Famous Opera

~Famous opera songs & the stories behind~

So there i was, again on a lonely Saturday night, watching videos of random somethings or another on youtube. When a cleaning commercial for swiffer came on to inform me of its brand new addition to the swiffer product line. While the swiffer zoomed around a modernized apartment cleaning dirt 5x better than the previous swiffer did a popular opera song was played in the background, giving the commercial the sort of sauve ambiance somebody interested in cleaning utilities might be. And though i don't like swiffers and had no interest in getting one, I still absent mindedly hummed along to the familiar tune as the commercial went on. I was humming that song for days after i had watched the commercial, the song being so irresistibly catchy(life is an ever rotating playlist of catchy songs i pick up from anywhere).

One of these days though, i stopped and realized that i had no idea what i was singing. I knew the songs name was carmen only because i had heard the song loosely referred to on a tv show i watched, but other than that,  i knew nothing about it. After thinking about it further, i remembered that opera songs are sung in an Opera. A kind of theatrical musical. So there had to have been a story behind the song being sung, and i had no idea what that was about either. In fact, i knew of at least 5 different operas, that i could quasi-sing-mumble to you on a moments notice, and yet i had no idea what any of the songs, or the operas that they were played in, meant. And that bothered me.

So i got on google, and looked up to top songs for the Opera genre and found all those songs that I've been dumbly listening to, and transcribed their foreign designs. I made sure to get the where/when/and by who of the Opera's creation. A summary of the Opera itself, and a summary of the famous song. So from now on whenever that cleaning commercial comes on again and I am absent mindedly singing along. I will have a general idea of what i am singing about.

So here it is..

8 Famous Opera songs, and the Stories behind them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

L'amour est un oiseau rebelle: Carmen

An opera in four acts by French composer Georges Bizet. Based on a novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875. Both the Song and Opera are in french, but the story is set in Southern Spain.

The Opera: "Carmen"
Is about a love triangle, between a solider, a local maid, and a gypsy. The maid loves the solider, but the solider loves the gypsy, and the gypsy claims to love a popular local bull fighter but probably doesn't really love anybody. The story is a soap Opera drama in which all ends of the triangle attempt to make advances on one another but are inevitably doomed.

The Song: "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle"
Translated from french to mean "Love is a rebellious bird" this is the song i got from the swiffer commercial, and probably the most recognizable Opera song that i know. L'amour has a slow swinging sound to it, that gives the immediate feeling of some passionate spanish tango with roses and deep stares into your partners eyes.
It is sung by the gypsy women carmen, when the soldiers outside the factory gates call to her in admiration. They ask her to marry them, and she responds with The "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle". Basically the lyrics of the song recite "love is a rebellious bird"
"if you love it, it wont love you"
"but if it loves you, then watch out"
.. with the chorus of people yelling "look out for yourself!"...
and bits of Carmen singing "looove looooove".
Its a song about love, particularly love from a gypsy.

Youtube - L'amour est un oiseau rebelle

Flower duet: lakme'

An opera written by Leo Delibes in 1882. French origin. Story set in british india, based off of Le "mariage de lati" by Pierre Loti. The play is said to "capture the enthralling ambience of the East" as seen through the very different societies and cultures of the European West.

The Opera: "Lakme"
Lakme, who the play is named after and based around, is the Main character of the story and also hindu goddess of wealth. The story starts off with the introduction of Lakme and one of her good friends who are going down to the river to collect water lilies for an important religious ceremony. Lakme is the daughter of the high priest of a local hindu temple and is supposedly very pretty. The two girls, take off their jewelry and then go farther up the river bank to wade the water and collect flowers. As they disappear into the riverbanks tall grass, a group of british soldiers arrive laughing and making fun. Lakme eventually comes back to get her Jewelry and discover one of the soldiers who was all wet in just his undies after having just gone for a swim. He smiles and waves, she giggles and laughs and the rest of the Opera is the love tragedy that ensues. 

The rest of the play is basically Lakme and this British solider falling in love, Lakmes father finding out and attacking the solider, Lakme healing the solider before the solider leaves and Lakme depressed and heartbroken commits suicide by eating a dangerous plant. & That's Opera...

The song: "Flower duet"
Sung by Lakme, daughter of a hindi high priest, and her friend as a ritualistic song of prayer for collecting flowers, Flower Duet has a angelic ring to it, like the princesses of swan lake are singing you a lullaby. It makes my eyelids heavy everytime I hear it.. out of the beauty of it, not boredom hehe.

Basically the lyrics of the song revolves around
"under the thick dome where the white jasmine, and roses bloom
let us go down together,
to the flowers on the winding river where the spring sleeps and the birds sing,
let us go down"
They sing this feathered song of petals along their graceful way to the river bank.

Youtube - Flower Duet(Delibes)



Queen of the Nights Aria: The Magic Flute

A 2-act opera by Wolgang Amadeaus Mozart in 1792. The work premeired only 2 months befor Mozarts death.

The Opera: "The Magic Flute"
Is set in egypt, and is about a fairy queen, who employs the service of a young prince, to save her daughter from the evil sorcerer king Sarastro. The prince goes to the evil kings castle to rescue the princess and is quickly captured by the evil sorcerer king, who reveals that he is actually a good guy, but has quarintined his daughter to keep her from her mother, who he says is crazy.
The prince is told that to rescue her, he must pass a series of trials including a trial of silence, and a trial of courage. The rest of the story is about the prince completing these trials, and winning princess paminas freedom as well as her love. During the 3rd act of the story, The Queen of the night comes to see how the Prince is fairing at the quest she gave him and is unpleased to discover that he is now working for the King. She comes to Pamina secretly and demands that she assasinate Sarastro but is denied. After this she is forced to take matters into her own hands and summons her minions to lay waste to Sarastros kingdom. She is however promptly cast out of the Castle grounds by Sarastros magic, ushering in a new age of life for the rest of the world.

The Song: Queen of the nights Aria
Officially named "hells vengance boils in my heart"(the actual name of the aria) A piece of liberreto given in fit of vengeful rage given by the Queen of the Night to her daughter Pamina. It's a very fun and happy sounding song, for how malescious and savage the meaning behind it is. The vocal chorus, which seems to be purely symphonic in nature is probably the coolest sounding opera singing that exists in the opera world. I guess people expect nothing less from Mozart, with him being a musical wizard and all..

During the scene of the Aria, the Queen  places a knife in the hand of her daughter and exhorts her to assassinate the king, or else she will disown and curse Pamina. The song starts with
"hells vengance boils in my heart!
death and dispair, death and dispair
Sorestro better die by your hand!
die by your hand, or your my daughter nevermore
hahahahaha haaa hohohoho hooo
hahaha hahaha
hahaha he ho hahaha he ho he ha haaa
my daughter nevermore
hahahahaha haaa hohohoho hooo
hahaha hahaha
hahaha he ho hahaha he ho he ha haaa
destoyed forever, sarastro must die!!!
[at the end she calls on the gods to hear] hear hear hear, this is a mothers spite!

Youtube - Queen of the Knights Aria


Libiamo ne lieti calci: La Traviata 

an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi
It is based on La Dame aux Camélias, a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas fils. The opera was originally titled Violetta, after the main character. It was first performed on 6 March 1853 at the La Fenice opera house in Venice.

The Opera: "La Traviata"
Revolves around the Romeo And Juliet affair of a Young aristocrat lady named Violetta Valery and Alfredo Germont a young man of the same class. The story begins with two meeting at a party thrown by the young lady in celebration for her return of health after a long bout with some illness.  Violetta is told by a friend of a friend of a friend,.. that his friend is in love her. Not long after this friend shows up and confirms this claim, and a moment later sparks up a toast to the ladies returned health and happiness. After the toast, the two quickly fond out that they a madly in love with each other. The two nobles throw their lives away running to the countryside to be together. Later are chided by their parents who tell them they need to separate. In the same image of Romeo and Juliet, Violetta is forbidden from seeing Alfredo and is locked away in her families estate. Alfredo then goes running after his true love, challenges her new fiance to a duel before defeating him, only to discover that his lover Violetta had become ill again and died from sickness.

The Song: "Libiamo ne lieti calici"
Story wise it is a song of toasting. Sung by a young bachelor at a party celebrating a young ladies return of health. They are all posted up in the dining hall with glasses full of Champagne. The Young bachelor, who becomes the Romeo of the story calls for a toast in honor of the Lady and the toast turns into a full blown song.
Libiamo is a sort of bubbly chant, with both a masculine and feminine side to it, brought together in a partied chorus. The words match the sound of the song well, you could almost guess that they are singing in celebration of something without even knowing the language.

The song starts out with the boy singing
"let us drink, let us drink from these cups of beauty, we will have warmer kisses"
And then is echoed by the girl singing "with you, with you i'll have happy times, with you everything but happiness is foolish"
And then brought in by the Chorus of all singing "lets enjoy these cups, these cups and chants".

Youtube - Libiamo ne lieti Calci


La donna e' mobile: Riggoletto
An opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by for the play "Le roi s'amuse" by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had control over northern Italian theatres at the time, the opera had a triumphant premiere at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851.

The Opera: "Riggoletto"
Revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto. The opera's original title, La maledizione (The Curse), refers to a curse placed on both the Duke and Rigoletto by a courtier whose daughter the Duke has seduced with Rigoletto's encouragement.  The whole opera is an ironic tragedy, where the duke ends up getting rigolettos daughter killed with his shenanigans, to the great despair of rigoletto.

The Song: "La donna e' mobile"
"blah blah blah, women is like the wind, blah blah women is fickle" The guy is basically drunk while he cheats on his promised lover, and is singing this song while engaged in his protitution, to a girl (irony) who is planning to assassinate him. As famous as this song is, it has a terrible background to it.

Youtube - La donna e' mobile


O Fortuna: Carmina Burana

"O Fortuna" is a medieval Latin Goliardic poem written early in the 13th century, part of the collection of Goliardic poems known as the "Carmina Burana".
In 1935, Carl Orff composed a scenic cantata based on these medieval poems, naming the cantata after the poems. Michel Hofmann, a young law student and an enthusiast of Latin and Greek; assisted Orff in the selection and organization of 24 of these poems into a libretto, mostly in Latin verse.
The goliards were a group of generally young clergy in Europe who wrote satirical Latin poetry in the 12th and 13th centuries of the Middle Ages. They were chiefly clerics who served at or had studied at the universities of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and England, who protested the growing contradictions within the church through song, poetry and performance.

The song:  "O Fortuna"
For it's strong sense of grandure and epicness it is actually a pretty depressing song. The piece basically is grieving about fate. Calling it a swinging door, and a monstrous mechanism that can be wholly unfair to strong hearts that fall under its diction. I guess that might be why its called "O Fortuna", because everybody knows luck is just the better side of common coincidence. And the what people refer to as not lucky, is dealt just as often.

Youtube - O Fortuna


Nessun Dorma: Turandot

Opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, completed by Franco Alfano, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Puccini wrote the opera inspired by the novel Turandot (1762) by Count Carlo Gozzi. A story that in turn was taken from the epic Haft Peykar (The Seven Beauties), work of 12th-century Persian poet Nizami.

The Opera: "Turnadot"
The opera is about a persian princess ,named Turnadot, who will not marry unless her princes answer 3 riddles correctly.  Consequence for failure was death. There comes a prince from a foreign country that falls in love with turnadot on sight. He attempts the trial, answers the 3 questions successfull, and the Queen is told that she must marry the prince. The prince sees how upset she is about being forced to marry, and tells the princess that if she can guess his name that he will forfit his success and consigns himself to death. The princess then takes his blind father and servant hostage, and trys to pry an answer out of them. Finally the servant breaks in fear for the blind man, and love for the prince, and tells the queen that only she knows the answer, just before grabbing a dagger and ending her life. The queens mind is changed somehow and she agrees to marry the prince.

The Song: "Nessun Dorma"
Takes place when Prince Calef, goes away to the princesses guest chamber, to await her answer of his riddle. He sings basically as a gloating rumplestilskin "nobody will sleep, nobody will know my name, not even.."
the choir echoes back "nobody will know his name". His final chorus "Go away stars, tomorrow i win.."

Youtube - Nessun Dorma


ll dolce suono: lucia di lammermoor

A 3 act opera written by Gaetano Donizetti in 1835. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor. At the time it was produced, there was a heavy European interest in the history and culture of Scotland. The perceived romance of its violent wars and feuds, as well as its folklore and mythology, intrigued 19th century readers and audiences. Sir Walter Scott dramatized these elements in his novel The Bride of Lammermoor, which inspired several musical works in addition to Lucia. "Lucia di lammermoor"
concerns the emotionally fragile Lucy Ashton (Lucia) who is caught in a feud between her own family and that of the Ravenswoods. The setting is the Lammermuir Hills of Scotland
(Lammermoor) in the 17th century.

The Opera: "Lucia di Lammermoor"
Basically the story is about a Man, "Edgardo", that comes to the castle of a wealthy family to marry his beloved woman "Lucia". This family that owns this castle actually hates Edgardo, and are actually at war with his family. The woman tells him she can't marry him because she has already promised to give vows and trade rings with somebody else. Lucia's brother has arranged this because of his mothers recent death, for political reasons. Edgardo is forced to leave without getting an answer from Lucia. But he does return throughout the remainder of the play to resubmit his requested love. He comes both the day of the wedding to curse at the marriage, and then the day afterwards to challenge the newly wed groom to a duel. That night though, as Edgardo has gone down to wait for the groom.. Lucia, who really doesn't want to be married for the rest of her life to this Arranged groom, kills Arturo(the groom), in a spell of madness. Edgardo who was waiting to duel the groom, was told that Lucia had killed him, and then died from sickness soon after. Edgardo, in despair kills himself with a dagger.

The Song: "Ll dolce suono"
In the song ll Dolce Suono, Lucia has just came from the "Bridal Bedroom" with a bloody knife in her hand. A knife she used to kill Arturo, her arranged husband. She grieves to herself, and the audience about how terribly her life has turned. And talks of her love of Edgardo, and dreams about a happy life with him. Ll dolce suono "The sweet sound", of living with whom she loved.

Youtube - Ll Dolce Suono