Katreader's Rat's Nest: music

Thursday, February 23, 2012

New Opera Fans

When I decided to introduce my Arts group to opera, I wasn't sure of the response I'd receive. Most people were interested and open minded, eager even, to learn about it. After a pre-opera homework assignment, which I used to see what, if anything, they knew and thought about opera, we began. I started by showing the Gilligan's Island episode, The Producer. (That's the one where they perform Hamlet-the Musical.) Two of the melodies are actually from the opera, Carmen. Then we watched those 2 songs from the opera itself. My patients were hooked. Since then we've had two more meetings-watching Act 1, then Act 2 of Carmen, starring Jonas Kaufmann with Anna Caterina Antonacci in the title role. I'm thrilled as my group loves it! They are soooo in to it. One is mad at Don José, "How could he leave Micaëla for Carmen? Carmen makes him do bad things". Another is trying to figure out if Escamillo is a bad guy (whereupon another patient commented that Carmen was a bad girl) and that if Carmen leaves Don José for Escamillo, Don José "will be really angry". I can't wait til Monday, when we'll watch Acts 3 & 4. I can't wait to see their reactions!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Opera!

I'm preparing for my group-tonight we will have our first session about opera! Hopefully, I can find a DVD player as I wish to show the Gilligan's Island episode-The Producer. In it they put on Hamlet-the musical, 2 of the songs happen to be from Bizet's opera Carmen. Then I will show those two songs as they really appear in Carmen. I'm looking forward to it-and hope the patients enjoy it as well.