Oh, those 3 stoogies and their madcap antics. In their short film, Micro-Phonies (1945), Moe, Curly and Larry encounter a pretty aspiring opera singer while working at a radio station. Curly later gets mistaken for the soprano by a talent scout as the trio were messing about in a recording studio.
To keep up with the charade, a cross-dressing Curly aka Señorita Cucaracha has to sing or should I say, lip synch at a posh dinner party. And the record The 3 Stooges choose to lip synch to? None other than the Lucia di Lammermoor sextet, "Chi mi frena in tal momento" or as they call it "Sextet from Lucy."
Fast forward to 2:10 for the hilarity.
To hear the non-Stooges version, press play:
Or even better, hear it sung live by Eglise Gutiérrez, Michael Fabiano, Gregory Dahl, Thomas Macleay, Burak Bilgili and Dionne Sellinger at the final performance of Lucia di Lammermoor tomorrow night.
Today is our last summer Friday here at work so let's go out with a bang.
Remember Austrian musician Falco from the 80s? He gave the world such memorable hits as Der Kommissar, Vienna Calling and of course, Rock Me Amadeus, which he was inspired to write after watching the 1984 biopic, Amadeus, starring Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham.
Rock Me Amadeus became a #1 hit all over the world, even though the song was sung in German.
Like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Falco was a child prodigy. When he auditioned for the Vienna Music Academy at the age of 5, it was discovered that the wunderkind had perfect pitch.
Similarly like Mozart, Falco met his untimely end way too soon. In 1998, just weeks before his 41st birthday, Falco was involved in a fatal bus collision in the Dominican Republic. Mozart was just 35 when he died.
However, their music lives on, so here's something to kick-start the weekend.
Before the internet came along, unless you were German, you may not have understood what Falco was singing about, save for the "Rock Me Amadeus" part. (I know I didn't)
So here's the English translation of the song about Mozart, his "punk-rock rebelness" and the effect he had on the world.
Rock me rock me rock me rock me Amadeus Rock me all the time to the top
He was a Punker And he lived in the big city It was Vienna, was Vienna Where he did everything He had debts, for he drank But all the women loved him And each one shouted: Come on and rock me Amadeus
He was Superstar He was so popular He was so eccentric Because he had flair He was a virtuoso Was a rock idol And everyone shouted: Come on and rock me Amadeus
Come on and rock me Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus, Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus, Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus, oh oh oh Amadeus
It was around 1780 And it was in Vienna No plastic money anymore The banks against him Everybody knew Where the liabilities came from He was a man of women Women loved his punk
He was Superstar He was so popular He was so eccentric Because he had flair He was a virtuoso Was a rock idol And everyone shouted: Come on and rock me Amadeus
Who here has already seen the summer blockbuster, Inception? If you have, you've no doubt caught the scene-stealing Tom Hardy who plays Eames the forger in the Christopher Nolan movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Tom Hardy may have propelled himself to Hollywood's A-list with that break-out role but he already proved he's quite the acting powerhouse with last year's British film, Charles Bronson. Hardy is nearly unrecognizable, but his compelling portrayal as Bronson injected much humanity into a film about England's most notorious prisoner.
At the age of 19, Charles Bronson robbed a post office and got sentenced to 7 years in jail. His sentence was repeatedly extended due to his "loose cannon" behaviour and several hostage-taking incidents that he instigated. Bronson found himself in and out of various prisons and psychiatric hospitals for the next 30 years, 26 of which were spent in solitary confinement.
The film is uber-violent and humorous in that "A Clockwork Orange for the 21st century" way. As a further homage to Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, Bronson director Brent Meeske used operatic music in several integral scenes. Unlike A Clockwork Orange with only Rossini's The Thieving Magpie and William Tell Overture as its main operatic pieces, the Bronson soundtrack featured many different opera composers.
The soundtrack is not ALL opera though. There is a track from New Order and also one from Pet Shop Boys. And can I say, you'll never think of It's A Sin the same way again after watching this movie.
My friend wanted to buy a ticket to The Marriage of Figaro because he wanted to hear that famous song with that famous line "Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro....Fiiii-ga-roooooo!"
He, of course, remembered hearing that song in various cartoons growing up:
I had to stop him in his tracks to tell him that the song he was referring to was Largo Al Factotum, which is actually from Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville.
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais wrote a trilogy of stories that featured the character Figaro: Le Barbier de Séville (The Barber of Seville), Le Mariage de Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) and La Mère coupable (The Guilty Mother).
W.A. Mozart, along with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, made an opera out of Beaumarchais' comedy, The Marriage of Figaro. Rossini and librettist Cesare Sterbini, on the other hand, made an opera out of The Barber of Seville.
A common mistake.
Slightly confused, he wondered if he heard anything from The Marriage of Figaro before.
If he had seen Shawshank Redemption, the answer would be yes. Sull'aria Che soave zeffiretto from Act III of The Marriage of Figaro was used in the 1994 film, which starred Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.
Tim Robbins' character, Andy, locks himself in the prison warden's office and inspires his cellmates by playing Mozart over the prison's PA system. A little humanity in an inhumane place. This lyrical act of defiance was the iconic moment of the movie.
My Figaro-curious friend would also have heard Mozart in Trading Places (1983), The Last Action Hero (1993), The Whole Ten Yards (2004) and Wedding Crashers (2005). All of these movies include snippets from the overture of The Marriage of Figaro. Sometimes it's quite obvious, like in the entire opening credits of Trading Places, whereas you can barely hear it in Wedding Crashers, during the church scene with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.
Clockwise from top left: The Whole Ten Yards, Wedding Crashers, The Last Action Hero, Trading Places
More recently, it was used in last year's hit movie, Zombieland. Forty-three minutes into Zombieland, The Marriage of Figaro, K.492 Overture can be heard as the four main characters decimate an Indian trading post. The quartet wreck havoc on headdresses, cowboy hats, tchotchkes, turquoise jewellery, shelving and windows; a result of pent-up frustrations from living so long in a zombified world.
And as Mozart's overture comes to a sweet end, you'll hear the main character, Columbus, telling us to "Enjoy the little things, even if that means destroying a whole lot of little things."
