Need opera help

[KittyxChromaggia]

Hey guys. :3

I'm in opera training at the moment (woo!) and on a school-holidays-break (my teacher's, not mine!). My teacher is a wonderfully whimsical elderly lady, and she and I have a lot of fun together (aside from that one "you have to sing in German" fiasco, and intervals of a sixth, which were sent from Hell to make singing students miserable).

I love classical music, but nowhere near as much as I love rock musicals and operas (like Moulin Rouge! and the deliciously gorey Repo! The Genetic Opera). I want to pick a song to take back in two weeks to pretend that I've practiced and actually not been lazy.

I am a street performer by trade (if you could call it a trade?) and often do some popular songs in an opera key (Lady GaGa, some folk songs, Green Day, and then stuff like Breaking Benjamin, Barbra Streisand...the list goes on and i only succeed in proving how lame I am). I want to know what would be a good song to take with me when I go back?

Some things I've thought of are:

They Weren't There - Missy Higgins
And I Am Telling You - Jennifer Hudson
The Diary of Jane - Breaking Benjamin
Pills of White Mercury - Old Blind Dogs
Chromaggia - Repo! The Genetic Opera (Sarah Brightman)
Gloomy Sunday - Emile Autumn (or Christian Death, either way)
Le Jazz Hot - Victor/Victoria
Speechless - Lady GaGa
I'm sure I can think of more, but I don't want to make some enormous list without suggestions. Who has secret favourite rock, punk, folk, pop or any other genre song they'd like to hear converted? If you give me a suggestion, and it works out, I'll record it and give you a link.

 

[Julian of York]

Well,young Kitty, when I was a teen I was very much into the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. I think a good song that would be appropriate would be "Everything's Allright" from the opera,which is a female part.
A rather more challenging role for you would be as "Judas" singing "Damned for All Time".
A song that I find hauntingly beautiful,even as I am now in my mid fifties, is "Across the Universe" by the Beatles. A total hoot might be "I am the Walrus" by the Fab Four.
You could fall back on a song that is from the U.K. and then Australia, Colin's song "Overkill".
Whatever you do, I hope to hear your performance!

Julian of York

 

[KittyxChromaggia]

Well,young Kitty, when I was a teen I was very much into the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. I think a good song that would be appropriate would be "Everything's Allright" from the opera,which is a female part.
A rather more challenging role for you would be as "Judas" singing "Damned for All Time".
A song that I find hauntingly beautiful,even as I am now in my mid fifties, is "Across the Universe" by the Beatles. A total hoot might be "I am the Walrus" by the Fab Four.
You could fall back on a song that is from the U.K. and then Australia, Colin's song "Overkill".
Whatever you do, I hope to hear your performance!

Julian of York

I Am The Walrus is one of the best songs ever written. My friend's blog is named after it (and also because walruses are fat and happy about it, so if walruses can be comfortable in their bodies, so should we). HOWEVER I will serve you to one Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, since it's the one I know best and also is a lot easier than all that I AM HIS YOU ARE HIS bullcrap.

Also, Jule, you gotta stop getting my hopes up about other people taking an interest in my existence. XD "SOMEONE COMMENTED ON MY TH-....dammot Julian."

Just kidding. Don't leave me.

 

[Julian of York]

How could I forget!
This is a rather obscure song that would need a little mechanical help.
Marvin,the Paranoid Android sings "How I Hate The Night" from Douglas Adams' "LIfe,the Universe,and Everything". It was from the recorded series of the early eighties, I think. No doubt "ASK.COM" or Google can give you a rendition.

"Now I lay me down to sleep,
Try to count electric sheep,
Good night wishes you can keep,
How I hate the night.


Now I lay upon my bed,
Darkness won't compass my head,
For I can see in infra-red,
How I hate the night."


You would need to have a voice synthesizer of some sort to give you that robotic sound.
By the way, I have quoted that from my memory, so I may have omitted a word or so.

Julian of York

 

[jayem]

"If I Loved You," from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, is a very pretty song, that virtually is an operatic aria. I don't really care for Charlotte Church (she always sounds slightly off-key to me) but this version gives a good idea of the possibilities:


YouTube - Charlotte Church - If I Loved You (Live)

 

[KittyxChromaggia]

"If I Loved You," from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, is a very pretty song, that virtually is an operatic aria. I don't really care for Charlotte Church (she always sounds slightly off-key to me) but this version gives a good idea of the possibilities:

Hey, look, my first atheist contact! That's so exciting that I just realised I'm really kind of pathetic!

I'd watch the youtube if I could, but because I'm in Australia, we don't have good internet, and ours is particularly bad. (Seriously, it's just kind of like "i'd rather not play this. I have better things to do")

She is rather off-key, though, isn't she? But that comes from someone who can't for the life of her sing a G natural.

 

[Julian of York]

Kitty,
Now why didn't I think of that?!? You would be superb in such stunning roles as "Poor Little Buttercup" from "HMS Pinafore" or "A Modern Major General" from the same Gilbert and Sullivan masterpiece. Looking at your personal pictures file, I can say you would be stunning in a yellow dress,yellow hair ribbon, and yellow basket,ala "Little Buttercup".
You could even work it into your street performance! What a hit outside the Aussie bars at closing time. "Last orders,please, and then stagger out and hear our own Kitty C. as Ms.Little Buttercup!" Wow! A STAR is BORN!!!

Your Friend (I hope)
Julian of York