Dear Sir Christopher

[huinare]

You first got my attention in the early 2000s by portraying my future favorite literary character in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy--to that end, the snowballing effect of your acting on my life has been tremendous--,but what I will remember you most fondly for is your love of music and your contribution thereto. I am proud of you for pursuing

Comments

[huinare]

He did lead a very long and full life. This still makes me sad as well. And although he was world famous, I fear he will be remembered more for things he would just as soon not be associated with any longer (Dracula) as opposed to the plethora of awesome stuff he did in his lifetime.

Could you tell me where the bits you were impressed with in the last one are? I'm not familiar enough with most of the opera and musical pieces in that compilation to know where they came from--but yeah, there were definitely a lot of impressive bits in there!

[huinare]

Thank you! I really like the Faust pieces (the Otello one not as much, although I love the lyrics). I was definitely wondering about the bit with the diabolical laughter, as it sounds technically difficult and I think it's great. I read a translation of the libretto for Gounod's Faust a while back, but hadn't heard the music.

I did recognize the "Toreador" bit. It's from a more recent album he put out, and I don't think his voice was what it once was due to his health. I like people who can do totally corny things like that with passion (seemingly a fairly common metal trait, so small wonder he gravitated toward metal in later life...). The rest you mentioned are apparently from an older album which includes a couple from Der Ring des Nibelungen. Sadly I can't find those on youtube.

Here he's singing more opera I cannot identify, in 1970. =D

[huinare]

"The Bloody Verdict of Verdun" is just epic.

Yesss. HE SHED THE BLOOD OF FOUR THOUSAND SAXON MEN.

Thanks for deploying your opera knowledge! Seems Lee was a fan of Mephistopheles. =D