Gloria Gaynor shows you how to wash your hands.
Communal Singing in Siena, Italy
Via Althouse, here is a video of people singing from their homes in Siena, as they’re all stuck apart from each other during the coronavirus outbreak:
Lovely. As reported by the Today Show, the song is “E mentre Siena dorme”, or “And While Siena Sleeps”.
Free Opera!
The Metropolitan Opera had to stop its live performances (it is the largest opera house in the world, after all), but starting on Monday, they’ll be providing free streaming recordings:
The new offering will begin on Monday, March 16 with the 2010 HD performance of Bizet’s Carmen, conducted by Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and starring Elīna Garanča in the title role and Roberto Alagna as Don José.
All “Nightly Met Opera Streams” will begin at 7:30pm and will remain available via the homepage of metopera.org for 20 hours. The homepage link will open the performance on the Met Opera on Demand streaming service. The performance will also be viewable on all Met Opera on Demand apps.
I am an opera fan, and I see they’re going to be running some of opera’s greatest hits, and most accessible operas, for the first week. On Monday, they’re running Carmen, which has a lot of very familiar music for many people:
I’m a Met Opera on Demand subscriber myself, and I’ve seen some of the specific recordings they’ll be playing.
Carmen (on Monday) and La Boheme (on Tuesday) are two of the most produced operas in the world, for good reason: they’re short (Carmen is 2 hours, 46 minutes; La Boheme is 2 hours, 16 minutes for the specific recordings), they’ve got memorable music and lots of DRAMA!
If you want something funny, watch on Friday, March 20: Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment — it has two of the best bel canto singers, Natalie Dessay (now retired) and Juan Diego Florez. The opera is only 2 hours 20 minutes, and it’s got some beautiful singing as well as a lot of funny bits. Yes, you can turn on subtitles.
If Rock is More Your Speed…
Have some.
See y’all! Keep well!