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Download of the Day: Opera For iPhone

GeekSugar — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:00:23 PDT

After submitting its iPhone app to Apple for review, Norwegian software company Opera wasn't too hopeful it would be approved. After all, it is a browser, poised to compete directly with built-in Safari. Turns out, the Opera app was approved and is available for free download.

After a slow start, Opera took off after a British ruling forced Microsoft to visibly give Internet Explorer customers a choice of which browser to use. Downloads of Opera software more than doubled following the ruling.

Creators of the app claim that it's up to six times faster than Safari. It features "speed dial," a way to quickly access your favorite sites, and tabs for keeping several windows open at once.

Have you found a cool download-worthy treasure you'd like to share with the rest of us? Create a PopSugar Account or log in to your account. Then join the Download of the Day group, where you can submit your favorite downloads and widgets. And you never know, it could be featured on GeekSugar! Here's a detailed guide to posting questions or posts to groups if you are new to the PopSugar Community.

Stars Come Out For a Night at the Opera

TresSugar — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 06:00:52 PDT

Big-name celebrities came out last night for the premiere of Armida at the Met in New York. If you've never seen an opera, Armida would be an excellent place to start; it's about a woman who chooses revenge over love. Can't go wrong with that!

The New York Times interviewed the production's choreographer, Graciela Daniele, and asked what attracted her to it. "I like the power of the woman and the vulnerability of the woman," she said. "The fact that she’s all-powerful, and yet love comes in and makes things bad for her."

See what actresses showed up for the debut below.

View 5 Photos ›

Do You Go to the Opera?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:30:27 PDT

According to Variety, composer Philip Glass is creating an opera about Walt Disney. The story "imagines the last months of Disney as seen through the eyes of a fictional Austrian cartoonist who worked for him."

I seriously cannot wait to see what the heck this opera looks like.

What do you think of the opera in general? Do you ever go? Or are you not an opera person?

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London Opera Gimmick to Bring Culture to Tabloid Masses

CitizenSugar — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:15:15 PDT

For a publicity stunt at London's Royal Opera House, the controversy may not be over 'til that fat lady, you know whats. It's elite vs. lowbrow, and it's hard to see who's in the right.

Here's the gimmick: the opera house limited tickets to a prestigious premiere to readers of The Sun, a tabloid newspaper, in a bid to attract a more diverse audience and upset the image that the opera is just for the elite. Ticket prices for good seats usually run $400 (that's a high note!) so the Sun deal reserves all 2,200 seats for readers at prices from $15 to $60. The head of the opera says, "we have so many opportunities to open up our doors to more people and I'm thrilled that we're able to invite those who have never been to the Opera House before to experience a first-night performance."

Nice right? Who can find fault with that? To find out,

The deputy editor of Opera magazine for one, who said, "the ticket deal will put the backs up of a lot of the loyal audiences who already have to jump through a lot of hoops to get tickets." More local reactions to the story say that it's all well and good to market the high arts to the "common masses" especially since the arts, including opera, was originally meant for everyone. The blunter reactions accuse the masses of having "no interest" in such high-minded pursuits. So the elite don't want to share - therefore the opera is doing a righteous thing, right?

But what about this? By targeting the deal to readers of a tabloid paper with the giveaway, isn't the opera reinforcing a stereotype? That if you read this paper, certainly you can't afford to, nor have you ever been to something so fancy. Here, we'll even give a discount to you so you can finally see what you've been missing. A little backhanded, perhaps?

Is this a great idea, or are they being unintentionally elitist by trying to be inclusive?

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Would You Go See These Movies-Turned-Operas?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:35:41 PDT

First there was the odd news that an Italian composer is turning the Al Gore power point presentation about global warming into an opera. Now there's news that Brokeback Mountain will get similar treatment. The New York City Opera has commissioned a composer to turn the short story that inspired the popular film into an opera.

Of course, the documentary-turned-opera is more difficult to envision than a well-received love story but I still think this is a bizarre trend, and I wonder what's behind this momentum. Presumably the folks behind these shows think they're more likely to attract a broader audience with operas based on well-known titles.

So I ask you: would you consider seeing these operas?

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An Inconvenient Truth: The Opera

BuzzSugar — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:53:31 PDT

Nope, not a joke (at least, I don't think it is!): Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth will be made into an opera by Italian composer Giorgio Battistelli. The production will debut in Milan in 2011. As The Independent explains it, "It began life as a slide show before mutating into a prize-winning documentary and a book, but now An Inconvenient Truth, the work for which the former US vice-president Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, is to become an opera."

This is kinda weird, right? What, exactly, will this look like? Also, hang onto those PowerPoint presentations, folks. They could be operatic masterpieces someday.

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Would You Watch an Opera That Incorporates 9/11, Naked Cast?

LibertySugar — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:00:44 PDT

Here's a story that involves Germany, Italian opera, September 11^th, and Mickey Mouse masks . . . oh, and naked people. Mix it all together and what do you get? - a shocking new production of Giuseppe Verdi's un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball).

The Austrian director Johann Kresnik, plans on staging a populist critique of modern American society, aimed at showing up the disparities between rich and poor.

Telegraph quotes Kresnik:

"It will be a different, a provocative masked ball on the ruins of the World Trade Center. The naked stand for people without means, the victims of capitalism, the underclass, who don’t have anything anymore."

Would you see this anticapitalist opera of naked singers, even if you didn't agree with its message?

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Dog Sings Opera

GiggleSugar — Thu, 17 May 2007 14:36:58 PDT

Either that or he's begging someone to turn the music off. Where's Cesar Millan of "The Dog Whisperer" when you need him for translation?

Growing Through Arts' Music Series: Kid-Friendly or Are You Kidding?

Kate Stahl — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:56:42 PDT

We're all about exposing kids to fine arts, but is opera asking a bit too much? Not according to Growing Through Arts, a company founded by former pro dancer and Harvard grad Aleksandra Efimova, which creates educational children's books and toys. The company just launched its second series of books (the first focused on ballet), breaking down some seriously highbrow stuff for kids ages 2 to 6. Growing Through Arts' philosophy: exposing kids to the arts early will help develop creativity and imagination, confidence, leadership, memory, abstract thinking, discipline, focus, and preacademic skills.

The three music series books - The Peter and the Wolf Symphony, The Snow Maiden Opera, and Twist, A Musical - each include beautiful illustrations, a modern take on the classic opera, symphony, and musical tales, and questions designed for parents to ask their children to teach them moral lessons. You'll also find a glossary of terms that will teach kids words that are used in music class, the opera, and the symphony.

So what do you think? Could you get your 2-year-old amped about opera? Psyched about the symphony? Weigh in below!

Love it or Hate it: Kristin Chenoweth's Diamond Choker

Noria Morales — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:50:25 PDT

Kristin Chenoweth attended the New York Opera Spring Gala in a long, understated, and very elegant black gown. She kept her hair simple and sleek in a low ponytail. And then she added this big choker around her neck. The choker itself is pretty interesting,with a knotted shape in front. We're just not sure about the combo. What do you think? Does her choker work or would you prefer to see something a bit more understated?