The Final Blog? (so sad)

It’s truly fascinating to me how much opera is being used and imitated to sell products, and not just for luxury items as one might think, but for loans, showers, pasta sauces and milk. Opera has been used to make tomato sauce appear more authentically Italian, a shower more luxurious, and a loan jingle that stays in our heads and make us laugh. I have to say, I think these were pretty effective uses, especially the spaghetti sauce commercials which I absolutely love. I’m a sucker for opera and Italian cuisine!

I also enjoyed the opera clips we watched of Repo the Genetic Opera, The Wrath of Khan and Milkquarious. Whether some of these were actually opera or rock opera isn’t really the point, although I would go with rock opera, (with the exception of The Wrath of Khan). I just like the fact that opera is getting out there more. The clips that sort of made fun of opera were even funny to me. However, had I felt that they were being disrespectful and malicious, I would have felt very differently, but sometimes you just have to laugh; especially in the clip from Robot Chicken.

I love opera, but I have to admit that there are times when I find it just so utterly ridiculous and over the top that I have to laugh. Opera can be funny, and it can be an easy target, but I think that that can be said of many different art forms. Paintings, ballet, interpretive dance, movies, TV shows; all of these things can be genuinely funny or easily parodied. I just hope that when opera is parodied or used in a commercial or movie, that act helps expose more people to this art form, and that they are able to see beyond the humor and beyond the luxury shower.

I know that for me, before really being exposed to opera, I used to think of it as this ultra serious snobby musical style where people just sang strangely and acted poorly. Now that I know more of the history of opera, I’ve actually invested some time in listening and watching opera, I’m in love with it and I think opera is beautiful. If all of these parodies and commercials can spark some interest and encourage people to explore opera deeper than what is just on the surface, more and more people may find that they too can appreciate all that opera has to offer.