All Right, Seriously, WTF

I mean, really:

Blame Mary Robinette Kowal, I got it from her.

52 Comments on “All Right, Seriously, WTF”

  1. Saw this earlier today.

    I laud them for their ability to keep (mostly) straight faces through this.

  2. These guys are pussies.

    (Anyway, unless and until the accompanist does the right thing and uses Cat Piano on an iPad, as I think we can all agree he ought, I refuse to take this group seriously.)

    Serious Music Fan R Serious!

  3. Ah the internet, now if someone could super impose the heads of cats and animate them in time with the vocals.

  4. Never forget to be artful in you play and playful in your art.

    I think excellence in craft requires both.

  5. This brings back memories, back in highschool (early 90’s) some people performed this piece or one quite like it. They did manage to make it more of a dialogue, and a nasty one at times as well.

  6. Hm. That’s two very interesting “kids in religious garb singing something funny” this week. This is a
    group of “silent monks singing Handel’s Messiah”. It’s full of awesome.

  7. This made my cat come over to see what the hell I was watching. She seems to be slightly more disturbed than usual.

  8. We can blame Mary for sending it to you, but we’ll still blame you for posting it here.

    Thank goodness that wasn’t stuck in my head all day. Thank you iPod full of music goodness.

  9. I first heard this piece back in the 80s, performed by two women dressed up in cat suits. Helloooo classical music! Where had you been all my life?

  10. I rarely can understand the lyrics of the music I listen to. It is either in a Language I don’t understand (think Wagner) or the voice itself is unclear (think Mayhem).

    For someone who rarely understands lyrics, but likes the sound of the Human Voice, this is pretty cool.

    Cheers
    Andrew

  11. Oh you don’t know crazy like choral people crazy, a long and proud tradition of sopranos who need more oxygen and diva choir directors…It’s like all the most rabid aspects of sci-fi nerdery except about Bach.

  12. At least in this piece the performers can concentrate on getting the notes right. They don’t have to worry so much about remembering lyrics.

  13. Nothing special, my cats did the same thing every morning. :-)

    I suspect the originator of this idea would fall in the category of “crazy old cat person”

  14. Okay, I couldn’t let it go and I did some research. This is a performance of Duet of Cats by Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois from 1996. The blond boy is Hyacinthe de Moulins (I bet he got beat up a lot because of that name) and the dark-haired boy is Regis Mengus. Mengus is now an opera baritone.

  15. What I want to know is, how many times did they have to rehearse that before they could get through it without cracking up?

  16. Oh, my, God. Sam M-B #18. I can’t remember when I’ve laughed that hard. That was fantastic!

  17. Thanks to the Midnight Special (a folk radio show in Chicago with occasional aberrations), I grew up listening to the Victoria de los Angeles and Elizabeth Schwartzkopf version of this duet.

    Rossini has a lot to answer for, is all I can say.

    (Also, I have a digitized version, so if you want it, let me know.)

  18. Rossini? Yep, that’s one of the duets that all opera singers have to learn. At least the sopranos anyway. My favorite version is the one with 2 ladies did things like fake-hurl a hairball. :)

    Sam @ 18 – that is AWESOME. I say this as someone who has sung that piece in every part except Baritone. ForEverAndEver! Hallelujah!

  19. When I was in high school, and participated in three separate choirs (yeah, I was a lot more energetic back then), we often practiced our pieces by singing “meow meow” instead of the words. The director felt it was a good way to get us to focus on the notes instead of the words.

    Maybe this choir’s director went to the same music school mine did. :D

  20. Two of the sopranos in the choir I was in at university performed this one in the revues that we’d do. Also where I was introduced to “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”.

  21. I much prefer it performed by female sopranos than male choir sopranos, but yes – hilarious – and fantastic to see in person as an encore or lighter choice in a serious recital…

  22. #45 —

    For a brief second, based on the title, I thought they were going to be holding cats and making the *cats* meow.

    That would be this one:
    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEjKk5Kt3rs&fs=1&hl=en_US]

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