# Anyone remember short, pithy opera summary animations?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-short-pithy-opera-summary-animations/671417>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 16, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-short-pithy-opera-summary-animations/671417 "2013-10-16T18:06:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-short-pithy-opera-summary-animations/671417/1 "2013-10-16T18:06:08Z")

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Can’t seem to get the right set of search terms to find this…

There was a series of short clips that aired on cable (relatively sure they were on Bravo)… minimalist animation against mostly white, ummarizing the stories of great operas — The Ring, etc.

Relatively rapidly spoken, pretty tongue-in-cheek… contained things like running death toll… presentation was sort of in the style of a [http://www.youtube.com/user/CGPGrey](http://www.youtube.com/user/CGPGrey). Narrator was female.

Anyone know what I’m talking about?

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**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-short-pithy-opera-summary-animations/671417/2 "2013-10-16T18:09:03Z")

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I remember these. I think [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vNReqUGtsc) is an extended version of what you’re looking for.

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**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-short-pithy-opera-summary-animations/671417/3 "2013-10-16T18:11:24Z")

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> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> I remember these. I think [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vNReqUGtsc) is an extended version of what you’re looking for.

I think you’re right… very similar anyway. These were pretty clever.

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**Author:** ![Reepicheep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@Reepicheep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reepicheep)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-short-pithy-opera-summary-animations/671417/4 "2013-10-16T21:50:44Z")

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If we are talking about opera summaries you can’t leave out Anna Russell’s summary of Wagner’s Ring (each is about 10 minutes). No it is not short, but it is hilarious.

1. [Wagner Ring 1](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv7G92F2sqs)
2. [Wagner Ring 2](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WduYrwAGews)
3. [Wagner Ring 3](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypisVrbqDqE)

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**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-short-pithy-opera-summary-animations/671417/5 "2013-10-17T22:42:01Z")

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I remember those on Bravo. It would be between shows and would be about 1 or 2 minutes. I thought that it was just a run down of what happened in famous plays, though, not necessarily operas. I also recall that there was often a quick synopsis at the end about how many people died, got maimed, or whatever. I think it was just the woman talking to the camera, not the animated stuff referenced above. But that was in the 80s (when Bravo was a different channel), so my memory is quite fuzzy.