upworthy

Culture

Culture

Opera star delighted by stranger who stood up in the audience and started singing with her

Surprising, impressive and altogether wholesome.

Photo by Courtney Kammers on Unsplash
woman standing front of microphone

There's a certain etiquette that audience members generally adhere to while watching a live performance, and that goes doubly for the opera world. But you don't have to be an opera-goer to know that it's generally frowned upon—to put it lightly—for a member of the audience to stand up and start singing right in the middle of an opera singer's performance.

It ain't Lollapalooza, for crying out loud. But an audience member adding his voice to an opera performance was exactly what happened at the Verdi Festival in Parma, Italy in 2022. According to Classic FM, renowned soprano Lisette Oropesa was performing an encore at the end of her recital, singing the female part from "Sempre Libera" (Always Free) from Verdi's "La traviata." Thesong is a duet, usually sung between a female soprano and a male tenor, but she was performing it solo. So when the tenor part arrived and no one sang opposite her, 24-year-old Liu Jianwei, a fan of Oropesa and a student of opera at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Nicolini di Piacenza, stood up and filled in the gap.

No one expected it. Not Oropesa. Not even Liu himself, apparently. But the pianist kept playing and Oropesa appeared to be delighted as the young man beautifully filled in the tenor part. Oropesa's initial "Oh," is written into the piece (though you can see her searching the audience for where the man's voice was coming from), but the "Oh, grazie," she added herself to say thank you.

It's a good thing he had a lovely voice. Watch:

@babatunde_hiphopera

Reply to @campmeldinal Reply to @campmeldinal This is the best one I could find #wholesome #opera

According to Classic FM, Liu took to the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo to explain himself—and to warn others not to do what he did.

“I stood up to sing because Lisette Oropesa is a musician I love very much and I happened to have learned this opera before,” he said. “It is definitely not something worthy of pride, nor something worthy of being advocated. Please don’t interrupt singers when they are singing on stage. It’s impolite behavior. Don’t imitate me and I will never do this again in the future.”

Many disagree with him on the "worthy of pride" part at least, and most people commenting on the video were thrilled with both the unexpected singing and the reaction from the opera star.

"She was so gracious and kind!! The shock and delight on her face was so wonderful!! This is beautiful," wrote one commenter.

"I love how her face just lights up, it's so sweet!!!" wrote another.

"That is the reaction of when a musician does it for the love of music," added another "They are both amazing!"

And regarding the "impolite" bit:

"Look I know it would technically be considered rude but he shot his shot and was successful 😂. Can’t blame him one bit.".

Liu approached Oropesa after the concert to apologize. She took photos with him and gave him her autograph.

Brava and bravo to them both.


This article originally appeared three years ago.

From Your Site Articles
Culture

Pamela Anderson surprises fans with her high-brow film taste

"I don’t think people kind of expect me to be such a…cinephile"

www.flickr.com
Pamela Anderson 1994 | The post Pamela Anderson 1994 appeare… | Flickr

It’s a good time to be Pamela Anderson. The former Baywatch star recently earned a Golden Globe nomination—the first of a 35-year career—for her starring role in the Gia Coppola drama The Last Showgirl. And now she’s boosted her hipster street cred by visiting the Criterion Closet, showcasing some of her favorite films—and surprising a number of fans with her "cinephile" taste.

A little background for the uninitiated: The Criterion Collection is a home-video distribution company whose tasteful box sets and restorations have become synonymous with the high-brow. With interview web series Criterion Closet Picks, they invite famous actors and filmmakers into, yes, an actual closet filled floor to ceiling with their own releases. The guests pick titles off the shelves, diving into their influences.

Anderson was thrilled to be there—so much that she decided to throw out her curated list and simply "go crazy."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

"I’m here in the Criterion Closet, which is a dream come true," she told the camera, before picking out films that would impress any college cinema professor. These include a handful of French staples: the 1969 psychological thriller La Piscine, directed by Jacques Deray; the 1960 drama La Vérité, helmed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and starring Brigitte Bardot; and Jean Luc-Godard’s 1960 crime-drama Breathless.

The latter even inspired a fashion choice. "[The] reason I cut my hair into a pixie cut was Jean Seberg," she said, name-checking one of the film’s stars. "Thought it would grow out in a few months. It took me a good couple years to get my hair back after I decided to do that." Also of note on her list: David Lynch’s surreal 1986 neo-noir mystery Blue Velvet and David Lean’s 1955 romantic comedy Summertime, which she noted she’d "love to remake."

The interview gave Anderson the chance to outline the depth of her movie knowledge. "I’m so thrilled to be here and so happy to be invited here because I don’t think people kind of expect me to be such a…cinephile," she said. "Can I say that? I don’t know if I’m that, but I’m definitely a movie lover." (She is definitely allowed to say that.)

Anderson joins a prestigious Criterion interview club that includes Kevin Smith, Francis Ford Coppola, Janelle Monáe, Bill Hader, Barry Jenkins, Ari Aster, Charlie Day, Willem Dafoe, and even musicians like St. Vincent and Ben Gibbard. You could spend a whole day exploring the Closet wing of their site—and if you do, make sure you check out Anderson’s full list.

The fan response to Anderson’s interview was fascinating. "Pamela Anderson…in large glasses…talking about Hepburn and Schneider….i need a fainting couch," one user wrote. "Pamela Anderson turning out to be a massive cinephile who drops the Koker Trilogy in her @Criterion Closet video just made my entire year," added another. Perhaps the most direct: "Pamela Anderson knows more about cinema than you ever will."

In a December interview with Variety, Anderson talked about how starring in The Last Showgirl helped refine her chops—and fulfill a personal "dream."

"I was always very curious about the craft of acting, but I didn’t have to apply myself when I was running around in a bathing suit on Baywatch," she said. "I was curious about it—I would be sitting on the floor of Samuel French, reading Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill plays. I didn’t know how to get from there to there, but I just had this dream. I always kept it a secret that I could be more than I was doing."

pamela anderson
Popular

3-step 'old man test' may predict a lot about your lifespan

Can you do this without cheating?

dr.tommymartin/TikTko & tami1231/TikTok

The TikTokers are at it again. This time, they're standing on one foot and trying not to fall over while they put on their socks and shoes. It might seem silly (and it definitely looks silly), but this latest social media challenge could actually reveal a lot about your health. Affectionately dubbed the 'Old Man Test' (or something the 'Old Person Test'), fitness trainer Chris Hinshaw initially developed the idea all the way back in 2021 as a way to test a person's balance, coordination, and biological age. It's been going viral ever since.

What is the 'Old Man Test'? How to try it at home

You've probably heard of similar challenges and tests like the famous sit-stand or sit-rise test, where you're challenged to sit down on the ground and stand back up again without using your hands and arms. Doing so successfully requires good balance, strength, stability, coordination, and even heart-health — making it a good indicator of how long you might expect to live.

There's also the bar-hang test, which posits that if you can dead hang from a pull-up bar for about 30-60 seconds, you're in good shape when it comes to how well you might age.

The Old Man Test is a lot like those, but some might say it's even more challenging. It consists of three-steps, which makes it unique:

Step One: Standing barefoot on one leg, reach down and grab your sock off the floor, then slide it onto the raised foot

Step Two: Still balancing on one foot, reach down and grab your shoe from the floor, and slide it on over the sock

Step Three: Still balancing, tie the shoe completely before lowering your foot back to the floor.

Now, if that wasn't hard enough, repeat for the other leg!

You can search TikTok or any social media for #oldmantest and see dozens of videos over the years of people attempting the challenge. You'll see men, women, young, and old alike doing it with varying levels of success. I even saw one challenge where the whole family, from pre-teen to grandma, all attempted the test at the same time!

Passing the test means your balance, core strength, flexibility, and coordination are looking good. Failing? Well...

@dr.tommymartin

Can you do this? Who remembers the old man test?

Why balance says so much about your health

One of the key similarities between many of the viral "longevity tests" is how good your balance is. Good balance has been correlated with living a longer life again and again in scientific studies. Why is that always the common denominator, and why does it tell us so much about how long we might live?

First, there's the obvious. The older we get, the more likely we are to fall, and the more likely those falls are to seriously hurt us. Having great coordination and balance keeps us safe from those accidental spills.

But the importance of balance goes deeper. It's such a foundational component of our health because it helps us maintain good posture as we get older, keeps our legs and cores strong, and can even help with our cognitive function.

If you have trouble with the sit-rise test or the Old Man Test, don't worry — balance is something that can be trained and improved.

Regular exercise and mobility work can help, as can balance-specific training like working with balance balls or doing one-legged exercises. Even long walks have been shown to improve balance. It could also be related to an issue with vision, the inner ear, or brain function — which, again, is why testing your balance and coordination is such an excellent indicator of overall health.

Also, don't take any viral fitness challenge as gospel. Some people are naturally less mobile and flexible than others due to limitations in their joints and muscles, and their inability to complete these tests may have nothing to do at all with fitness levels or overall health. So no, you aren't doomed to die young if you can't tie your shoe while balancing on one foot.

That doesn't mean it's not fun to give it a try!

From Your Site Articles
longevity
Culture

Wil Wheaton gave a perfect explanation of how to separate problematic artists from their art

A truly thoughtful response.

Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

Wil Wheaton speaking to an audience at 2019 Wondercon.

When you find out an actor whose work you enjoy is blatantly racist and anti-semitic in real life, does that realization ruin every movie they've been a part of?

What about an author who has expressed harmful opinions about a marginalized group? What about a smart, witty comedian who turns out to be a serial sexual assaulter? Where do you draw the line between a creator and their creation? As someone with his feet in both worlds, actor Wil Wheaton weighed in on that question and offered a refreshingly reasonable perspective.

"Question: I have more of an opinion question for you. When fans of things hear about misconduct happening on sets/behind-the-scenes are they allowed to still enjoy the thing? Or should it be boycotted completely? Example: I've been a major fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer since I was a teenager and it was currently airing. I really nerded out on it and when I lost my Dad at age 16 'The Body' episode had me in such cathartic tears. Now we know about Joss Whedon. I haven't rewatched a single episode since his behavior came to light. As a fan, do I respectfully have to just box that away? Is it disrespectful of the actors that went through it to knowingly keep watching?"

And Wheaton offered this response, which he shared :

" Answer: I have been precisely where you are, right now. In fact, we were just talking about this a few days ago, as it relates to a guy who wrote a ton of music that was PROFOUND to me when I was a teenager. He wrote about being lonely and feeling unloved, and all the things I was feeling as a teenager.

He grew up to be a reprehensible bigot, and for years I couldn't listen to one of the most important bands in my life anymore.

But this week, someone pointed out that he was one member of a group that all worked together to make that thing that was so important to me. And the person he was when he wrote those lyrics is not the person he is today. And the person I was when I heard those lyrics doesn't deserve to be shoved into a box and put away, because that guy is a shit.

This is a long way of saying that Joss sure turned out to be garbage. Because of who my friends are, I know stuff that isn't in the public, and it's pretty horrible. He's just not a good person, and apparently never was a good person.

BUT! Buffy is more than him. It's all the actors and crew who made it. It's all the writers who aren't Joss. Joss is part of it, sure, and some of the episodes he wrote are terrific.

At least one of the episodes he wrote was deeply meaningful to you at a moment in your life when you'd experienced a loss I can only imagine. The person you are now, and the 16 year-old you were who just lost their dad, are more important than the piece of shit Joss Whedon revealed himself to be.

His bad behavior is on him. He has to live with it, and the consequences of it.


Wil Wheaton | Wil Wheaton speaking at the 2012 Phoenix Comic… | Flickrwww.flickr.com

16-year-old you, who just lost their dad, shouldn't have to think about what a shit Joss Whedon is for even a second. That kid, and you, deserve to have that place to revisit when you need to go there.

I can't speak for the other actors, even the ones I know. But I will tell you, as an abuse survivor myself who never wanted to be in front of the camera when he was a kid: it's really okay for you to enjoy the work. The work is good and meaningful, and if nobody is going to watch it because of what one piece of shit did two decades ago, what was it all for?

I'm not the pope of chilitown, so take this for what it's worth: I believe that when some piece of art is deeply meaningful to a person, for whatever reason, that art doesn't belong to the person who created it, if it ever did. It belongs to the person who found something meaningful in the art.

If it feels right to you to put it away and never look at it again, that's totally valid. But if it brings you comfort, or joy, or healing, or just warm familiarity to bring it out and spend some time with it, that's totally valid, too.

I've written a lot of words. I hope some of them make sense and are helpful to you."

upload.wikimedia.org



As with practically everything in this world, the question of whether art can or should be separated from the artist is complex. It involves philosophical questions about the nature of art—where it comes from and who it belongs to—as well as questions about how imperfect a person has to be for us to reject everything they create. Wheaton's response feels right, especially when we're regarding art that is collaboratively created.

This article originally appeared three years ago.

From Your Site Articles
culture
Trending Stories