The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is an opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. The story concerns a city, Mahagonny, that is centered around whiskey, women, and money. There are two pictures below. One is of the city in full-swing, with women being bartered over. The other is of the city after a major hurricane.






You can listen to the recording of the opera here. You can read more about the opera here.

L'Orfeo

L'Orfeo is a retelling of the classic story of Orpheus, and is one of the earliest known operas. The scene below is the hallmark of the story - Orpheus leading Euridice out of the Underworld, not (yet) looking back.




You can learn more about the opera here.

You can listen to the recording here.

The Queen of Spades

This Tchaikovsky opera opens with a scene in a park where children pretend to be soldiers before the actual soldiers walk in. Here it is in Legos.




You can learn more about this opera here.

You can listen to the broadcast here.

The Rake's Progress

In Act 2 of this opera by Stravinsky, the hero, Tom Rakewell, throws his wig at his wife, a bearded lady. I couldn't make this stuff up.




Learn more about the opera here.

Listen to the recording here.

I Puritani

On Friday, May 21, Mr. Bianco played Bellini's I Puritani. The opera is set in a fort during the English Civil War in the 1640s. Here is a recreation from the second act, where Giorgio talks about Elvira having gone mad. NOTE: In all dramatic operas, if the soprano does not die, she will certainly go mad.


You can listen to the broadcast here. You can learn more about the opera here.

Pagliacci

The Lego recreation below echoes (palely) my memory of Placido Domingo singing Pagliacci at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles in the 1990s. He sang in front of his caravan, dressed as a clown, with a heartbreaking aria of pain and betrayal.



You can read about the opera here.

You can listen to the Friday night broadcast here.

Martha

This was one of the operas broadcast on April 2, 2010. You can listen to the recording here. You can read about the opera here. Below is my lego rendition of Martha and Julia complaining about their work on the farm, as the brothers Plunkett and Lyonel look on. I was glad to be able to use my lego cattle in an opera.