August 13, 2015

A brain operation in Utrecht on a singing tenor

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 1:54 pm
consult

Professional Slovenian tenor Ambrož Bajec-Lapajne recently put a video of him undergoing an ‘awake craniotomy’ where he was asked to sing in order to ensure a successful surgery.

Bajec-Lapajne, who is now fully recovered, was diagnosed with a brain tumour over a year ago. In this video, the music neuro team of the UMC was also involved in order to assist the surgery, like a medical DJ.

“I sing two (first and last) couplets of Schubert’s lied ‘Gute Nacht’ [The first lied of Schubert’s Die Winterreise (‘The Winter Journey’): the minor-major transition in order to see if I can still recognise the key change. All is fine until 2:40 when things start to get very interesting…”

I’m a big fan of Die Winterreise, especially sung by German Hans Hotter (bass-baritone), but it would be great to see Bajec-Lapajne in concert some day.

There’s no blood and guts in this video, consider it ‘safe for work’, and he sings a few times:

(Link: www.ad.nl)

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September 9, 2010

Klingon opera premieres in The Hague

Filed under: Art,Dutch first,Shows by Orangemaster @ 1:11 pm

Back in June 2008 we told you about earthlings of the Dutch persuasion planning to perform Klingon opera and that day has finally come.

The Klingon opera ‘U’ (that’s the name of it, pronounced ‘oo’) will premiere tonight at the Zeebelt theater in The Hague and run until 12 September, after which the show is heading to Qetlop in Farnsberg, Germany to perform at an exclusive event for the Klingons of the Khemorex Klinzhai Fleet.

Klingon language expert Marc Okrand, the creator of the language, will be the guest of honour at the 10 September premiere.

Classical trained opera singers will be performing, here’s a presentation of U at a FedCon sci-fi gathering, have a look at the video (1:03):

(Links: presurfer, u-theopera)

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June 15, 2008

Earthlings to perform Klingon opera

Filed under: Music by Branko Collin @ 12:01 pm

The Klingon Terran Research Ensemble is planning to perform a real Klingon opera called U in November this year. If you cannot wait until then, the ensemble regularly holds musical “battles” at the Zeebelt theater in the Hague. It also has several videos up at Youtube showcasing Klingon instruments and techniques.

According to the print version of Zone 5300, KTRE founder Floris Schönfeld takes his work very serious and many of the artists involved are classically schooled.

For those of you who have been stuck In Real Life the past forty years, Klingons are a race of space aliens from the fictional Star Trek universe.

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