Opera Rock - rather than Rock Opera

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Numerous groups have taken Mozart and Beethoven and "rocked" the house, using the music of these (and many other) classical music composers and turning them into screaming Rock tunes, with driving beats, amazing effects and state of the art electronics. When I was growing up the Electric Light Orchestra was just one of these groups. Now a number of string quartets are doing the same thing (see posts about the Electric String Quartet or Bond).

It seems the East Village Opera Company is taking "Bach, Handel, Verdi and others as a launching point to re-imagine these arias as rock epics," according to David Burger from the Salt Lake City Tribune. Their site (linked above) has several video examples which ends up sounding more like Queen than opera (or maybe Queen is really just the first versions of opera gone rock). I can't say as I think they've hit the mark with the transition - but I like the start.

With our own opera, "It Must Be Fate", in progress there is a real desire to head in the direction of Opera with a rock feel or a more modern edge. I need to learn more about the effects and electronics side of this music medium, and how to effectively combine them with the operatic tradition, but I am really glad to hear there are more artists moving in this direction.

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