyond that, remember what the French writer (can't spell his name) said: the best thing about sex is walking upstairs. Of course an opera without a finale is less satifying.
A finale doesn't cost you manipulation and child support.
An aria doesn't give orgasm a crippling and demanding legacy.
Sweet heaven and excruciating melody does not whine
about how little is left in the checking account
or how much weight it has put on this week.
An opera is responsible unto itself, as it is, transcendant and miraculous,
and the soaring beauty endures on it's own voice, value, and merit.
An opera does not ignore how you feel, and then blame you for not having feelings,
nor does it have a headache when simple, human closeness
is the greatest beauty and joy in the universe.
An opera is fully there while sex is just a placebo.
And the fat lady? She's not the only one who knows how to sing.
I sing the body electric, and opera is ... fully alive
with body, richness and soul.
A long time ago I heard Joe Pass at Fat Tuesday's in NY. We sat about ten feet from him and when he played I closed my eyes and was in heaven.
.
Nobody made a noise, it was a very good crowd. He explained his technique and chatted in a friendly way about his music.
.
Later we had a drink with him, a simple and wonderful man. They don't make them like that anymore.
.
That evening was like a gift from heaven.
How wonderful, Detano. We live for such simple moments, don't we?
Lately opera has grabbed me by the cojones...don't know why...maybe age.
Panz, no one does me like Enrico Caruso does..WOW! Even Al Capone went from tiger to pussycat when Caruso did his thing.
I have a tape dubbed from an old..old..album that my brother-in-law sent me. Even at his worst Caruso is the best.
I have found that some symphonic pieces can, er, cause certain reactions in me. Two that are really "full body experiences" are Tchikovsky's 4th Symphony, and the Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz.
Ah, Phoenix and Panz. We are truly products of our environment. Dlowan started an opera thread on another forum, and I found that The Grand Ole Opry had the same appeal as an evening at the opera.
Hank Williams' voice never appealed to me, but damn if he didn't write beautiful lyrics. "I'm so Lonesome I could Cry" was a testament to the man's unhappy life.
Panz, age has nothing to do with music. I was a kid in high school when I became enamoured with Caruso.
And I still think of Shumann.
Music, poetry, art, it's the politics of love.
In my case it was travel. Somewhat travel deprived, from my own point of view which I'll admit was only relative to some people I knew, versus the travel most people in the world can do... I didn't go to Europe until I neared fifty. Let's just say I was interested in doing that for decades before I did. So, when I did, sttttttttttttttiiiiiiiiiiiiicccccccccccccccckkkkkk!!!
I was glued to the ground on landing, and happened to land in Rome.
Left there a month later avid to know about italy and through that avidity, more and more about other places. Not that I wasn't interested before, but there weren't sucking sounds before. So,
the person who just a year before shut her boss in his office with Renata Tebaldi wailing away, and felt justified, now opened her mind to opera.
Truth be told, I still like parts of operas better than entire ones. I have had Drom's take on musicals - I am generally not at all charmed when someone bursts into song instead of just stating what is on his mind, similar to my now developed aversion to a bunch of theatrical dramas, i.e., speech fests -- still, still, I am shored up by some good operatic pieces churning out of my cd player. Plus I have some old records...
Singing along is soooo impossible, as I cannot carry a tune. This adds piquance to the opera listening episodes, schniff.
I know I've said this somewhere on A2K before, but I'm not a great fan of opera. Its greatest moments, for me, are its overtures and its arias. The rest tends to be bad staging and bad theatre. I know I'm revealing my own shortcomings rather than those of opera, but there it is.
I do, however, LOVE symphonic and chamber works.
Re: Opera: It's Better Than Sex
mac11 wrote:Link to the Guardian article - Opera: It's Better Than Sex
Quote:There are two kinds of transcendent experience: sex with someone you love and a night at the opera. I often cry at a poem or a picture, but for me, only opera and sex are full-body experiences, perhaps because they are also out-of-the-body experiences.
Quote:When we make love, and when we listen to music, nothing need come between us and the moment. The experience is not dependent on language or interpretation. It is direct and immediate. We listen. We feel.
I'm not sure I agree, but it's an interesting topic!
for who is opera better than sex................?
I always liked Lily Pons, fantastic voice. I'm not a huge fan of opera, but Alban Berg's 'Wozzeck' is probably my favourite. However, it is not lovemaking music.
cavfancier wrote: However, it is not lovemaking music.
right.
The Guardian is even n.t.......
