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IanKennedy wrote: ↑Fri Jul 23, 2021 12:05 pm All of Futurama. Well not just today. Over the last few weeks... 127 episodes (including the 3 movies).

IanKennedy wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 12:53 pm Yesterday I watched: The Firth Element. Love pretty much everything about this film. The visuals are unique, the world is a grot bag (ok we've seen that before) but the clothing is out there (thanks to Jean Paul Gaultier mad costumes). Silly and tongue in cheek but still manages a good action vibe. Milla and Bruce play off well against each other. Ian Holm is good. Gary Oldman is perfect as a pure evil proxy for the big bad guy, even he manages some dark humour.

The Diva song is fantastic. The idea was to have an alien with a vocal range that would put any human to shame. The Diva is meant to be doing pretty much everything you hear. I'm not sure that comes across as well as it could. I always wonder what a professional would make of it.

IanKennedy wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 12:53 pm The Diva song is fantastic. The idea was to have an alien with a vocal range that would put any human to shame. The Diva is meant to be doing pretty much everything you hear. I'm not sure that comes across as well as it could. I always wonder what a professional would make of it.

T'Pau wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 11:34 pm

IanKennedy wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 12:53 pm The Diva song is fantastic. The idea was to have an alien with a vocal range that would put any human to shame. The Diva is meant to be doing pretty much everything you hear. I'm not sure that comes across as well as it could. I always wonder what a professional would make of it.

This is completely in my wheelhouse! I also love the film and it is a pure guilty pleasure re-watch whenever I can catch it. Some background before 'a professional' take on it:

Diva Plavalaguna was portrayed by the then-wife of the director Luc Beeson, Maiwen La Besco. The music was sung by Albanian opera singer Inva Mula-Tchako. As a lyric soprano, her voice has more weight than the lighter and more agile coloratura soprano. Mula does have a lovely upper extension which makes playing roles, such as Lucia de Lammermoor (from which the beginning of the song from the film originates) easier for her. So the first part of the singing is taken from Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor", and the second part was created by Eric Serra. He wanted something that would be 'un-singable' by a human voice. Mula was able to tackle 85% of what he believed was un-singable, and the rest was edited and voice-sampled mechanically. That is why it sounded the way it did.

Luc Beeson adored Maria Callas, but the sound qualities of the recordings from 1956 of her 'Lucia' were not clear enough to use in the film. Callas' former agent Michael Glotz who produced the original recording of Callas, introduced Beeson to the young Albanian singer Mula.

The first part of the song, is the aria "Il dolce suono" form Act III, scene 2 of the opera. Lucia is descending into madness, and on her wedding night, during the festivities, she stabs her new husband. She sings the aria covered in blood, and it is called the "Mad Scene". A couple of interesting parallels between the aria and the film are as follows:
"fuggita io son da' tuoi nemici", which translates to "I have escaped from your enemies"...The Diva got the stones for safe keeping after Leloo escaped the battle.
"Ogni piacer piu grato, mi fia conte divisa", which translates to "Let me share the greatest pleasure with you"...The Diva dies passing the stones to Corbin Dallas.

As a fan of the film, I understand why the decision was made to add the "Diva Dance' portion of the music, to show that she was not human and nor was her voice. And also to appear to a wider audience. I get it.
As a professional, I do wish they would have used more of the original operatic score, as when she was singing it early on, she was transfixing the audience without the need of electronic sampling and editing.

So long post for the short answer: love the film to this day, tolerate the second section of the Diva Song.

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 1:28 am

T'Pau wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 11:34 pm

IanKennedy wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 12:53 pm The Diva song is fantastic. The idea was to have an alien with a vocal range that would put any human to shame. The Diva is meant to be doing pretty much everything you hear. I'm not sure that comes across as well as it could. I always wonder what a professional would make of it.

This is completely in my wheelhouse! I also love the film and it is a pure guilty pleasure re-watch whenever I can catch it. Some background before 'a professional' take on it:

Diva Plavalaguna was portrayed by the then-wife of the director Luc Beeson, Maiwen La Besco. The music was sung by Albanian opera singer Inva Mula-Tchako. As a lyric soprano, her voice has more weight than the lighter and more agile coloratura soprano. Mula does have a lovely upper extension which makes playing roles, such as Lucia de Lammermoor (from which the beginning of the song from the film originates) easier for her. So the first part of the singing is taken from Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor", and the second part was created by Eric Serra. He wanted something that would be 'un-singable' by a human voice. Mula was able to tackle 85% of what he believed was un-singable, and the rest was edited and voice-sampled mechanically. That is why it sounded the way it did.

Luc Beeson adored Maria Callas, but the sound qualities of the recordings from 1956 of her 'Lucia' were not clear enough to use in the film. Callas' former agent Michael Glotz who produced the original recording of Callas, introduced Beeson to the young Albanian singer Mula.

The first part of the song, is the aria "Il dolce suono" form Act III, scene 2 of the opera. Lucia is descending into madness, and on her wedding night, during the festivities, she stabs her new husband. She sings the aria covered in blood, and it is called the "Mad Scene". A couple of interesting parallels between the aria and the film are as follows:
"fuggita io son da' tuoi nemici", which translates to "I have escaped from your enemies"...The Diva got the stones for safe keeping after Leloo escaped the battle.
"Ogni piacer piu grato, mi fia conte divisa", which translates to "Let me share the greatest pleasure with you"...The Diva dies passing the stones to Corbin Dallas.

As a fan of the film, I understand why the decision was made to add the "Diva Dance' portion of the music, to show that she was not human and nor was her voice. And also to appear to a wider audience. I get it.
As a professional, I do wish they would have used more of the original operatic score, as when she was singing it early on, she was transfixing the audience without the need of electronic sampling and editing.

So long post for the short answer: love the film to this day, tolerate the second section of the Diva Song.

Wow! Some of that I knew, some of that I didn't. thanks very much for the info!

Also, I love the Fifth Element too.

T'Pau wrote: ↑Sat Aug 07, 2021 3:07 am THE Suicide Squad (2021): Gotta love Stallone as King Shark...and that was about all there was to fully enjoy. Die-hard DC fans might get all the references to lesser known characters, but by the time you learn their name...*boom*...gone. Sort of a middle-finger to viewers. Multiple plots across different times felt disjointed and didn't keep the suspense amped up. Overall a 'meh' experience.