24 Aug 2018

The Works Limerick Competition: Opera

From The Works, 9:35 am on 24 August 2018
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Photo: John Reilly / Getty Images

This week's winner:

A young singer who played Rigoletto
Took his costume down to the laundretto
Washed his trousers too hot
And they shrank such a lot
That he sang the whole thing in falsetto

Paula Weir

 

Highly Commended:

When Mussorgsky first wrote Boris Godunov
He was told it wasn’t quite good enough
So Modest revised it
And somewhat upsized it
Though left to himself he wouldn’t have.

Freya Smith

 

In opera the story is told
Of a tenor, so handsome and bold;
A soprano, in love
With the hero above;
Prevented by baritone cold.

Margaret Thompson

 

Even sung in a tongue that confounds
It succeeds by exceeding such bounds.
Though the recitative
May be hard to receive
Opera's all about  gestures and sounds

Bruce McKinney

 

When Wagner recycled The Ring
And thought of the pleasure he’d bring,
He exceeded his powers,
It went on for hours,
Such relief when the fat lady sings.

Margaret Naismith

 

So sexy and gorgeous was Carmen
Poor Don Jose found her so charmin'
But when she said 'nope'
He just couldn't cope
And the end result was alarmin'

Ray Gilbert