09 Jun 2013, 7:10 pm
No, not the soccer player 
. I just got the urge to post about my favorite opera, Handel's Rinaldo! I'm not usually an opera fan (in fact I dislike the majority of it), but this is not only my favorite opera, but one of my all-time favorite pieces of music! Youtube has an absolutely amazing performance of it also (below), and it's a unique one at that as it's the original version of the opera (it was revised several times in Handel's lifetime, and often the most recent revision is performed.) I like the original version more because it has one of my favorite sections of music, "Vieni o cara, a consolarmi" (30:44 to 34:34 in the video). Unfortunately you don't see all that many performances of it nowadays though.
And if you've never really listened to opera before, this is one of the best ones to start with in my opinion! It's vastly different from what most people think of when they think of opera, since you typically hear the mid to late 1800s Italian opera in the mainstream, while this was composed in the early 1700s.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG_QUTkWUMQ[/youtube]
Wikipedia has a really good synopsis of the plot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinaldo_(opera). I haven't been able to find a full English libretto unfortunately. The video does have a French translation though for our French-speaking friends!
PS: For any naysayers, don't knock it until you try it!
09 Jun 2013, 7:36 pm
10 Jun 2013, 2:27 am
