I’m in a black, black mood. Things are not well chez Gobear, putting me in a puppy-kicking kind of disposition, and I’mthisclose to being Glenn Close pulling the lamp chain on and off, on and off, on and off. . .
I find Ute Lemper singing Kurt Weill really expresses the way I feel at the moment, and right now I’m listening to her sing Die Moritat von Mackie Messer. . .
So what do you listen to when life is handing you the sour persimmons?
And yeah, I do have Puccini on hand, but even Tosca’s swan dive off the Castle Gandolfo after she stabs that sumbitch Scarpia is still too damn frolicsome. Italians are great for the love arias, but when it comes to black depression, give me the Germans.
Prodigy. Their industrial anger fits the bill.
Tom Waits.
Course, I listen to him when I’m happy too, so…
Nick Cave all the way, baby.
She actually leaps off the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome. And, yeah, I don’t find Tosca or most other Puccini operas to be musically dark enough for those black moods–I actually find Tosca to be inspiring in a suicidally heroic way.
The one Puccini exception is Il Tabarro, the first opera in the Trittico–that one’s very dark and depressing. However, if you listen to the rest of the Trittico, your mood will be ruined by the fun and uplifting Gianni Schicchi.
The Hungarians are also good for dark opera–try Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle.
When I’m in that mood, though, I usually turn to The Cure–preferably Disintegration. None of that “Friday I’m in Love” crap.
‘The Trees on the Mountain’ from Carlisle Floyd’s opera SUSANNAH.
“The trees on the mountain are cold gray and bare,
The sunshine jest vanished and left them all there,
Like a cold-hearted lover, just like my own
Who made me love him then left me alone”
Give Brecht his due, they’re his lyrics. As far as I know Weill only wrote tunes.
Sinead O’Connor or Nick Cave.
slaps self on forehead Castel Sant’angelo! [sub]I am such a moron[/sub] . Puccini is too light in tone for me when I’m down, but there’s a couple of arias that are compatible with my mood, like “Vissi d’Arte,” with its “Why, God?” lyrics.
Yrah, but it’s the tunes that I’m listening more thsan the lyrics. Besides, shouldn’t John Gay get some credit, too?
I’ll probably be in the minority on this one, but when I’m in a dark mood I find there’s nothing I like better than some Doom Metal. Shape of Despair, Saturnus, and old school Katatonia are great when I’m brooding.