Opera & the Movies

I love opera. I started out with recordings of Rigoletto (Verdi) and Pagliacci (Leoncavallo) which I got to know pretty well with listening. But I had never seen an opera on stage all the way through until 1977 and the very first Live From The Met broadcast on PBS. It was Puccini’s La Bohème with Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni as the leads in the Franco Zeffirelli designed and directed production. But it wasn’t these superstars that spun my life out of control and sent me on a frantic search for more and more. What killed was Musetta’s Waltz in Act 2. Musetta is a 19th century French hippie girl who taunts her ex with a merry number about how to likes to make men want her. You might recognize the tune because it was used for the song “Don’t You Know” which was a Top 40 hit for Della Reese in 1959. Watch the video to the very end and the exact spot that ruined my life.

Musetta's Waltz

I have seen live opera in many places around the country. I never got to the Met but saw Verdi’s Attila and Beethoven’s Fidelio at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. For about eight or nine years My Lovely Wife and I had season seats at the Dallas Opera.

There haven’t been many operas made into movies. There is a 1954 film of Verdi’s Aida with Sophia Loren which has actors lip-syncing to opera singers. It is a disaster. Even when torrents of sound are coming from the singers, the actors are barely moving their lips. It is ridiculous. A 1960 Russian film of Tchaikovsky's The Queen Of Spades uses the same technique of actors and singers but is a complete success. The work also benefits from being based on a fine and creepy short story by Pushkin. Franco Zeffirelli (again) wrote and directed Callas Forever (2002) which imagined a producer (Jeremy Irons) convincing Maria Callas to star in a film of Bizet’s Carmen using Callas’ recording of that opera as the music. It is a wonderful film, as is Carmen - the Film Within The Film. Fanny Ardant is luminous as Callas.

There are many classic films that have opera singers as stars or guest stars. Jennette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy both had operatic careers before becoming movie stars. Grace Moore and Lawrence Tibbett are two other names of singing stars of the ‘30s who had opera experience behind them.

There are many opportunities for live opera on stage in the movie theater – or oxymoronic Live Opera On Video. The Met from NYC broadcasts several of their Saturday matinees live in HD to theaters. My Lovely Wife and I have seen many of these. The recording of these live Met broadcasts often show up on PBS. Check local listings. Other distributors make videos of major stage productions available. We recently saw a knockout Tales Of Hoffman (Offenbach) from the Paris Opera from the comfort of a local movie house right here in the good ol’ U.S. of A.

Opera has it all. The complete theater (and movie) experience. Orchestral music. Singing. Sometime dance. Acting. Settings. Lighting. Stage craft. Everything. The whole enchilada. Try it. You’ll like it.

For years, the only opera I saw performed live was Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess," but in the late 1970’s, I was working at an NPR affiliated radio station where I helped the opera program host put together his weekly program. He got freebies to the NYC Opera and he took me to "The Tales of Hoffman" and Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers." I was impressed to find actress Jane Wyatt sitting behind me.

In 1984, as part of the Olympic Arts Festival, I paid to see the Royal Opera Company of Covent Garden do Puccini's "Turandot," an amazing work that has had a film connection showing up in "Yes, Giorgio" with Pavarotti.

Opera has been an element of films such as the original opera scenes written for "Citizen Kane" by Bernard Herrmann.  Sung badly on purpose during the film, good singers have made recordings.

Another good sequence was in the film "Anthony Adverse." But check out "The Glass Mountain" with a score by Nino Rota if you want a true masterpiece

Film bios of opera singers such as Enrico Caruso, Grace Moore and Marjorie Lawrence give you some fine snippets from great opera.

One bit of curiosity from the mid1950's is a filmed version of Verdi's "Aida." They went for getting a beautiful cast of non-singers and dubbed the entire film.  Sophia Loren is Aida, sung by Renata Tebaldi.  The Radames was sung by a friend of my housemate, the late tenor Giuseppe Campora. It is worth giving a watch and a listen.

Tomb Scene from Aida

youtu.be/vUjgBXaK_zo

The Phantom of the Opera had, well you know. The 1925/1929 reissue and the 1990 Tony Richardson version had 'Faust'. (Of the silent former, the 1929 sound reissue added sound scenes of the 'Jewel Song' which majorly exists as silent, although versions scored by Carl Davis and Gabriel Thibaudeau include a dub for the scene).

Going My Way has Rise Stevens performing Carmen.

And how can we forget the Marx Brothers 'assisting' La Travatore in A Night at the Opera?

Re the Magic Flute --  Stephen Schwartz ( Wicked/Godspell/etc on Broadway) has written a musical theatre show based on the life of the lyricist Emmanuel Schikaneder  ( who co-composed the opera with Mozart) which premiered in Vienna last year, in German. I understand it is inspired by the behind-the-scenes tempestuous relationship similar to KISS ME KATE. Schwartz and Trevor Nunn ( famed theatre director from the UK who directed the German staging in Vienna) are now looking into the possibility of transferring it to Broadway, in an English version. 

OK - what is the connection to movies?  LOL-- quite remote!  They invited Hugh Jackman to see the show in Vienna in the hope that he will consider the role if and when it transfers to Broadway. He did see the show but mum's the word if he is seriously interested.  The musical score is a little on the operatic side. Jackman is a high baritone.

Re the subject,  there is The Phantom of the Opera (  of which there are non-musical and musicalized versions)... I have also seen filmed productions of real operas ( Bizet's CARMEN on which the movie Carmen Jones was based and DEI FLEDERMAUS  (not sure if this is more like an operetta)  ... and some selected arias or scenes from other operas).

Wasn't there a more recent plan to film a biopic of Maria Callas?

A little related -- one of my favorite movies from the past was THE STUDENT PRINCE, which is more like an operetta. It was written by Sigmund Romberg and Mario Lanza voiced all the songs for the lead role played by Edmund Purdom. Operettas are somewhat close to real operas but more accessible to mass audiences. One of the most popular is Pirates of Penzance  which has been filmed ( one version is with Kevin Kline/Linda Rondstadt/Angela Lansbury) ...but I have seen a live production at the Sydney Opera House.

It is said that sung-thru musicals ( such as Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera) where the songs and dialogs  are all sung are (almost) in the vein of operas.   Sung dialogs are called recitatives to distinguish them from the songs.

Usually I just role my eyes at the news of an upcoming biopic. It is amazing how many lives of famous people follow traditional movie plot arcs. However, your info that Naomi Rapace is attached changes everything. I love her in anything and everything. Hers is one of the few names that will automatically make me take notice of an announced movie title or project. She could sell this movie to me.

We have several mentions of The Magic Flute but no mentions of Ingmar Bergmans glorious filmed version of his stage production. It is frankly a film of a theater, showing the audience, backstage moments with actors out of character, and frankly stage effects like tge little mottoes placed on wooden signs and the gorgeous hot air balloon that carries the three angels in and out of the scene. There are woodland animals resembling the Wild Things by Maurice Sendak, who designed a later production of this opera. The voices are fine but not over powering and probably work much better on film than a big full Met voice. This film is magical, a wonderful introduction to Opera.

I have a lively filmed production of Don Giovanni staring Samuel Raimi and Kirk Te Kanawa. These are big full rich voices and this is frankly a film. It's one of tge best expositions of Don Juan's refusal to change his ways, even when he knows that he'll is awaiting him .