Defending the 12th century since the 14th; blogging since the 21st.

Catholicism, Conservatism, the Middle Ages, Opera, and Historical and Literary Objets d'Art blogged by a suburban dad who teaches law and writes stuff.


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Who was Cacciaguida? See Dante's PARADISO, Cantos XV, XVI, & XVII.


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Just found the following here; you may have to be a Facebook member to open it, but f. that, I'll just copy it here [I've added composers' names and full opera titles]:

IF HE'S DEAD HE CAN'T SAY NO: OPERA TAUGHT ME HOW TO DATE

"Don't date guys with baggage" (Bartok, BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE)



a realistic set for BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE


"Listen to the rumors, especially if they're laid out in a convenient aria format." (Mozart, DON GIOVANNI). Alternatively, "Spanish chicks are easy. Come on, 1003?!"



Oren Gradus sings Leporello's "Catalogue Aria" in DON GIOVANNI at Houston Grand Opera. (No clue who his Donna Elvira is. Reader challenge?)


"He'll regret rejecting you someday. Seriously." (Tchaikovsky, EUGENE ONEGIN)

"All an uptight guy needs is to get trashed" (Britten, ALBERT HERRING)

"Stay away from religious authorities." (Floyd, SUSANNAH) [to which I'd add: "Religious authorities: don't make house calls."]

"Sometimes you should just thaw out and let him kiss you before some innocent bystander gets killed." (Puccini, TURANDOT)

"Hookers, don't give discounts: you never know who's secretly Jack the Ripper." (Berg, LULU)

"Don't have sex with anyone. EVER." (Wagner, PARSIFAL)



Grail temple, from premiere production of PARSIFAL, Bayreuth, 1882. Pay to play?


"Stay innocent and out of your fiance's family's business, and everything will turn out okay." (Puccini, GIANNI SCHICCHI)

"Go for the old woman. Sometimes she's hot." (Mozart, THE MAGIC FLUTE)

"Love your woman even though she's fickle and unfaithful like all women." (Mozart, COSÍ FAN TUTTE)

"Be SURE you know his or her gender, if that sort of thing is important to you." (Beethoven, FIDELIO)

"Stay the f___ away from tenors. I mean, seriously. (Verdi, RIGOLETTO)



Anna Netrebko as Gilda, and Piotr Beczla (a known tenor!) as the Duke, in RIGOLETTO


"The hot ones are always crazy." (Donizetti, LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR; Bellini, I PURITANI; Bizet, CARMEN)

"If he's dead he can't say no." (Strauss, SALOME)



Cheryl Barker as Salome, English National Opera, 2005


"Consumption is sexy." (Verdi, LA TRAVIATA; Puccini, LA BOHEME)

"Don't piss off the dramatic soprano. You will live to regret it, though probably only briefly." (DIE WALKURE, and most of the rest of Wagner)

Strauss, DER ROSENKAVALIER: "A fifteen year age difference is really too much."



Regine Crespin as the Marschallin, Elisabeth Soderstrom as Octavian



Handel, ALCINA: "Gender is meaningless."

BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE (alternative): "Just don't ask."

Monteverdi (or Gluck), ORFEO: omg don't look behind you...!"

BOHEME: "It is possible to be extremely shallow and have lots of people still like you."

Puccini, MADAMA BUTTERFLY: "Men suck. particularly American men."

"Seriously, dude, she's your sister" -- Wagner, DIE WALKURE



Volsung twins Siegmund (l) and Sieglinde (r); in between, Hunding, not amused. Drawing by Arthur Rackham.


Verdi, DON CARLO -- "If your girlfriend marries your dad, it was never meant to be."

posted by Cacciaguida at 11:20 PM