Thursday, March 25, 2010

There's always something.

Some days, like today, I think I'll give my blog a rest and give my full attention to work (write that sidebar about scalping, say).

But almost always the blog itself casts its nets upon the waters and hauls in some must-post material.

Today it hauled in two shiny tuna e-mails.
Art Sparker sent me the link to the 1:40 min. opera version of Star Trek II: Le Wrath di Khan.
Since I'd last seen it and now, my sister (a non-Trekkie) has fallen deeply into opera, so I forwarded it to her.

Just now, Sister wrote back pointing out how much Khan in the opera looks like Dmitri Hvorostovsky--"a sexy Russian baritone."
Perhaps the Robot Chicken crew who made Le Wrath did this on purpose? Or did Ricardo Montalban?

TOP LEFT: Hvorostovsky as Count di Luna sings, Per me ora fatale / "Fatal hour of my life"...
From the Royal Opera House's 2002 production of Giuseppe Verdi's tragic opera Il trovatore.

6 comments:

  1. Being a nerd (and feeling about the diminuitive Seth Green similarly to the way you feel about William Shatner) I watched the director's commentary for this. Apparently the verses were translated from English to Italian by putting them through n online translation engine, which makes it even more amusing.I thought the guy singing Willima Shatner's part was quite Kirkesque in his delivery.

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  2. Oh! I LOVE that info: thanks!

    I have myself made use of the magic garble of the online translator.
    (English into Japanese and back into English is a nice sequence).

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  3. I have to notice---Kirk is standing one knee-up, arms on hips.

    I have to wonder---who sang this?! (And how much were they paid?) I'm trying to envision this in a recording studio, and having trouble.

    I have to laugh---"I am dead!"

    Oh, how I love this. They, (whoever they are), should convert some of Kirk's notable log's into Opera. Ah heck, ENTIRE EPISODES IN OPERA. Goodness, I would die.

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  4. M: Robot Chicken stuff is made by Seth Green et al, but I don't know anything about it.

    You know there's some new ballet version of Shatner/Kirk...
    "Gonzo Ballet"?
    I know nothing about it either!

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  5. There is an opera version of Amok Time. I've seen a bit of it on Youtube, but both the visual and the sound quality were so bad, I couldn't watch more than some ten seconds of it. The libretto was simply the lines from the episode, the music was modern/minimalist, and the singers were dressed in black and placed in front of/under a screen that showed the episode. I've never been able to get my head around opera, but that's a show I'd love to see if the possibility presented itself.

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  6. That sounds amazing, Annika!

    Frecsa:
    William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet, (these words, they taste strange in my mouth):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q1X8oKvltY

    Apparently, there is a feature length documentary on the making of it, including interviews with the Man himself.

    Another film to see when, leading a band of torch-bearing cine-zealots, you commandeer the local micro-theater!

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