Barbershop of Seville

Check out this awesome musical blend that can hardly even come close to the description of "genre-busting", Hip Hop-Opera. A CBC Arts reporter checks it out... here's the description from the Editor's Choice podcast site:

"Hip Hop and Opera are not the music titans they once were. Rap music sales dropped last year by more than thirty percent, and the future of Opera appears to rest with an aging audience. The Canadian Opera Company in Toronto is running an experiment called "Hip Hopera" to see if the two genres can help each other out. CBC Arts Reporter Eli Glasner was at the premiere."

This is really cool, and great to see people forging ahead into the unknown, and taking musical risks. It's these early steps of experimentation that musicologists look back on in the future as, possibly, a turning point. Of course it's foolish to say that this is any sort of revolution, for all we know, hip-hop and indeed rock and roll itself may just be one tiny blip in the musical cosmos. In any case, this is a very interesting musical nugget, and something to keep an eye on in the future.
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MP3 Link: CBC Editor's Choice - May 9th: Hip Hopera (Runs 2m 45s)

Canadian Opera Company - Free Concert Series