| re: Mentions in musicals | |
| Posted by: MFeingold 07:18 pm EDT 05/29/18 | |
| In reply to: Plays about opera - commedia 08:25 am EDT 05/28/18 | |
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| Not exactly "about opera," but the lyrics of many musicals contain references to opera and/or opera singers - often about the length of Wagner's operas. Larry Hart and Cole Porter were particularly fond of such references. Some instances: "I Blush" (cut from A CONNECTICUT YANKEE but restored for the Encores! version) contains a stanza about Tristan and Isolde. ("What they did was wrong beyond a doubt / If it took so long to sing about") The title song of Porter's RED HOT AND BLUE - "I've no desire to hear / Flagstad's Brunnhilde, dear" A line in Rodgers & Hart's ON YOUR TOES refers to Shostakovich's "Lady Macbeth from Minsky's" [ref to his then-new opera LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK]] In Porter's OUT OF THIS WORLD: "The dove each moment grows bolder / The lark sings "Ich liebe dich"/ Tristan is chasing Isolde / But nobody's chasing mich!" And in HIGH SOCIETY: "Who wants an opera box, you bet / To sleep through Wagner at the Met." Noel Coward used an elegant running joke in SAIL AWAY, where Stritch as Mimi Paragon makes several references to LA BOHEME. "They christened me Mimi / My tiny heart is frozen" in "Come to Me" and, in the verse of "Useful Phrases," "...muttering 'si, si' and 'mi chiamano Mimi.' like some aging Metropolitan soprano." Pedantically, if Mimi Paragon spoke proper Italian she would say "il mio nome e Mimi," (My name is Mimi), and not "mi chiamano" (they call me Mimi), but the joke is too good to quibble at, and everyone does call her Mimi, so why not? Also a lot of lyrics in old musicals reference the Wedding March from Wagner's LOHENGRIN, though this really has to do not with opera but with its widespread use by church organists as brides came down the aisle to be married. Cf. for instance the verse of "Makin' Whoopee" and Ira Gershwin's "I hope they Lohengrin and bear it" in the Wedding Dream of LADY IN THE DARK. There are probably unnumerable other references in Broadway lyrics. Also note that in the 1940s, in addition to CARMEN JONES, Broadway saw MY DARLIN' AIDA, which reset the opera's story at the time of the Civil War and used Verdi's melodies. ("Possente Ftah" became a chorus of slaves singing "Why ain't we free?") |
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