5 Opera Pieces You Didn't Even KNOW You Already KNOW!
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, we re talking about 5 different pieces you ve heard before and you don t even know are operatic, and why you should listen to them. Carmen, Don José, Figaro, The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro and The Four Seasons.
Transcript
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Hello, Classic Crew, and welcome to today's video where we're going to be talking about
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five opera pieces you didn't even know you know.
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Opera is something that I think a lot of people are not comfortable with because they think that
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it might be too difficult to listen to, it's boring, it's just not their style, maybe it's
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just for people who already like classical music, but the fact of the matter is there are a ton
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of pieces that you didn't even know that you've heard before. Opera is something that is used a
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lot in popular culture, but you might not even realize how much of it you've heard before and
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that you would be able to recognize like that. So I'm really excited to share with you guys
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five different pieces that you have heard before and you don't even know are opera, are operatic.
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And before we get into today's video, I would love if you would consider subscribing to my
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to head to the description box to sign up, or just head over to classicallyabbey.substack.com. So now
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we're going to talk about some opera, so let's get into it. The first piece I want to talk about
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today is from the opera Carmen. You have heard this so many times. Here's a little clip.
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How many times have you heard that tune before? I mean, it's literally difficult to count because
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it's been in so many different movies and TV shows. Carmen was written by Georges Bizet. He only wrote two
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operas in his very short life. He died at the age of 35. But Carmen is truly a masterpiece.
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It is one of my favorite operas personally, and it tells the story of a gypsy who falls in love
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with Don José, a soldier, a private, in fact. And even though everyone has warned him, and she
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herself has warned him, that her love flies like a bird, kind of she can fall in love with you easily
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and then just as easily fall right out of love, he falls head over heels for her, he follows her,
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he gives up everything, and she falls out of love with him as is to be expected. And of course it
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ends in tragedy when he kills her. So this aria, which you are familiar with, is her introduction.
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This is when she comes out and tells everyone, you know, I'm Carmen, this is my credo, love is like
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a rebellious bird. And that is her kind of motto. So I love this opera. If you haven't watched Carmen
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before, you should definitely check it out. Actually on my blog, I wrote a whole outline of what you
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should do to prepare to listen to it. I wrote 10 pieces that you should listen to, as well as the
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synopsis. There are a ton of other tunes in Carmen that you've heard before. I mean, one of the tunes
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from Carmen was directly pulled from Carmen and used in Aladdin. It's kind of funny. In the overture,
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I remember the first time I heard Carmen kind of actively, once I started listening to opera,
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I thought to myself, this sounds so familiar. And I realized it was because the composers for
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Aladdin had just kind of lifted it out of the overture of Carmen and used it in their score. So
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that is number one. Now let's get on to number two. Number two is Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro,
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Figaro, Figaro. Yeah, you've heard that one before. Because remember when we were kids and people
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didn't understand opera at all and we all wanted to tease it and make fun of it? That's what we would
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do? Yes, that is actually from a real opera. You may know it from Bugs Bunny. You may know it from
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just kind of living life because that's a very common way that people tease opera. But the funny
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part about this is that this aria is not actually from the marriage of Figaro, which is what people
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assume because Figaro is what they hear. And then they think of the opera, the marriage of Figaro. In
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fact, this is from the opera, The Barber of Seville. So both of these operas are based on plays by
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Beaumarchais. And The Barber of Seville actually takes place before the marriage of Figaro. So in
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The Barber of Seville, a man named Count Almaviva has fallen in love with Rosina, who is the ward of
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an old man who does not really want to let her go outside and meet people. And Count Almaviva has
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hidden his identity so that she won't know that he is rich and want to marry him for his money. Well,
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to facilitate their relationship actually growing and becoming something that they can pursue,
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Figaro gets involved. Figaro is The Barber of Seville. And when he sings this aria, he introduces
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himself to the audience and he tells them about how he is the best barber in all the land and everyone
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wants him. And people are calling him all over the place to have him come and do their hair. And so
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they yell, Figaro, for example. So that is aria number two. Now let's move on to number three.
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The third thing I want to talk about today is not actually an aria. And I should probably define
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what an aria is. An aria is a song from an opera. So this is not an aria. This is the overture. And
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you have probably heard this in many films. So this is from the opera William Tell. And William Tell has
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a very complicated story. I will not try and explain all of it. But just to get down to the basics,
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William Tell tells the story of William Tell in Switzerland under the Habsburg occupation.
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And of course, it does include the section where William Tell shoots an apple off of his son's head.
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So it is a wonderful opera despite the fact that it is a little bit confusing and rather long.
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But this overture is wonderful. And it is indicative of Rossini's other overtures. So Rossini wrote
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many operas. And it became his signature to have a repetitive overture that slowly gets faster and
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faster and louder and louder. And so it's often used in movies and films to indicate something
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speeding up. And it's one of my favorite overtures. I love it. You've heard it before. And now you know
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what it's from. Number four is the flower duet from Lachme.
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So you've definitely heard this before, probably in a chocolate commercial. Let's be honest. That's
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usually when they use this duet and the next one I'm going to talk about. And the reason this is so
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beautiful is because you have a mezzo and a soprano singing just gloriously together. I have not had the
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good fortune of being able to sing it with someone. If somebody wanted to, I would totally
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do it. I just haven't had the opportunity in my singing career. But it is stunning. And it is from
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the opera Lachme. So Lachme tells the story of the main character, Lachme, who lives during the British
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Raj. And she and her handmaiden go out to the river right at the beginning of the opera and sing this
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flower duet. Does it have anything to do with the story? Not really. But it's just a beautiful way
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for us to kind of meet her and as the audience to be introduced to her. And it's a really lovely
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piece. It's pretty much what it sounds like. And you've definitely heard it before. Last but not
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least, let's talk about the duet Belle Nuit from the opera The Tales of Hoffman. This is another duet
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that you have definitely heard, probably again in some sort of romantic commercial. And it is
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absolutely beautiful. It is also known as the Barkeroll. So a Barkeroll is a song traditionally
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sung by Venetian gondoliers. This has taken on that name and is kind of just known as that. The story
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of The Tales of Hoffman is very interesting because it's actually kind of like three operas in one.
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It's his stories. It's actually bookended with Hoffman. And then it has three of his stories. And he's
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kind of moving through them. And this is the third of the three stories. And it tells the story of a
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courtesan in Venice. Again, it's kind of complicated to explain. And I don't think I'm going to go into
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the entire story here, especially because this duet is setting the scene. It's not really pertinent to
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the story. It's just setting the scene of, oh, this is a Venetian beautiful night. And it's really a
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gorgeous duet. I have sung this one and I love it. And you have definitely heard it. So that is it for
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today's video. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Let me know in the comments if you actually did know all
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five of these, because I would think that you do. But if you don't, hey, now you learned something.
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And I would love if you would check out these songs in a playlist I'm going to link below on Spotify.
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So I will link all five of these pieces below and you can check them out yourselves. And I'd also love
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to know if there are some other pieces you think that people know, but don't know they know.
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So that is it for today's video. Thank you so much for watching. Please subscribe to my channel if
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