Apocalypse Now – Ride of the Valkyries
In Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam war classic the soldiers in the movie, play ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ on their speakers in their helicopter in order to gear themselves up for battle.
This piece of music comes ‘Die Walkure’ or The Valkyrie which is the first opera in Richard Wagner‘s epic Ring Cycle.
Released in 1979, Apocalypse Now was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and won for Best Cinematography and Best Sound.
Inspired by Joseph Conrad’s book, Heart of Darkness, the film follows the journey of a US Soldier, Willard, played by Martin Sheen, who is given a secret mission is to find and kill Colonel Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando, a rouge Special Forces soldier who has set up his own private army deep in the Vietnamese jungle. Willard, accompanied by a group of soldiers, travel away from the relative safety of Saigon and journey by boat down the Nung River deeper into the jungle and come face to face with the horror of the Vietnam War.
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Up – Habenera
At the beginning of this Disney movie, an instrumental version of the ‘Habenera’ from Carmen by Bizet plays.
Up begins with an emotional scene which shows the life of Carl and Ellie – how they meet as children, marry, go through infertility problems before enjoying their long life together until Ellie’s death from illness. The Habenera plays over the new normal of Carl’s life. It is one of solitude after the death of Ellie.
Ellie and Carl had always planned to visit Paradise Falls in South America but a long life had diminished their savings.
Carl decides to go by himself. He astonishes his neighbours by tying hundreds of helium balloons to the house so that he can fly there in comfort of his own home with all of his belongings.
However, a local explorer scout, Russell has accidentally stowed away in the house and travels with Carl on his great adventure into the wilds of the jungle.
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Pretty Woman - La traviata
In Garry Marshall’s 1990 film starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. Gere’s character, Edward, takes Roberts’ character, Vivian, on a night out to her first opera.
The opera they see is La traviata by Verdi. In the movie, the character Violetta, sings ‘Sempre Libera’, then she sings ‘Amami, Alfredo’.
The film Pretty Woman is a modern day fairytale with shades of Cinderella and My Fair Lady.
Businessman Edward is spending the week in Los Angeles for work and hires Hollywood Boulevard prostitute, Vivian, to be his escort for the week to various work events. Vivian turns to hotel manager, Barney, and his team for help with her clothes and social skills. And over the week Edward and Vivian fall in love.
Julia Roberts was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for this film.
More about La traviata
Avengers: Age of Ultron - Casta Diva
In this superhero movie, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner aka The Hulk listens to the song ‘Casta Diva’ from the opera Norma.
He uses the music to calm himself down after a big battle with the other Avengers.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron is the sequel to the smash hit movie The Avengers which the Marvel superheros – Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye and others team up to save the planet.
In this film Ultron, a peacekeeping program created by Tony Stark/Iron Man, becomes sentient after AI from Loki’s scepter is added to it. Ultron decides that to make the world better, he needs to kill all the humans. The Avengers team up again to prevent the destruction of humankind.
Happy Feet Two - E Lucevan le stelle
In this movie, the baby penguin, Erik, sings an adapted version of the song “E lucevan le stelle” (“And the stars were shining”).
This aria is also from the opera Tosca by Giacomo Puccini.
Happy Feet Two is a sequel to the Academy Award-winning animated film Happy Feet, Antarctica is again the setting for more Penguin adventures.
A part of their glacier breaks off, stranding the “Penguin Nation”. Mumble and Gloria’s son, Erik, and some of his friends, who had run away from home, are now on the outside looking in trying to figure out how to save their family and the rest of “Penguin Nation”.
The film features the voices of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Hank Azaria, Alecia Moore (Pink), Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Sofia Vergara, Common, Hugo Weaving, Magda Szubanski, Anthony LaPaglia, Richard Carter and Benjamin Lil P-Nut Flores, Jr.
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Eat Pray Love - Der Hölle Rache (Queen of the Night)
In this Julia Roberts movie, the song that soundtracks her eating spaghetti in Italy is ‘Der Hölle Rache’ commonly known as the Queen of the Night aria from The Magic Flute an opera composed by Mozart.
The film is based on a memoir of the same name. It is the story of Elizabeth “Liz” Gilbert who after a painful divorce, realises that she needs to find herself before she can move on with her life.
For her ‘Eat’ section, she travels to Italy to reconnect with her love of food where she indulges in all the pasta, wine and ice-cream. She then travels to India for her ‘Pray’ section. There she stays in an ashram and tries to find spiritual peace. Finally, she travels to Bali where she rediscovers ‘Love’ in the form of Brazilian Felipe.
More about The Magic Flute
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Despicable Me 3 - I Am The Very Model of A Modern Major General
In the third installment of the Despicable Me animated film series, the Minions run away from Gru and follow a pizza delivery boy onto a Hollywood studio lot who are filming a version of America’s Got Talent.
They find themselves on stage and perform a Minion version of Gilbert & Sullivan‘s “I’m A Very Model of A Modern Major General” from The Pirates of Penzance.
In Despicable Me 3, Gru is now married to Lucy and they are part of the Anti-Villain league. However, they are fired because they’re unable to capture the super-villain Balthazar Bratt who has stolen the biggest diamond in the world.
Gru discovers his long-lost brother Dru is a successful and rich super-villain. Gru persuades Dru to steal the diamond from Bratt with the plan to give it to the Anti-Villain league.
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Luca – O mio Babbino Caro
Right at the beginning of this Pixar movie, the fishermen are listening to the aria ‘O mio babbino caro’ from the opera ‘Gianni Schicchi’ by Puccini.
This film is full of Italian songs and aria including two from the Barber of Seville – “Una voce poco fa” and “Largo al factotum”.
Set in Italy, Luca is a coming of age film about a young boy. The eponymous Luca is half-human/half sea monster. He lives underwater off the coast of the Italian city of Portorosso.
Luca’s parents want to keep him safe from fishermen so he is not allowed out of the water. Luca spends his days bored herding fish. However, when Luca meets Alberto another half human who has been out of the water, Luca defies his parents and follows him to the surface. Luca has a summer of Italian adventures filled with ice-cream, pasta and scooters.
Mrs Doubtfire – Figaro’s aria
Chris Columbus’ Oscar-winning film begins with it’s star Robin Williams singing “Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro”.
This song, or aria, is called ‘Largo al factotum’. It’s from Rossini‘s The Barber of Seville. In the opera, it’s sung by the lead character, Figaro, a barber in Seville.
Discover the Barber of Seville
Based on the Anne Fine novel, Madame Doubtfire, the film – Mrs Doubtfire – is the story of Daniel, an American actor, who disguises himself as a elderly Scottish woman to take the job of the family housekeeper to his three children so he can spend more time with them after his divorce.
The film won an academy award in 1994 for Best Makeup.
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Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation - Nessun Dorma
In this fifth installment of the Mission Impossible franchise. Lead character Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise, together with his team try to foil an assassination at the Vienna State opera in Austria.
The opera playing on stage is ‘Turandot’ and the scene ends with the famous aria ‘Nessun Dorma‘.
In this film Ethan Hunt, ends up on the run from his own organisation, the IMF, after he discovers The Syndicate, a shadow organisation who’s aim is to destabilise nations through financial disasters, large scale accidents, and acts of terrorism.
With the help of disavowed MI6 agent and Syndicate operative Ilsa Faust and his old teammates, Benji and Luther, Ethan tracks The Syndicate around the world to put an end to their evil plans.
Turandot was written in Italian by Giacomo Puccini it premiered at La Scala opera house in 1926 after the death of the composer.
The aria, Nessun Dorma (in English, “None shall Sleep”) is in the final act of Turandot. The princess Turandot challenges all prospective suitors to three riddles. The opera revolves around the first prince to succeed in solving her riddles.
In Act 3, the Princess admits that she still does not want to marry the prince. He offers to waive the marriage if she finds out his real name before the next day. She tells everyone in her kingdom that they shall not sleep until the name is discovered. The aria is sung by the prince as he realises dawn is coming and he is going to win (in Italian, Vincerò!).
Nessun Dorma was popularised in the UK in 1990. The BBC chose Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti’s 1972 version sung with the London Philharmonic Orchestra as the theme music for Italia 90 – the Men’s FIFA World Cup held in Italy that year.
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FAQs
Nessun Dorma is probably the most famous opera song used in movies. Nessun Dorma (in English, “None shall Sleep”) is an aria from the opera Turandot.
Written in Italian by Giacomo Puccini it premiered at La Scala opera house in 1926 after the death of the composer. Puccini had left with the opera unfinished. His family chose Franco Alfano to complete it.
At the first performance, the orchestra stopped playing in the middle of Act III. Then the conductor, Arturo Toscanini, told the audience “Qui finisce l’opera, perché a questo punto il maestro è morto” (“Here the opera ends, because at this point the maestro died”). The curtain was then lowered. The new ending was then always played at subsequent performances.
The aria, Nessun Dorma, is in the final act of Turandot.
The prince sings this aria as dawn is coming and he realises he’s going to marry the princess (in Italian, Vincerò!).
Nessun Dorma was popularised in the UK in 1990. The BBC chose Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti’s 1972 version sung with the London Philharmonic Orchestra as the theme music for Italia 90 – the Men’s FIFA World Cup held in Italy that year.
Pavarotti then sung the aria twice during a concert the night before the final match of the tournament. The first time he performed it alone then he teamed up with two other legendary tenors Plácido Domingo and José Carreras, to sing it as an encore.
The live recording of this concert became the best-selling clasical music album of all time. It launched the Three Tenors on the world stage as an operatic supergroup. They then repeated their Three Tenors concert, including their trio version of Nessun Dorma, at the next 3 men’s football World Cups. These were in Los Angeles, USA in 1994; Paris, France 1998 and Yokohama, Japan 2002.
The aria “Nessun Dorma” from the opera Turandot is featured in a number of movies including
- Mission Impossible: Rouge Nation
- The Mirror has Two Faces
- Bend it like Beckham
- The Sum of All Fears
- No Reservations
- The Killing Fields
- The Witches of Eastwick
- Chasing Liberty
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