Karaoke Goes Opera
Attention budding Divas and Maestros, Karaoke has Gone Opera. For those of us in the karaoke community that have the lung capacity for it, several companies have been offering karaoke tracks from various classical operas such as Carmen and Phantom of the Opera. But this kind of karaoke is not for the faint-hearted or the tender-voiced. Many of the advertisements for these CDG’s tout their use as a practice tool for budding music students or classical music teachers. Unlike regular karaoke music packages, these CD’s come with background information from the original play that the music is a part of so that the singer can understand the context of the lyrics and the tone in which to deliver them. In opera, songs are called “Arias” and the discs are generally separated into male and female categories because of the key they must be sung in such as “baritone” for men and “soprano” for women. Yet another clue that these CD’s are for the serious singers; these operas are in their original language, whoops. Definitely not for the casual karaoker (yes I coined a new word, deal with it) but they do provide English translations.
Now lets just say you have a good ear and you decide to impress the ladies and sing a nice Italian opera. You pick a popular one like Carmina Burana. Nearly everyone has heard the classical track “O Fortuna,” that’s the big song you hear in the trailer for lots of big budget, action-oriented period films set in the medieval era, such as “Excalibur.” Anyway, if you did sing it, the lyrics – in latin- would be:
“Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, status malus, vana salus simper dissolubilis, obumbrata et velata michi quoque niteris; nunc per Iudum dorsum nudum fero tui sceleris.”
If you could pull it off, it would sound really cool and romantic, like a rustic love song, except if anyone in your adoring audience could translate that it would sound a lot like either your telling a woman off or you need antidepressants asap. Here’s the translation:
“Fate- monstrous and empty, you whirling wheel, you are malevolent, well-being is vain, and always fades to nothing, shadowed and veiled you plague me too; now through the game I bring my bare back to your villainy.”
Definitely not an audience pick-me-up. But for those of you who can pull it off you can find these karaoke CD’s at www.musicalconcepts.net or www.karaoke-opera.com. There is also an online “virtual coach” for budding classical singers at www.opera-karaoke.com.
