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Goodbye Jesus

If You Haven't Seen This Yet


Vigile

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It's pretty hard to miss with that dramatic Puccini aria from Turandot (Nessun dorma!). This is quite a different animal from the typical pop music fare of the American Idol world. It inspires me to put the whole opera on when I get home. I've got the Sutherland/Pavarotti performance on vinyl. It's breathtaking. I'll open all my windows and crank it up loud so the whole neighborhood can hear it. I'm positive they'll love all love me for sharing. :HappyCry:

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I saw that a couple days ago... I cried my eyes out (I was in PMS). I really hope that guy can quit his other job. :) He looked somewhat insecure... but calm. I hope he got an ego boost that day.

 

The looks on the judges faces are priceless. He sure showed them! I love to see Simon and that other guy humbled. ;)

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And anyone see the little 6 year old girl too? Also incredible. Never heard "somewhere over the rainbow" sung that good, ever.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSBmq0Zerow

 

And here's a better quality clip of Paul Potts, the opera singer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEUGivP8ZOc...ted&search=

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I'm not usually much of an opera fan, but that was awesome! Glory!

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Paul Potts got to semi final. Yet another awesome video Time to say goodbye:

 

It doesn't seem like the girl made it to the semi finals. :(

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I can't find info about the show. Does anyone have a link? I would like to see if he got into the finals.

 

Strange, I googled British Idol and only got a lot of unrelated hits.

 

*Edit* Found it. The show is called "Got Talent?"

 

He made it through to the final

 

http://talent.itv.com/page.asp?partid=329

 

Now there's a controversy, but it seems like the spin mongers have blown it out of proportion:

 

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2001320...7270918,00.html

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Correction. The show is called Britain's Got Talent.

 

We got the same show in US, (slightly modified), called (of course) America's Got Talent.

 

One of the judges, Pierce (the guy to the left), is also a judge for the American show, and he's usually the rough, obnoxious, guy that is the hardest to impress.

 

And the talents so far in the US... not as impressive as the British. The only guy I though was pretty fun and good to listen to was a sax player that also danced while playing, from the first audition.

 

-edit-

 

Thanks Vig for the link. The story doesn't surprise me one bit. I already guessed that he had had professional training, but never really had a break. It's like in the show You Thing You Can Dance, most of the competitors have gone to classes, training and some even do dance semi-professional, but they never made it to the big stardom. I know that probably 80% of the competitors in last years Americas Talent were semi-professional, for instance the second place was taken by the Miller Brothers that play in night clubs, and done so for many years. That Paul went to an expensive class, and even got the chance of singing with Pavarotti, doesn't make him a stage-solo-opera-star-professional. So I think he still deserves the place. The problem though is that there should be full disclosure of each contestants backgrounds and training in the area, maybe they should change that to next year?

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The problem though is that there should be full disclosure of each contestants backgrounds and training in the area, maybe they should change that to next year?

Yeah, but the problem with that is that shows like this have appeal because it’s the whole Cinderella theme. You talk about reality behind it, you know "hard work", things like that, and it doesn't appeal to the dreams of people seeing an average "one of us" guys shooting up to stardom. The guy isn't a pro. He's had training and ton's of potential, and very good at this stage, but he certainly has room to grow yet. He's not a pro yet. Listen to a recording of Pavarotti singing that Puccini aria to hear that level of power. Only a brief sample but give it a quick listen: http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/wma-pop-up/...1922023-0958243

 

Nevertheless, he's still very good and it's great to see the general population exposed to classical genera of music. It's a whole world of serious art and talent that you won't hear on the pop commercial radio much, and it's a shame people miss out on something so powerful. It's great to see people respond to it like this. Although, honestly I think the sparkler shower behind him during the aria was totally stupid and obnoxious. That music doesn't need their help! Producers! Shit, let the music stand on its own. It can handle it.

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I agree Antler, the guy isn't a pro yet, but I do think there would be less of upset viewers (which could lead to people boycotting the show) if they had a little info-piece before each contestant that really did let you know if they had some formal training and maybe even done some semi-pro performance. They do that in the You Think You Can Dance show, and no one has a problem with it. It only gives the viewer (and voter) a better chance of making up their mind. Right now, it is a bit unfair, because the trained upper-comer has a much better chance than the natural and non-trained talent. Since this is not an issue to do in other shows, then I don't see why it couldn't be done in this one too. After all, the show is fairly new so they have some modifications to do still.

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He's not a pro yet.

 

When I lived in Italy I was friends with an American girl who was also an aspiring opera singer. I'm not sure she was as good as Potts, but she was very, very good. During my stay some of her friends were able to arrange for her to sing in a church in Moncaliari (a very old church in a very old village in the Piemonte region). The church packed out with about 100 people who came to hear her sing. I was blown away by her performance, but many of the comments from the Italians made essentially were that she had a great deal of raw talent, but that it would take at least 10-15 years of hard training before she had a chance to compete for a position in one of Italy's opera houses. Even with the hard work there was no guarantee.

 

 

As for the controversy, I think that article overblows it. If you read down to the bottom you get the impression that he spent his life savings to go to a two week opera camp. It's not as if he was a student at Julliard. In my mind, this really is a Cindarella story.

 

One thing this guy really seems to have is the ability to really get the crowd behind him. He is really a likeable, unassuming fellow. He may not be singing at La Scala any time soon, but he could build a small entertainment career in the UK out of this I think. More power to him.

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Agree Vig,

 

My points in the earliers posts were not to say that he didn't deserve to be in the competition, I truly do believe he is a "cinderella" just as much as many other "talents" in the show. Most of them (without us knowing it) either have gone to years of training and/or are doing performances on the side. Like the little girl, it wouldn't surprise me if she actually have a song teacher with her mom behind her. She got a beautiful voice and she will (if she pursue it) have a career in music, but I believe she got trained too.

 

And furthermore, in todays show-biz, the only way to make it up to the top is to be seen and heard. I suspect that he has tried to get into the real opera, but probably can't make the cut in the audition because the competition there is much better (and not saying that he's good already). This is the venue a person like he has to take to get the recognition and hopefully get booked and do more performances and that way become a professional. It's cut-throat biz, and he's doing the right thing. He still would get my vote, even knowing a bit more about his background.

 

One of my sons played with the school orchestra at Carnegie Hall in April this year, but that doesn't make him a professional.

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I suspect that he has tried to get into the real opera, but probably can't make the cut in the audition because the competition there is much better

 

Yeah, I believe that the route it takes to make it in that business is open only to those with elite connections. Hopefully this exposure will give him the boost he needs to get into the training programs he needs that will put him on the track toward a professional career.

 

And I agree about the young girl. I'm sure it takes professional training to gain that kind of voice control. So what? Even with professional training, probably only 1 in 10M kids her age could do what she did. Perhaps only 1 in 50M.

 

 

And Antlerman, BTW, we were so inspired that we went out and bought the Turandot cd w/Domingo today. Thanks for letting us know where the aria was from. :thanks:

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So very true Vig,

 

I can see that shows like these can have a great impact on culture by providing new view on old arts. Now people, like you, will pick up a couple of CDs and realize there is a whole world of music they refused to listen to before, and now can see (and hear) and enjoy.

 

And you're right, what the girl - Connie - did, is something very few can do, including grown up and professional singers. I don't remember which one, but I heard once about one of these famous singers (on the level of Aguilera etc) that just couldn't hold a note, and definitely never could sing anything a capella, so having a six years old doing it... amazing quality. That is a natural talent, even with training, and the same goes for Paul. You just can't get that voice even with training, you have to have a natural gift to start with, and training will only perfect it.

 

Honestly, I'm a bit bummed that we can't see the British show here.

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And Antlerman, BTW, we were so inspired that we went out and bought the Turandot cd w/Domingo today. Thanks for letting us know where the aria was from. :thanks:

No problem. See what I mean how cool it is that something like this exposes people to that world of classical music? I wonder how many others are out buying opera's now from this? If nothing else, just getting an album of arias are a good place to start. You really can't go wrong with an album of just Puccini arias. :wub: I have around 250 LP's of clasical music, but only that one full Puccini opera. A sad fact I will need to correct shortly.

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I used to listen to classical music a long time ago, and I have some 100 CD stashed away. But not many arias or opera. I've been thinking about bringing the out again, and get some more good stuff.

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I used to listen to classical music a long time ago, and I have some 100 CD stashed away. But not many arias or opera. I've been thinking about bringing the out again, and get some more good stuff.

Who are your favorite composers?

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Favorite? A bunch of them:

 

JS Bach - some amazing music there, even the religious inspired ones. If I remember right Ave Maria is amazing. Toccata und Fuge in D-minor! Yeah, I love that one!

 

Vivaldi - many different pieces, 4 seasons is high up there of course, I think Winter (or maybe Fall) is the best of them, but they're all good.

 

Antonin Dvorak, especially Symp#9, From the New World ... the first piece in my life that totally blew my mind away, especially the last movement. There's a section there that is just awesome. But I don't like every conductors or orchestras interpretation. I have to check my collection to find the one that is best.

 

Carl Orff - esp. Carmina Burana of course.

 

Sibelius - Finaldia (I have a funny story about this one, I explain at the end of this post)

 

Grieg - Conc. in A minor, but I nowdays I don't like the Per Gynt suites as much, I listened my ears to death on those.

 

Tchaikovsky (had to look up his name, because I can never spell it right)

 

hum... I can't remember them all at the moment, they will probably jump up in my head later today.

 

(Sorry to say, but I'm not a big fan of Mozart. I don't know why, maybe most of his music -not all- sounds too much alike.)

 

It's very important with a good recording to enjoy classical, and a good headset or good speakers that can handle all the soft parts as well as the fortes.

 

 

 

My story about Sibelius and Finlandia is that in our very strict and extreme church there was an edict going out that classical music was of the Devil. But one day we sang one of the songs we had, and I realized a large part (the best part) of it was exactly measure by measure from Finlandia. Now, for anyone that doesn't know, Finlandia was written by Sibelius to give music to the pagan legends and myths about how Finland came to be. How the gods created it etc. So that was extremely mind boggling to me. Here we "outlawed" classical music, and we sing to a piece that was about pagan gods!!! Just one of those things that eventually penetrated my thick skull and made me realize how silly religion is.

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Sorry to say, but I'm not a big fan of Mozart.

 

That's hilarious, because when I read you liked Bach my reaction was "Ugh!" I just hate his music. OTH, I love Mozart. To each his own, right? :close:

 

BTW, Beethoven's 9th Symphony gives me as much energy and needs to be cranked just as loud as any long haired metal band ever has/needs to be.

 

A funny story about Beethoven. My best friend back in Idaho used to be an amazing guitar player (Jesus told him not to play anymore :angry: , long story). He used to metalize Beethoven and it sounded as good as anything Malmstein could compose (at least to my untrained ears). He used to drive around our small Idaho town with his windows down cranking Beethoven like it was a metal cd. It was so funny to see this young mexican kid cranking classical music in a small redneck town in Idaho. People would look at him like he was an alien.

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Sorry to say, but I'm not a big fan of Mozart.

 

That's hilarious, because when I read you liked Bach my reaction was "Ugh!" I just hate his music. OTH, I love Mozart. To each his own, right? :close:

Blah, you're one of those Mozart lovers?!... :HaHa: It's all cool, man.

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And Antlerman, BTW, we were so inspired that we went out and bought the Turandot cd w/Domingo today. Thanks for letting us know where the aria was from. :thanks:

No problem. See what I mean how cool it is that something like this exposes people to that world of classical music? I wonder how many others are out buying opera's now from this? If nothing else, just getting an album of arias are a good place to start. You really can't go wrong with an album of just Puccini arias. :wub: I have around 250 LP's of clasical music, but only that one full Puccini opera. A sad fact I will need to correct shortly.

 

And I'm ashamed to say that we have been living in the cultural capital of Russia for three years and have yet to attend an opera. There is no good excuse. We even live right in the center, so can walk to most theaters; including the Marinski. My last opera was Romeo and Juliet in Torino Italy. We've been to Swan Lake and a few theater productions, but no opera here. In any case, we will now be correcting this problem in short order. If my wife, a Russian citizen, buys the tickets, we can see any production in town for only $4 each.

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Favorite? A bunch of them:

I did ask, "who are your favorite composers" plural. :grin:

 

Yes J.S. Bach is always good. The mathematical precision, in some almost miraculous way speaks the language of patterns that humans respond to. No one else does that like Bach. I would probably call him the greatest composer of all time, as close to divine perfection as one can get.

 

However, that said, as much as I love Bach, Mozart is my first choice in listening pleasure. :HaHa: I can never get enough Mozart. Every weekend I go out record shopping for Vinyl and come home with yet another recording on the Deutsche Gammophon label (incredibly rich pressings of import vinyl). As I walk in to the house and greet my partner with another bag with albums in it, I say to her, "One can never have too much Mozart!" Every weekend she gets to hear that same line from me, over and over.

 

You are absolutely correct about the sound system and classical music. Ironically, my speakers I listen to my Mozart on are a pair of speakers hand made in, of all places, Vienna Austria, and of all things, the model of these are named, "Mozarts". (not the Mozart Grands, these are the better first generation Mozarts). Add to this, I'm playing them on a nice VPI Aries Scout turntable with a Sumiko Blackbird cartridge. Now, if you've never listened to Mozart like that before, you should! It will make a convert of you.

 

You might try listening to the various concertos of Mozart, like his Clarinet Concertos, his Bassoon Concertos, and his Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra. That's amongst my favorite Mozart recordings.

 

Beyond Mozart, I like the Piano works of Robert Schumann, the scores of Aaron Copland, Stravinsky, the Vivaldi Concerti for Mandolin, and his oboe concertos (Four Seasons has been overplayed and I can only handle in once in a great while), and going way back I like early music like Josquin des Pres and other early renaissance music.

 

My story about Sibelius and Finlandia is that in our very strict and extreme church there was an edict going out that classical music was of the Devil. But one day we sang one of the songs we had, and I realized a large part (the best part) of it was exactly measure by measure from Finlandia. Now, for anyone that doesn't know, Finlandia was written by Sibelius to give music to the pagan legends and myths about how Finland came to be. How the gods created it etc. So that was extremely mind boggling to me. Here we "outlawed" classical music, and we sing to a piece that was about pagan gods!!! Just one of those things that eventually penetrated my thick skull and made me realize how silly religion is.

 

 

That’s hilarious. It reminds me of when I was in Bible College, the president who had no knowledge of music had heard from the hype from those two brothers who went around bad-mouthing all rock music as Satanic, and the whole backwards masking nonsense, that rock music was bad because of it’s syncopated rhythms, that it draws out physical, sensual responses. So he announces that he did not want any music that was played in church to have any syncopation in it!!! :lmao:

 

The music director of the church confided to us that the president didn’t really know what he was talking about. You can’t have any music outside of something like a strict March, that doesn’t have syncopation in it. Even a little child-like melody the president had been given by Jesus in prayer one day, was full of syncopation. Like you, it was this sort of authoritative declarations of utter nonsense that made me realize these guys were nuts!

 

Ironically, it also occurred to me that while they were bad-mouthing a rock beat because of the physical responses it could invoke, they were stamping the floor in rhythm as they clapped their hands in pulsing time and sang over and over and over with everything they had in them “There is power, power, power, wonder-working power in the blood, of the lamb. Yes there is power, power, power….” All the while their rocking back and forth in a steady, totally sexual rhythm which built and built and built until they spewed forth in orgasmic fashion the sputtering of Holy Ghost tongues. Christ, it was a total fricking sex orgy, and he was worried about the power of a rock beat??? :twitch:

 

That was the beginning of the rapid end of my respect for them. :grin:

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And I'm ashamed to say that we have been living in the cultural capital of Russia for three years and have yet to attend an opera. There is no good excuse. We even live right in the center, so can walk to most theaters; including the Marinski. My last opera was Romeo and Juliet in Torino Italy. We've been to Swan Lake and a few theater productions, but no opera here. In any case, we will now be correcting this problem in short order. If my wife, a Russian citizen, buys the tickets, we can see any production in town for only $4 each.

 

Just discovered that Puccini's Madame Butterfly is playing at the Marinski. We will try and get tickets over the next week or two. There are also two Verdi operas showing in town at the moment. Any thoughts AM? Anyone?

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Yes J.S. Bach is always good. The mathematical precision, in some almost miraculous way speaks the language of patterns that humans respond to. No one else does that like Bach. I would probably call him the greatest composer of all time, as close to divine perfection as one can get.

You could say that again. :)

 

Bach was the Einstein of music. We wouldn't have tempered tuning without him.

 

You are absolutely correct about the sound system and classical music. Ironically, my speakers I listen to my Mozart on are a pair of speakers hand made in, of all places, Vienna Austria, and of all things, the model of these are named, "Mozarts". (not the Mozart Grands, these are the better first generation Mozarts). Add to this, I'm playing them on a nice VPI Aries Scout turntable with a Sumiko Blackbird cartridge. Now, if you've never listened to Mozart like that before, you should! It will make a convert of you.

Well, I'm not saying Mozart had some good pieces, it's just that it gives me the "shopping mall" feeling each time. I like music that challenges and dare you. For instance I like heavy metal and techno/trance/electronic. One musician that I listened to at the same time as classical was Jean Michelle Jarre. I consider that Electronic Classical. :) Nowadays I listen to a lot of modern trance, it's sometimes just as complex as classical.

 

A turntable and Deutche Grammophon, that's the way to go.

 

You might try listening to the various concertos of Mozart, like his Clarinet Concertos, his Bassoon Concertos, and his Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra. That's amongst my favorite Mozart recordings.

Maybe I should start listen again, and I could start there just to see if my old sentiment still is there or if I've changed. :)

 

Beyond Mozart, I like the Piano works of Robert Schumann, the scores of Aaron Copland, Stravinsky, the Vivaldi Concerti for Mandolin, and his oboe concertos (Four Seasons has been overplayed and I can only handle in once in a great while), and going way back I like early music like Josquin des Pres and other early renaissance music.

Schumann and Copland does ring a bell, but I can't say I know their works. I probably have heard them once or twice, I'll give them a try too. The Vivaldi Concerti I'm pretty sure I've listened to. Josquin des Pres? Never heard of... But I do like renaissance and baroque too. There's a lot of good stuff out there.

 

That’s hilarious. It reminds me of when I was in Bible College, the president who had no knowledge of music had heard from the hype from those two brothers who went around bad-mouthing all rock music as Satanic, and the whole backwards masking nonsense, that rock music was bad because of it’s syncopated rhythms, that it draws out physical, sensual responses. So he announces that he did not want any music that was played in church to have any syncopation in it!!! :lmao:

:HaHa: That is incredible!!! That sounds just like any of religious nutjobs that were in our church, or even one of my brothers would actually say something like that! That's scary. Maybe they should try some atonal music as well, since the key and harmony makes the music attractive.

 

The music director of the church confided to us that the president didn't really know what he was talking about. You can't have any music outside of something like a strict March, that doesn't have syncopation in it. Even a little child-like melody the president had been given by Jesus in prayer one day, was full of syncopation. Like you, it was this sort of authoritative declarations of utter nonsense that made me realize these guys were nuts!

 

Ironically, it also occurred to me that while they were bad-mouthing a rock beat because of the physical responses it could invoke, they were stamping the floor in rhythm as they clapped their hands in pulsing time and sang over and over and over with everything they had in them "There is power, power, power, wonder-working power in the blood, of the lamb. Yes there is power, power, power". All the while their rocking back and forth in a steady, totally sexual rhythm which built and built and built until they spewed forth in orgasmic fashion the sputtering of Holy Ghost tongues. Christ, it was a total fricking sex orgy, and he was worried about the power of a rock beat??? :twitch:

That's our old church, right there. :)

 

It's strange that I never realized this was the same behavior as the tribal hunting dances. Dance and sing until you reach the orgasmic trance and you'll feel the presence of the gods and their blessings.

 

That was the beginning of the rapid end of my respect for them. :grin:

So true. And they do all this in hope they do the "right thing" towards their god(s).

 

Oh, I remember, Dvorac Symp #9, conducted by Karajan and played by Vienna Phil. This is the CD which I consider the best of all time:

http://www.amazon.com/Dvor%C3%A1k-Symphoni...0144&sr=1-9

If you don't have it, you must get it. They released the CD 1993, but the vinyl is much older so the sound quality is maybe not 100%, but the emotions and power in this performance is beyond words. This is one of a few that I do feel like "spiritual". Everytime I listen to it I'm going into a different mind set. I heard it once live with Pacific Symph Orch and it was awesome, brought me to teary eyes, but that was only close to how I feel when I listen to this CD.

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