The Aria of Prince Algorino

NY Times ^ | June 17, 2008 | JOHN TIERNEY

[neverdem]

Viktor Koen

Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” first a film and then a book, is becoming an opera. Officials of La Scala in Milan say the Italian composer Giorgio Battistelli has been commissioned to write it for the 2011 season, The Associated Press reported.

Dear Mr. Gore,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on my draft of “Verità Inconveniente.” Rest assured that I and the management of La Scala are committed to a serious presentation of your scientific work. I will try to adopt some of your suggestions, but I hope you appreciate the constraints faced by the composer of an opera that is already five hours long.

I agree it would “round out the résumé” of Prince Algorino in the opening scene if he were to sing about his creation of a communications network. But the “Mio magnifico Internet” aria you propose seems to me a distraction — and frankly out of place in an 18th-century Tuscan village. I believe the peasants’ choral celebration of Prince Algorino’s wisdom suffices to establish his virtues.

I will ask our technicians about the feasibility of producing “stinky smoke” to accompany the entrance of Petroleo, but it may be unnecessary. Doesn’t the wizard’s evilness become obvious once he beguiles the Minemaidens into relinquishing their buried treasure? (Note: I will try changing “treasure” to “fossil fuels,” but it will not be an easy rhyme.)

Perhaps, as you complain, Petroleo does exude a certain glamour in his patter song promising magic lanterns and horseless carriages and flying machines. But when he seduces the chief Minemaiden, the music darkens with a menacing crescendo as they embrace, singing “Combustione! Combustione!” There is no mistaking the unholiness of their union, nor its catastrophic consequence once their daughter Carbonia is born.

I grant you it would...

[neverdem]

He misses doing satire. I wonder if he'll resume doing OpEds?

[Slings and Arrows]

And now, with a response to this editorial, Adam Sandler.

[bruinbirdman]

The NYSlime is of course slow to advertise Al Gorbeschev these days.

An Inconvenient Truth The Opera 06/02/2008 12:42:01 PM PDT

No Joke: An Inconvenient Truth — The Opera 05/29/2008 6:11:11 PM PDT

yitbos

[stravinskyrules]

I think it’s time I wrote an opera glorifying GWB....just to be an anti-establishment radical.

[Fred Nerks]

I don’t share your fear that audiences will expect Prince Algorino to “offset his travel footprint,” so I don’t see the need for the tree-planting scene you suggest. Once the Weather Seer has explained Poseidon’s passion and shown him the rising seas, Algorino should immediately rush back to save Gaia. And why, with his lover in peril, would he pause en route to rescue a drowning polar bear?

[jellybean]

The link from that thread (An Inconvenient Truth The Opera 06/02/2008 12:42:01 PM PDT) no longer works. Here's the YouTube video.

[rod1]

So the Goracle is worried whether the opera will be sufficiently true to his storyline and flick!. Well how about the fourth act the earth heats up too much and the stage, sets and La Scala theater burn down.
Then lightening stikes the AC and Inter Milan stadia and they burn down as well.

That might cover his concerns and no doubt endear him to the locals.

[SueRae]

Al Gore, the musical?

Methinks these clowns need to put the straw back down on the mirror.

[Humble Servant]

Jeez, I thought it was Scrappleface.

Well, Scrappleface, NYT...

same thing, without the sense of humor.

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[neverdem]

Jeez, I thought it was Scrappleface.

Well, Scrappleface, NYT...

same thing, without the sense of humor.

It's not the easiest subject for satire. IMHO, this is the author's best satire:

Recycling Is Garbage

[xcamel]

Soylent Green is People too...

[SunkenCiv]

:’D Thanks Fred.

[dighton]

Opera Historians Unearth “Scumbaggio,” Lost Verdi Masterpiece

[antonia]

And why, with his lover in peril, would he pause en route to rescue a drowning polar bear?

Because AlGore is a slave to the 'enviromentalist', with its smug hedonism, short attention span and hunger for the newest trend.