Saul: "Like if you were on it, [the radio] I would listen to it."
Dale: "Thanks, man!"
Saul: "It's like when my bubbeh is always playing opera, I was like I hated it! But my bubbeh loves it... you know what I mean?"
Red: "And it grows on you..."
Saul: "Yeah..."
James Franco as Saul, Seth Rogan as Dale, Danny McBride as Red in Pineapple Express (2008).
Opera didn't so much grow on me, as leap on me and sink its fangs into my neck. I was a goner since that first afternoon after school when I played my parents' LP of Maria Callas singing Carmen.
This year, I'll see all the live opera I can, and a few Met HD broadcasts in the cinema. I watched them all last year, and that was too much... not that I begrudge the time, but I didn't like spending all those precious Saturday afternoons inside... I work too damn hard to spend weekend time tucked away like a mole. The last few were memorable: Juan Diego Florez welcoming the birth of his first child, 25 minutes before curtain up on Le Comte Ory; the battle of words versus music with Renée Fleming in the Met's super-stylish Capriccio; music to die for, or to, in Die Walküre (and lots of fun debating the new Met Ring); a hyper-romantic and Gothic Lucia di Lammermoor (oh, I know the Met released the Netrebko DVD a couple of years ago, but I pray they release the Dessay one too... that ending! that music! those wolfhounds!); and Trovatore with all its convoluted plot insanity and glorious music.
Just as instantly bewitching was my first Judd Apatow film experience, Bridesmaids (2011), in the cinema. That was followed in quick succession, either by DVD rentals or PVRd viewings of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Funny People and Pineapple Express. Funny, vulgar and immensely clever: I'm hooked.
Dale: "I go visit her in high school and all the guys she goes to school with are, like, strong and handsome and really, like, funny and do good impressions of Jeff Goldblum and shit like that. And, like, I just feel like a fat, dumb fuckin' stinky-ass turd when I'm there."
Saul: "What?"
Dale: "It sucks for my ego."
Saul: "Fuck Jeff Goldblum, man!"
James Franco as Saul, Seth Rogan as Dan, Danny McBride as Red in Pineapple Express (2008).
4 comments:
Opera and Apatow sounds like and interesting combination. I enjoy your passion for operas, but must say that I've never seen an Apatow movie. I'll have to look for one. They sound raucously hilarious : )
Are you sure it's your fingers brushing against those keys? But seriously, opera is good ...
Oh, Oh, Oh!
You've got to rent Walk Hard. If you can stomach vulgar stuff, you'll love it. It is so witty. Yet it bombed at the box office. John C. Reilly is like Zelig and can adapt to any musical genre. He does his own singing too.
LadyCat: Let me know what you think if you try one!
Dr. S: I find opera very hit and miss, but when it HITS, it's like nothing else... that's why I keep coming back for more, for that rare fix of fabulousness.
Hazel: OH! I remember hearing about this. Ok, I'll get on this... stat!
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