I was just wondering…could anyone help me I.D. a clip of what sounds like an Opera?
I heard it on a Cartoon Network show* the other day, and mangaged to record it.
It’s an Mp3 file, about 30 seconds long, and 500k in size. It’s a woman singing, but I couldn’t make out the language or the lyrics. There’s no appreciable background noise.
Can…anyone help me out with this’n?
*Okay, it was Codename: KND’s “Operation S.P.A.C.E.” Ya happy?
Darn…nothing? 
Well, I’m pretty sure it’s Italian, but that doesn’t help much. Verdi? Puccini?
I want you to know that I’ve been listening to this darn clip for two days, and have sent the link to some of my fellow opera-lovers (as well as a music librarian). I just haven’t gotten any decent answer yet.
Trouble is, it’s a section of the aria that contains a bunch of relatively generic, almost cliched musical phrases – with the exception of the lovely key modulation at the end.
It is Italian, but not Puccini. Possibly Verdi – the run upwards is very La Traviata -esque – but more likely Donizetti or Bellini. If we could figure out the words it’d be easier, but even then it’s probably your basic “oh, my love is gone, I’m in torment, help me find peace” text. (I even think I hear her say “o mia pace” – my peace – in the second phrase, LOL.)
I’ll keep up the research, but I sure hope someone can solve this mystery!
Reminds me a bit of Offenbach, but I honestly don’t know. I’ll ask around a bit as well.
I’m officially stumped. Never heard it before.
This sounds really familiar to me, but I can’t put my finger on it just yet.
It is Italian, and sounds like a bel canto opera. I’ll see if I can think of anything.
It sounds a bit like the fake opera that Bernard Hermann wrote for Citizen Kane, (the one Susan Alexander Kane sings in), but not exactly.
Goddammit, I’m sure it’s Puccini. I can’t for the hell of it place it. My God, are there no opera kooks on this board at all?
LOL, I’m an opera kook. And nah, I hate to disagree but I really don’t think there’s any on God’s green earth that this is Puccini. 
That’s so funny about the Citizen Kane thing though, h.sapiens – I see what you mean, 'cause this singer is scarily evocative of Susan Alexander Kane. (Well, not quite that bad, but I’ll just say it’s not a very flattering clip of whoever this is!)
It kinda sounds like she’s singing “(something ending in -mi) Elvira” at the very start of this clip, no? I did a search of the libretto of “Ernani” (by Verdi), which has an Elvira as a soprano role, but came up short. There’s also Elvira in “I Puritani” by Bellini, which is a good possibility. But that’s assuming i’m hearing the words correctly, which is a mighty big assumption. This singer really isn’t very good at enunciating.
We WILL figure this out!
“Casta diva” from Bellini’s “Norma”. I’m listening to it right now on a Joan Sutherland CD (that’s not her on your clip, though).
And according to the booklet with the CD, the lyrics in that clip are “spargi in terra, ah, quella pace”
I just downloaded the Mp3 from iTunes…and Casta Diva does seem to be it.
Plus, from the translation of the lyrics and the description of the scene in the opera (a pagan priestess praying to the moon goddess for peace) would seem to work in perfect context for how it was used on TV.
Thank you, friends! I’m much obliged.