A Marxian Perspective
by Mark Burstein

Those of us familiar with the Marx Brothers’ A Night at the Opera and presently supering in Il trovatore have to work very hard to suppress the instinct to whip out Groucho glasses and shout "Boogie! Boogie! Boogie" as Dolora Zajick begins her fiery "Stride la vampa."

For the curious, here are the complete operatic selections from that wonderful movie.

I Pagliacci

Ballatella ("Stridono lassù" - Nedda): Kitty Carlisle ("Rosa Castaldi")

Il trovatore

•Overture (intermixed with "Take Me Out to the Ballgame")

•Act II: "Stride la vampa" - Azucena: Olga Dane (uncredited)
" The Anvil Chorus": M-G-M Symphony Orchestra and chorus
"Mal reggendo all’aspro assalto" somehow manages to segue to "Di quella pira" (from Act III) - Manrico: Walter Woolf King ("Rodolfo Lassparri")

•Act IV: "Miserere" - chorus / "Sull’orrida torre" - Leonora / "Sconto col sangue mio" - Manrico: Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones ("Ricardo Baroni"). Repeated as encore.