Opera lyrics - more

[chickenfeet]

So far eight out of ten have been identified (see below). That leaves:

5. The wind is from the west, a lazy sea, the sky overcast, a stagnant smell from the lagoon

10. If the water is deep we will swim. If it is too fast we will build boats

Both are works from the 1970s and both libretti are in English. One has been recorded and one, as far as I know, hasn't.

1. Coronation of Poppea - Monteverdi - glitterboy1
2. Salome - Strauss - glitterboy1
3. Abduction from the Seraglio - Mozart - shezan
4. Julius Caesar in Egypt - Handel - glitterboy1
6. Twilight of the Gods - Wagner - damiel
7. Bluebeard's Castle - Bartok - damiel
8. King Arthur - Purcell - kalypso_v
9. Orfeo - Monteverdi - shezan

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Damn. My gut kept telling me Poppaea. One day, I will remember that my gut is considerably better informed than I am.

Given that the only opera I'd thought of that might feature a lagoon was Pearl Fishers, I'm a bit lost. Oh. Hang on. There's a lagoon in Venice...

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

There's a lagoon in Venice...

a stagnant one even

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Given that I cheated to the extent of looking up which operas he wrote in the 1970s, I'll leave it to someone else to claim the points.

[coughingbear]

Oh, is no. 5 Britten's Death in Venice?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Indeed it is

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Britten wrote a Death In Venice????

*liked the movie, herself*

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Premiered at Snape in 1973

[owlfish]

Whatever they're from, I really like the lyrics to 10.

[lemur-man.livejournal.com]

10 is Wenze's We Come to the River.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Henze, not Wenze, but bloody hell and well done. I didn't think anyone would get that. It premiered on July 12, 1976 at Covent Garden where I saw it on the 20th of that month.

[lemur-man.livejournal.com]

I've only heard of it, but thanks. There can't be that many operas about a group of lunatics.

[damiel.livejournal.com]

One more round! One more round!!

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I think I've more or less run out of easily grabbable libretti.

[damiel.livejournal.com]

Once you've run out of material, you could play a variant of the quiz where we submit lines and you try to guess them :-)

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

But then you would find out just how useless I really am!