Spice Up the Summer Air with Five Spunky Fun Opera Arias

As the air heats up with the full force of summer, heavily dramatic arias are going down a bit stickier in my non-air-conditioned little room. Luckily, though, not all operas are about distraught emanciate pretty women getting dumped by her idiotic men and dying of consumption or tuberculosis or heartache or heart break or even exasperation (if only everyone can expire so conveniently in real life the psychologists wouldn't have a paying profession!) and there are many whimsical stories with bubbly arias around to inject some melodious breeze into the strifling (even when there isn't any politician around) hot air. Here are 5 lighthearted springy tunes from the opera that are frequenting my stereo play list at the moment (click on aria's name to go to a sample clip on Youtube):

1. 'Les oiseaux dans la charmille' (Olympia's Doll Song) from Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann:
"Les oiseaux dans la charmille ---- When the song birds
dans les cieux l'astre du jour, ---- and the stars overhead
toute parle à la jeune fille ---- all sing to a young lass
d'amour! Voila!-------------- about love! There!
La chanson gentille, voila! ---- A sultry song,
La chanson d'Olympia! Ha! --- A song of Olympia! Ha!"
This perky recital favorite of coloratura soprani is, aside from the famous Barcarolle, perhaps the best known bit of music from Jacques Offenbach's satirically dark operetta on the German author of fantasy and horror novels, E.T.A. Hoffmann. And if the lyrics seem nonsensical to you, well, it is!

The whole opera itself, to tell the truth, is intentionally absurd like the aria is (it pits mythicism against enlightenment). Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann is an odd musical where Hoffmann, finding himself stranded in a bar while waiting to ambush his beloved, tells 3 not-so-different tales (you can perhaps even call them parables) to his fellow drinkers - one for each of the opera's 3 acts. In the first, Hoffmann finds himself enamored with a flirty if rather dimwitted blond, Olympia, whose robotic nature only becomes apparent to our hero after she had danced herself to explosion. It's a rather weird end to a soprano, but hey, at least she (and the 1st flute) gets to dazzle the crowd before the big bang!

I'm not a big fan of the light coloratura soprano voice in general, but I must admit that this little tune is a guilty pleasure to me (especially when sung by Natalie Dessay or Edita Gruberova). It's a pretty good demonstration in how to use precise coloratura to mimic clueless pitch-finding idea-fumbling air-headedness... and it only really works when the singer gets that idea of what those notes represent rather than just uses the virtuoso passages to show off her vocal skills.

2. 'Papapageno!' from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute):
Operatic tunes don't come any catchier than this cute and cuddly little avianic duet from Mozart's Masonic opera, The Magic Flute. It is a fantastic opera with something for everyone. The drama-oriented serious folks among us would be more attached to the leading pair of Pamina and Prince Tamino, the more fun-oriented (and young ones) among us, though, would find the comedic supporting pair of Papageno and Papagena anything but resistible. If there was ever anyone who can turn a pair of suave and well feathered baritone and a slinkily rejuvinated soprano into a melodious pecking duel on the operatic stage without compromising what dignity they had managed to preserve through the course of the show, it was Wolfgang Mozart. Folksy and lovable, whimsical and yet spontaneously sophisticated... if you ever want to introduce anyone from a young tot to an aged boar to opera and have them begging to return, Mozart's The Magic Flute is your go-to show.

3. 'Son virgin vezzosa' from Bellini's I Puritani:
Vincenzo Bellini's operatic turn on the story of a snobbish and feisty clan of Puritans in the religiously turbulent 1800's has its lighter moment when Elvira Walton shows up at her own wedding in a splendid white gown singing this tune expressing how happy she is to be marrying her beloved Arturo... This being an opera, things will, of course, not turn out just the way she wants it. But for the moment our heroine gets to indulge herself a bit on a tweetingly happy tune. Isn't it cute how giddly the lass is? She hardly get to hold any full note in this thing without shaking or trilling it... a very tuneful way of being infectiously trembling in girlish delight.

4. 'È amore un ladroncello' from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte:
"E amore un ladroncello un serpentello é amor --- Love is just a thief and a little snake,
Ei toglie e dà la pace, come gli piace ai cor. --- that rattles your heart gently like a turtledove."
So says Dorabella, the flirtier of the two beautiful sisters anchoring Mozart and Da Ponte's operatic satire on the fragility of love (especially when the lovers are young and untried). Her and her sister's fiances hadn't been gone but for a whole day when she decided that fidelity is hazardous to her romantic health and sings this vivacious little tune justifying her decision to take up with the new Albanian wooer instead. It doesn't sound all that lovely on the paper, but have a listen to the sample clip and see if you can even manage to be mad at the spunky gal!

5. 'Largo al factotum' from Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville):
Figaro isn't just a barber in Seville, he is town's go-to man trouble shooter and match-maker who can literally speed talk himself out of any sticky situation... as testified by the speedy patter (fitting a lot of words into each sung note) taking up most of his entrance aria. If only the local barber here is as good at multi-tasking (the last time he tried that I nearly lost an ear) I wouldn't have such a good excuse for letting my hair grow out a lot longer than my mom would approve of!

There are many more adorable little chuckle-inducing tunes from the operatic music shelves, though these 5 ought to do to whet your appetite with. If you'd like to explore more into what opera has to offer, though, why not take a trip to the local library and see if the librarian couldn't find you some good recordings to sample for free. The library is also a good place to catch up on what the local area's classical ensembles are doing (some even give free concert there). You already paid for all the service with your tax!