Music Monday: Opera

I love opera. It moves me so that I become a jiggly mass of Jello.
I love those soprano arias and long to do it myself. I'm ready to take on voice lessons everytime I hear Renee Flemming and her ilk raise soaring notes to the heavens.
I've been listening to an opera-based station on Pandora and I have learned a few minor things...

• Pavarotti really is amazing. Not just a parody of the typical tenor, he is the tenor.

• Puccini is quite recognizable the more you get to know his work. It begins to stand out in a crowd (La Boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly)


• Turandot is an opera I have to see. I heard of it first from reading a children's book of the same title. Nessun Dorma (lyrics translation following) should be listened to after reading the book. It floors me.

Nobody shall sleep!...
Nobody shall sleep!
Even you, o Princess,
in your cold room,
watch the stars,
that tremble with love and with hope.
But my secret is hidden within me,
my name no one shall know...
No!...No!...
On your mouth I will tell it when the light shines.
And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine!...
(No one will know his name and we must, alas, die.)
Vanish, o night!
Set, stars! Set, stars!
At dawn, I will win! I will win! I will win!