Opera

opera

i like it. using it for a few months. "unexpectedly quits" now and again(3 times a month) has limited ability to deal with java stuff. i won't be going back to netscape or explorer. opera is now in version 5.0b5. it will only get better.

Opera isn't bad...

Opera is NOT the World's fastest browser on OS X, but it's usable, faster than Omniweb, and I'm not sure about IE.
I use IE right now, but it is only because i need to use the internet scrapbook feature.. I'm on analog modem connection, so I've gotta be able to read the pages later.
Other than that, I would recommend Opera! iCab is pretty good too, and I hear some good things about Mozilla, not much good info about Netscape 6 though..

I have a TiBook 667 and it is FANTASTIC! I had a iBook 500, but NO COMPARISON in speed. I do some iMovie rendering etc. so the G4 really helps!

i love opera

i am a big fan of placido domingo and his ability to do operas in several languages

i am torn between liking the italian operas (with the inclusion of mozart's great pieces) and richard wagner's "the ring"

and just when i was pondering the passion of the italian operas versus the gigantic scope of richard wagner's 4 opera masterpiece, along comes bizet's "carmen" in french and as hot as they come

sensual to say the least

wait, am i on topic?

placido is so off his game!

i just haven't been moved by anyone lately. (as for leading a performance)

as for composers-- you can't go wrong with mozart or puccini though tchakovski has a subtle melodic sense that i find compelling. and wagner can move a subwoofer like nobody's business.

and PLEASE- no andrew lloyd weber-thats just chewing gum for the ears!

btw, i think everyone else is off-topic.....

lloyd webber is not opera for one.

our school is actually doing the magic flute (mozart) this week and its going to be amazing as always. we have pretty much hands down the best operatic undergraduate voice program in the nation.

as for wagner, i refuse to listen to him as he was one of the most prolific nazi sympathizers of his time and was a founding philosopher of the Final Solution. personal politics is not something i usually agree with bringing into music, but genocide is beyond where i draw the line.

Don't forget the French! Bizet's Carmen is a classic...

I have to say that one of my favorite arias for the tenors is Nessun Dorma. The versions on the first "3 Tenors" disc are amazing!

thanks for the background

i wasn't aware of the nazi connection. and i do believe politics and music can be associated. nothing exists in a vacuum ( and only a person in a vacuum believes it does).

and i know alw isn't opera but it is talked about and likened to often-which infuriates me. and if i have to see sarah brightman ever again with her big photo-shop eyes and scary little doll hands...now i've done it-nightmares tonite for sure.

lol sara brightman. isnt she a character?? i hate her voice, altho she was passable in phantom.

Re: thanks for the background

Originally posted by 3rdpath
i wasn't aware of the nazi connection. and i do believe politics and music can be associated. nothing exists in a vacuum ( and only a person in a vacuum believes it does).

and i know alw isn't opera but it is talked about and likened to often-which infuriates me. and if i have to see sarah brightman ever again with her big photo-shop eyes and scary little doll hands...now i've done it-nightmares tonite for sure.

Click to expand...

wagner and the nazis?

richard wagner died in the 1880s...the nazis came along well into the 20th century and gained some power and recognition in 1933

was wagner anti-semitic? unfortunately yes
was he a womanizer? unfortunately yes
did he betray his friends? he stole his conductor's wife and at the same time stole his best friend's extremely young daughter and somehow, his conductor and his friend both eventually forgave him

without his conductor or his mentor, franz liszt, a jew, wagner would not have been able to get off the ground

of the two students of wagner, one of them gustav mahler, was also a jew

wagner hated christians but ironically, he became a bhuddist near the end of his life

one of wagner's sons' wives, a british lady, became adolph hitler's lover during world war two...many years after wagner's death

so wagner was not a nazi anymore than george washington, a virginian who died in 1799, fought for the south in the civil war (1861-65)

wagner was still a major league jerk though, but a great operatic composer highly regarded as the greatest next to verdi (who wagner tried to emulate in his early days along with the other italian operatic composers)...though the languages are different, the musical stylings of the italian and german operas are actually very similar