Episode 194 - Yes, Giorgio: LIVE!

[joshg 207]

The movie takes pains to make the connection that Giorgio loses his voice because of what happened at the Met. Never mind that this is apparently the first time he ever lost his voice. Apparently he never lost his voice during or since the actual Met incident, but only after his agent receives a phone call seven years later.

After he loses his voice the first time, lady doctor "cures" him, and he's back in top form. The Met isn't mentioned again. Then why does he lose his voice again in San Francisco? Could it be that he loses he voice only when the movie needs to conveniently reunite him with lady doctor?

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

13 hours ago, hotironskillet said:

He seems to have no idea how to cook for a large amount of people either. His timing is all off. He's got tons and tons of pasta cooked and ready to go but there are piles of raw meat sitting out on the counters. The meat is going to take way longer to cook than the pasta, Giorgio. Get it together.

 

On 8/5/2018 at 7:32 AM, JammerLea said:

I felt really bad for these two characters, but on the other hand, I paid more attention to them than anyone else in this film. They were the only ones I that really felt like characters to me and were relatable from a customer service standpoint. There's always that one person who makes ridiculous requests. I also was concerned that the food fight took place in their kitchen, in which case I was ready to throw down for them.

I only sort of paid attention, but it seemed after that show, when Giorgio is just hanging out with people, he suddenly decides that HE wants to cook for EVERYONE. And that's the other thing that drove me nuts. This is a large crowd, and two people cooking for them seems like way too little to get that much food ready in a reasonable amount of time. But then they proceed to ruin as much of the food as possible with their stupid food fight and I'm just like... you STILL have people WAITING FOR FOOD out there!  Again, maybe this is my customer service background, but WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING??? The manager already told them the guests were getting restless with hunger. Now they're going to be at the least incredibly disappointed, and at the most very very angry.  Just... I don't know... get catering... order some pizzas... something more reliable than two people whose special skills do not seem to include cooking at any other point in the movie.

So my take on the cooking is that Giorgio is a big child, and this was like,how kids pretend they are going to make their mom breakfast on Mother’s Day and it ends up like “Here is some burned toast? You are welcome.” And at some point he was like I am going to make real Italian dinner with authentic Italian cream pies(?) but that he was sure to eff it up somehow, hence the food fight.

The whole time I just kept thinking, “someone has to clean this up” (probably Kwan and Mei Ling who think it is their night off). 

Quote

I think that Henry convinces Pamela to charm him just long enough to convince him to sing in the Met. He flies her out to San Francisco and she gives the weak cover that she "drove" all the way out there, spends a "romantic" week (when she is talking to her creepy coworker she says sarcastically "it was the most exciting and romantic week I've ever had") anddoes fall for him. Then the moment that he proves he can sing at the Met and has overcome his fear and her task isover she doesn't even wait for the performance to end and bounces.

I find this plausible. I kept thinking there had to be more for Green Acres (Henry) to do. He didn’t seem to have a reason to be there. 

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

4 hours ago, joshg said:

This just popped up on my Youtube feed: "Who Sang The "Nessun Dorma" Climax The Best?"

HDGTM? fans will take special note of Aretha Franklin at 5:20

 

Does holding that note longer make it better?

[joshg 207]

36 minutes ago, Elektra Boogaloo said:

Does holding that note longer make it better?

Good question. As we learned from Mission Impossible, it's only a 16th note, and the direction is poco allargando, not molto allargando (slow down a little bit, not a lot). So it's at least indulgent, if not against the composer's wishes, to hold that note forever.  Then again, the effect is thrilling, and it's one of the most famous and indulgent moments in opera, so if you got, flaunt it...(maybe purists would disagree).

An important point about the compilation that  some people might not realize is that there are three categories going on here:

1. Trained opera singers who are performing in a concert hall  (although we might be hearing a different audio mix as it was recorded, the live audience heard this without amplification)

2. Pop singers who are amplified because it's not an acoustical hall but also because their voices would never carry over an orchestra anyway

3. Trained opera singers who are amplified because they are singing in a huge amphitheater (like the Three Tenors at the end of the video, or Pavarotti in the Boston hatch shell)

Because a lot of people don't make it to an actual opera, they take for granted that everything we see on TV is miked and remixed and amplified. But "opera is hard" because what separates opera from musical theater is that your voice needs to carry naturally.

[hotironskillet 137]

10 hours ago, Elektra Boogaloo said:

The whole time I just kept thinking, “someone has to clean this up” (probably Kwan and Mei Ling who think it is their night off). 

 

Yes! You just know that when those two came back from their night off they had that mess waiting for them to clean up because Giorgio and Pamela are extremely inconsiderate house guests.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

25 minutes ago, hotironskillet said:

Yes! You just know that when those two came back from their night off they had that mess waiting for them to clean up because Giorgio and Pamela are extremely inconsiderate house guests.

That's the part that gets me.  She's just as unlikable as he is.  (The character not the actress.)  She does everything in the name of "a fling" and doesn't care what happens or who is affected.

ETA: Usually in rom-coms where someone is extremely self-centered the other person is extremely sensitive and gets the narcissist to soften.  That doesn't seem to be the case in this movie.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

19 hours ago, Lando said:

I think there is something to the "this was all a plan to get him to sing at The Met" theory. After Giorgio loses his voice and will not let Pamela look at him, Henry (his manager) tells him a story about another Italian opera singer that refused to let a German doctor look at his throat, but in the time it took to find an Italian doctor it was too late, the singer had lost his voice. Then later in the film it's his idea to get Pamela to convince him to sing at the Met. Henry is clearly not above manipulating Giorgio into doing what he wants. Pamela is clearly uninterested in Giorgio, she even has her suspicion confirmed that he tells everyone that a specific aria is for them and being a top notch surgeon unimpressed by his show of wealth but for some unknown reason decides to chase him across the country. I think that Henry convinces Pamela to charm him just long enough to convince him to sing in the Met. He flies her out to San Francisco and she gives the weak cover that she "drove" all the way out there, spends a "romantic" week (when she is talking to her creepy coworker she says sarcastically "it was the most exciting and romantic week I've ever had") and does fall for him. Then the moment that he proves he can sing at the Met and has overcome his fear and her task is over she doesn't even wait for the performance to end and bounces.

I admit that the theory has a lot of holes and needs some work, but it makes a lot more sense than the plot as it is presented.

This reminds me of an article I read ages ago in the Washington Post about something called the Padme Theory which basically boils down to the idea that Padme knows Anakin Skywalker is a creepy sociopath and that for The Good of The Galaxy she must fake love and affection for him because it's the only way to reign him in and he has a weird fixation on her so she's gotta bite the bullet.  (It's mostly about how horrible the prequels are and how  their love story and interactions with one another was clearly  written by someone who has never interacted with another human being and thus this is a way to make sense of it all) 

I fully support your theory. 

[Royalelevator 5]

A few things really with this episode.

1. Yes, getting your tonsils out is an elective surgery, I had to pester my doctor for years until I convinced him that my constant bouts of strep and constantly inflamed tonsils was something to be taken seriously. Side note, most singers who have had their tonsils removed will notice that their singing range will expand slightly.

2. Ovations at the end of each number within an opera are not uncommon, depending on the fame and notoriety of the performers involved, this can add upwards of an hour to an already 3-4 hour performance. Opera is gruelling sometimes...

3. Did NOBODY notice that "Giorgio" slapped the throat doctor on the cheek to get her to pay attention to him just as the arriving at the hotel in San Francisco scene?  Because jesus....

4. This might just be the worst movie I've watched because of my love of this podcast. I'd probably watch "Rad" on a loop for a month than ever try to watch this movie again...

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

49 minutes ago, Royalelevator said:

4. This might just be the worst movie I've watched because of my love of this podcast. I'd probably watch "Rad" on a loop for a month than ever try to watch this movie again...

Garbage Pail Kids still holds that crown for me.

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

On 8/6/2018 at 10:05 AM, tomspanks said:

Steak tartare?

Kitfo spaghetti?

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

8 hours ago, Cinco DeNio said:

That's the part that gets me.  She's just as unlikable as he is.  (The character not the actress.)  She does everything in the name of "a fling" and doesn't care what happens or who is affected.

ETA: Usually in rom-coms where someone is extremely self-centered the other person is extremely sensitive and gets the narcissist to soften.  That doesn't seem to be the case in this movie.

I think they thought making her a doctor who works with children would make her likeable? But like forgot the difference between a job description and a personality. Same could be said for Giorgio, I think. 

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

On 8/6/2018 at 4:42 PM, sycasey 2.0 said:

The fact that everyone has to keep lying about Giorgio's affair would also seem to destroy the idea that we are meant to see this as an example of Italians having a more "open" attitude towards sex and relationships. Giorgio's wife wouldn't seem to think so!

June's whole notion about Italian views on sex and love must just come from a combo of mafia movie "goomah" characters and the "swarthy, foreign fuckboy" stereotype, and maybe that one prime minister they had. Every Italian I've ever met has been ... you know, just a person, with the same attitudes about love and sex as most average people have. 

At some point, I thought that maybe Giorgio and his wife had a kind of "monogamish" relationship. Like because he's a touring artist on the road for long stretches and just can't or won't go for that long without sex, he's allowed to have a fling here and there to borrow some friction from strangers, just as long as he comes home to her in the end (as well as get tested, bring her t-shirt from San Francisco, whatever deal they have). Plus his manager admits knowledge that he's a total horndog, although his friends are obviously stunned.

And if that were the case, who's to say that Carla isn't also getting it in on the side while he's gone? We never see her, so who the hell knows what she's up to. If that's the kind of relationship that fits the lifestyles of two consenting adults, I don't think anyone should judge.

On the other hand, even though Giorgio doesn't lie about being married when he's confronted, he's not exactly forthcoming with that info up front -- that's a bad look. Plus that whole "you can't fall in love with me" bullshit is a non-starter -- once Giorgio gleans that Pahmella might  even maybe get hurt over the course of their fling, it's on him to knock it off. That's trifling with affections, that. 

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

4 hours ago, The_Triple_Lindy said:

On the other hand, even though Giorgio doesn't lie about being married when he's confronted, he's not exactly forthcoming with that info up front -- that's a bad look. Plus that whole "you can't fall in love with me" bullshit is a non-starter -- once Giorgio gleans that Pahmella might  even maybe get hurt over the course of their fling, it's on him to knock it off. That's trifling with affections, that. 

Right, all of that plus the fact that Giorgio feels the need to lie to Carla on the phone makes me think there isn't any such arrangement.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

7 hours ago, sycasey 2.0 said:

Right, all of that plus the fact that Giorgio feels the need to lie to Carla on the phone makes me think there isn't any such arrangement.

Little-known fact.  After the events of this movie Carla left Giorgio and went to work in a bar in Boston.

[Geans 193]

I've always considered myself a "person who likes opera" (and a bigger boy, NBD) based on the fact that I saw exactly one opera, "Rigoletto," late in college as my English-major fatigue really set in. The story went nowhere and there was no resolution and it was such a relief to my over-Shakespeare'd brain. Maybe that's why I like bad movies so much as well...

That being said I couldn't believe we were supposed to fall in love with the idea of Circles and Lady Doctor as a thing. I was sure there was going to be some reveal with Carla, like she was insane or having an affair too or a bad person...nothing! She's just some unexciting wife. Yuk. 

 

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

13 hours ago, sycasey 2.0 said:

Right, all of that plus the fact that Giorgio feels the need to lie to Carla on the phone makes me think there isn't any such arrangement.

Oh see, I didn't even catch that moment. Yeah, he's just a lech, then, isn't he?

[JammerLea 2070]

Hey look, I drew a ball on a bigger ball chasing a ball.

While looking up references for this, I did find pictures on google of Pavarotti playing tennis. But he was wearing the same outfit in all of them, so I can only confirm he's played at least one game of tennis outside of this movie.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

On 8/8/2018 at 12:01 PM, Geans said:

I've always considered myself a "person who likes opera" (and a bigger boy, NBD) based on the fact that I saw exactly one opera, "Rigoletto," late in college as my English-major fatigue really set in. The story went nowhere and there was no resolution and it was such a relief to my over-Shakespeare'd brain. Maybe that's why I like bad movies so much as well...

That being said I couldn't believe we were supposed to fall in love with the idea of Circles and Lady Doctor as a thing. I was sure there was going to be some reveal with Carla, like she was insane or having an affair too or a bad person...nothing! She's just some unexciting wife. Yuk. 

 

Rigoletto is the only opera I have ever seen "live" (I went with my grandma and a friend of the family to see it at the movie theater because the Met broadcasts to movie theaters around the country now.) The version I saw took place in 60's Vegas with the Duke owning his own Casino and Rigoetto being his comic (i think?) instead of his fool. It was a wonderful production and if you can find that version online I strongly recommend it.  You are right though it does have a very Shakespearean  sort of story to it . 

This is the most famous song from the opera.  Because I'm stupid and know nothing about opera I always thought it was a love song when I heard it but it's actually a song about how women are fickle lairs who can't be trusted . 

here are the English lyrics because I'm a fucking nerd who likes to share my knowledge :

 

Woman is fickle
Like a feather in the wind,
She changes her voice — and her mind.
Always sweet,
Pretty face,
In tears or in laughter, — she is always lying.
Always miserable
Is he who trusts her,
He who confides in her — his unwary heart!
Yet one never feels
Fully happy
Who on that bosom — does not drink love!
Woman is fickle
Like a feather in the wind,
She changes her voice — and her mind,
And her mind,
And her mind!

 

This is sung by a cheating bastard the Duke (played by June's favorite Bigger Boy Pavarotti ) While he's trying to seduce the sister of the man Rigoletto plans to hire to kill said Duke for being such a womanizer. Mainly to stop him from fucking around with his daughter any longer. I can't remember if he raped her or they had a willing affair in the opera I saw.  Honestly Giorgio was made to play the Duke .  

[gigi-tastic 2322]

12 hours ago, JammerLea said:

Hey look, I drew a ball on a bigger ball chasing a ball.

While looking up references for this, I did find pictures on google of Pavarotti playing tennis. But he was wearing the same outfit in all of them, so I can only confirm he's played at least one game of tennis outside of this movie.

This is a masterpiece !

[gigi-tastic 2322]

Like June I like a "Bigger Boy/Girl" but I prefer mine come in a feline shape.  Both my  current cats refuse to get fat and are just really fluffy unlike their predecessor who had the noble distinction of having the epitaph of Her Royal Rotundness . Please enjoy a photo of HRR Gracie in all her glory

[gigi-tastic 2322]

21 hours ago, The_Triple_Lindy said:

Oh see, I didn't even catch that moment. Yeah, he's just a lech, then, isn't he?

I thought he might have been sparing her feelings at first but I think you guys are right he's just a creep

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

22 hours ago, JammerLea said:

Hey look, I drew a ball on a bigger ball chasing a ball.

While looking up references for this, I did find pictures on google of Pavarotti playing tennis. But he was wearing the same outfit in all of them, so I can only confirm he's played at least one game of tennis outside of this movie.

I love this so much. 

[tomspanks 9039]

On 8/9/2018 at 1:17 PM, gigitastic said:

Like June I like a "Bigger Boy/Girl" but I prefer mine come in a feline shape.  Both my  current cats refuse to get fat and are just really fluffy unlike their predecessor who had the noble distinction of having the epitaph of Her Royal Rotundness . Please enjoy a photo of HRR Gracie in all her glory

Aw, picture doesn't work.  

[CaptainAmazing 127]

I’m a bit surprised that theu didn’t talk about the poster for this movie, which had been posted on the HDTGMinfo page. Two things really stuck out at me:

1. It was really wrinkled, like the movie was such a flop that the poster never got any type of second printing or digitization, and the only poster they could get a photo of was one in really bad shape.

2. Georgio isn’t even looking at the nurse on it, just kind of singing off into the distance while she puts her arms around him. It’s like someone poorly Photoshopped two separate photos of them together, except that it’s a drawing and predates Photoshop.

[LTL 154]

I like a bigger boy too and I thought Pav looked fetched in his tennis outfit ..i liked the socks