Being a living doll
I saw this the other day. It’s quite well done, particular by the male dancer:
It’s actually an old trick that appears in many ballets, as well. For example, Coppelia (here she’s pretending to be a doll to fool the elderly dollmaker):
And then there’s this from The Nutcracker:
In Petrouchka it’s puppets:
… and this aria is probably the most famous example from opera.
It’s from Tales of Hoffman – which although it was written in the 19th century, has a steampunk/sci-fi vibe.
In the first of the tales, Hoffman falls in love with a mechanical doll names Olympia. This is her coloratura aria – a very funny, modern version with a radio-controlled Barbie-Madonna character. The amazing Natalie Dessay doesn’t miss a note while doing all the comic business. And only the French can get away with the naughty sexual innuendo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARu-qHjG-vk&list=PL_KTgkKCtkMtMv3rl07jVyoExFfVnyjdk&index=2&t=66s
Here’s Moira Shearer as the doll Olympia in the 1951 Powell-Pressburger film of The Tales of Hoffman
https://youtu.be/fnqqn3Lx3PE?list=RDfnqqn3Lx3PE
And, of course there is the splendid doll/puppet ballet written by the author of the James Bond novels and featuring Benny Hill: https://youtu.be/L_l2ii_25tc?si=U-KTSdc0iA8nkxIR
BenDavid,
Thanks for the link. I had never heard of that opera. I wonder if Gene Wilder or Mel Brooks were referencing it with the hay wagon scene in “Young Frankenstein,” featuring Teri Garr?
According to wikipedia, the opera, “Pygmalion” was first performed in 1748, based on Ovid’s work that was about 1,740 years old at the time.
Perhaps this is the progenitor of all these stories?
Shields and Yarnell parlayed the animatronic human doll bit into their own variety show, in the ’70s: https://youtu.be/km1QRnzIKpI?si=wywR3FQN42_xSXzd
The music box dance from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Sally Ann Howes as the mechanical music box dancer
Dick Van Dyke as a puppet on strings.
For this purpose Sally Ann is a better example.
https://youtu.be/L_l2ii_25tc
martin,
That’s the “Ian Fleming/Benny Hill” clip I link’ed at 7:56pm. Great minds.
Such a cultured group here – I only encountered Benny Hill later in life, and did not connect him to Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang!
Rufus: I think “hayrides” go way back IYKWIM….
BenDavid,
Wilder and Brooks were cultured gents, I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew of “Tales of Hoffman.” Wilder wrote a screenplay about a scientist in eastern Europe re-animating human life, so maybe it was a nod to the opera’s similar theme? If so, very clever and very meta.
BenDavid,
I did an Internet search to see if Wilder or Brooks may have referenced the opera, but nothing turned up. You’re probably right, it was a throwaway joke to a trope.
However, if you can get to London there is a new production of the opera at The Royal Opera House that got a great review: https://www.ft.com/content/ff59d372-a957-4b04-8e53-5769f1c83754
4 hours long! Hopefully there’s time to get a coffee (tea, more likely) during intermission.
Rufus:
I even knew Ian Fleming wrote the story and Benny Hill was in it and I missed the reference. When you know that and watch it it is just a Bond film for children. Truly Scrumptious indeed.
Rufus – Tales of Hoffman is long, but each act is a completely different “Tale” in a completely different setting. The unifying thread is the love object, which is typically the same coloratura soprano. It’s a real marathon for her and the other main characters.
But at least it’s 4 hours of Offenbach and not Wagner
Can’t believe I never searched this before, but the opera hijacked by the Marx Brothers in “A Night at the Opera” is, “Il Trovatore.”
BenDavid,
If you want an abridged version of Wagner there’s always the Warner Brothers’, “What’s Opera, Doc.”
martin,
I’m a big fan of the movie and the character, but “Caractacus Potts” is one of Fleming’s most absurd puns for a title character.
Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang is great! Anyone who’s raised kids knows there are random movies they latch onto, and you watch those movies like twenty times. That was the one for us, and that’s about how many times I’ve seen that movie. I could have done a lot worse.
And if you’re into dance, the Child Catcher from your nightmares was a highly accomplished dancer. Google any of his scenes, why here, I’ve done it for you,
https://youtu.be/zUnhfvGdmmw?si=m6qu_ukAY3DQ04cB
and just watch how he moves through space. Very impressive.
Dick Van Dyke tells a great story about him during filming. The wagon he drives once tipped over onto its side as he was rounding a corner – a very dangerous situation. He essentially walked up and over, and off, of the tumbling wagon and didn’t even stumble.
In a similar theme:
thinking of human-like dolls:
The 1982 film, Blade Runner [tm], explores the science fiction idea of-
Creating sentient humans, or sentient…”almost-human people”, or “replicants”, in a lab- and then treating these almost-humans like:
robots…without feelings, [or things that are worth less than humans], or objects, or pets, or toys- is a really, BAD thing to do!
This article describes this 1980s, scifi film. Please read the- [plot] and [themes] parts of this article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner
[This idea…of human-like dolls, kind of brings up the moral question of- is it a good thing, to try to “create human-like brains or minds”, using- Artificial Intelligence…computer programs?
If I make a mechanical, A.I.-mind, + it breaks…or it doesn’t function well, morally- if I destroy it…aka if I “kill” it, have I done a morally bad thing? ]
In other words:
“DR. Frankenstein…You ain’t seen nothing, yet!”
🙂