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Opera and kids — 22 Comments

  1. What a gift you are, Neo. I sang and loved this song at an old-fashioned girls’ summer camp decades ago, and never knew it was from an opera. How lovely, and what memories it brings.

  2. Saw my first opera at the NY Metroplitan last month. La traviata….and it was all I could have hoped for!

  3. I worked as an education director at the Met Opera for a number of years. We invited students from the five boroughs to come to dress rehearsals throughout the season, after their teachers prepared them with study materials provided by me. I remember one season when Hansel und Gretel was in the repertory, and perhaps due to the familiar title, schools raced to sign up to attend the rehearsal. Unfortunately, in some cases, there were teachers who assumed that they knew the story and that was enough. There were even some teachers that thought the music was written by the 60’s Tom Jones/Vegas ripoff performer of the same name. Thankfully (and as Neo mentioned) the opera score is beautiful, highly accessible and truly suitable for all ages, so despite the initial ignorance, both students and teachers left with a better understanding of the opera.

  4. I am grateful to you, Neo, for reminding me of the lovely and extremely gifted Frederica von Stade. I saw an interview with her many years ago and I was struck by her grace, beauty and enormous talent.

    As a child,I too learned and sang the Prayer song in English. I sang it for my children and now sing it for my grandchildren.

  5. By the way, when I grown up I want to sing opera. Maris Callas, Monserrat Caballe, move over.

  6. Hey, are you dissing MY Engelbert from the 60’s? I loved his songs, they were perfect for singing with a guitar on the way home from youth activities when everyone was all tired out and mellow. I even own a “best of” CD and I still know all the words. Did you see that his “Release Me” stopped “Strawberry Fields” from being #1 on the British pop charts? And “Last Waltz” is a classic.
    So careful who you’re calling “strange”!

  7. I just came back from a Peter Sellars production of Hercules by Handel. Once again I was shown the fact that the Left hates heroes and wants to tear them down wherever possible.

    In this production, Hercules is an American general who suffers PST. He brings back a beautiful captive dressed like the Abu Graib scandal prisoners. So we know that Handel was against the war in Iraq, because Abu Graib scandal = Iraq War.

    Also, we should all be concerned about our damaged veterans because that’s what veterans are–damaged people. The Left LOVES victims.

    When Hercules’s wife becomes jealous of the beautiful captive, she tries to renew Hercules’s love by giving him a poisoned shirt. Hercules is a victim because he’s not interested in his wife anymore.

    ***************

    What a ridiculous take on this story. I don’t see how Abu Graib or the Iraq War pertains to anything. Hercules brought home a beautiful slave because that’s what heroes did in the olden days. His wife was right to try to use magic, but unfortunately she made a terrible mistake using the wrong magic.

    THAT’s the tragedy, not that heroes get PST.

    I’m disgusted, but of course my liberal and ignorant friends thought it was all wonderful. I hope Peter Sellars has a learning experience with a jihadist some day so we can see how heroic and cutting edge he is then.

    GRRRRR.

    Down with

  8. Incomplete post above. I meant . . .

    DOWN WITH stupid liberal interpretations of wars they know nothing about. They’re too lazy to learn useful information because it doesn’t fit the narrative.

    The original story was terrific. The revised story was silly.

  9. I still can’t believe they made Glinda the Good Witch a “Meangirl” in that piece of trash, “Wicked”!

    You would THINK they could at least leave the Wizard of Oz alone — but NO. Most obnoxious of all, they attributed the Wicked Witch’s problems entirely to her skin color. Because, Lord knows, there’s no such thing as evil.

    They satirize themselves. It’s a wonder The Onion can stay in business.

  10. Thank you for this video, Neo. I have an ancient cassette tape of this concert and the prayer is my favorite. FvS was, imo, the acme of pants parts singers. Will never be matched.

  11. Just watched the Covent Garden production of H&G on blu-ray. Great singing and acting, especially Diana Damrau as Gretel. The production had two ghastly staging flaws. The witch first appears with enormous fake breasts jutting out from her dress. Not pretty and not suitable for kinderlein. Then, in the witches kitchen scene, the pantry is full of children hanging on meathooks. That would scare the bejeezus out of das kinderlein.

    Why do directors do these things? They must know children would be flocking to see Hansel and Gretel.

  12. Though long a fan of classical music, I have always kept a certain distance from opera, though that’s beginning to change. The one work that turned me around was another fairy tale opera: The Cunning Little Vixen by Leos Janacek. It’s a stunningly beautiful piece. I can’t help but wonder if the kiddies would like that one?

  13. Marine’s Mom Says:
    March 7th, 2011 at 10:56 pm

    Did you see that his “Release Me” stopped “Strawberry Fields” from being #1 on the British pop charts?

    I knew that “Strawberry Fields Forever” only made it to #2 in 1967. It was the first Beatles single that failed to reach #1 on the British charts since “Please Please Me” in 1963.

    I didn’t know Englebert Humperdinck was responsible for that.

  14. I saw a university student production of Hansel and Gretel last year, loved it, and wondered why it isn’t performed more often.

    BTW, you should actually blame the British music promoter Gordon Mills for applying the Engelbert Humperdinck monicker to Gerry Dorsey, a baritone crooner he was managing. The same manager had renamed Tom Woodward as Tom Jones just after the movie based on the Henry Fielding novel came out. Later he rebranded a singer named Raymond Sullivan as Gilbert O’Sullivan. A serial offender, to say the least.

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