What’s Opera, Doc?

For those of you with unlimited time this summer be sure to watch the complete 11 disc set of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, parodied masterfully by Chuck Jones in “What’s Opera, Doc?” (see video below)

The MVCC Library has the complete Ring cycle, plus for your added viewing pleasure a DVD version of “The Making of the Ring” by Peter Weinberg, a documentary about Patrice Chéreau’s controversial centenary production of Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” produced at Bayreuth 1976-1980.

We have other great operas:

  • La Boheme: the tale of tragic love between Mimi and Rodolfo set in the Latin Quarter of Paris in 1830
  • Billy Budd: the story of the clash between the young, innocent sailor, Billy Budd, and his corrupt superior, Claggart;
  •  Madama Butterfly: a heart-rending story about a sweet-natured Japanese girl and the caddish American lieutenant who marries then deserts her;
  • The Marriage of Figaro:  a comic opera and continuation of the plot of The Barber of Seville, which recounts a single “day of madness” (la folle giornata) in the palace of the Count Almaviva near Seville, Spain;
  • La Traviata: The story of a beautiful courtesan dying of consumption and her love for a poor nobleman;
  • Macbeth: the first of Verdi’s Shakespearean operas about the manipulative wife whose desire to gain the Scottish throne drives her husband to murder and leaves both with blood on their hands;
  • Trollflöjten (The Magic Flute): an opera by Mozart, in which a handsome young man is enlisted to rescue the Queen of Night’s daughter from an evil sorcerer.

Find them in the online catalog.

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