Funniest Opt Up Notes

[BeingAlive44Ever]

Posted: 1/14/24 at 8:18pm

I was just thinking about opt up notes in theatre and it's so funny how some of them feel so powerful and almost necessary but some of them feel inexplicably hilarious 

Y'know, in opera, it wasn't all that common for there to be opt up notes, and most people who do them are viewed as "showoffs" 

In theatre, I find it almost more common for actors to go for opt up notes

Like practically everybody sings some lines of Epiphany up the octave, for example, and I don't think that's even in the score

There's a handful that are very funny to me for a lot of reasons, though

The most famous, cheesiest one is the Corner of the Sky high C

When rendered in full voice, it doesn't really fit

When rendered in falsetto, it absolutely fits the character and the show but also sound absolutely hilarious 

Another one everybody knows is the optional riff in the end of Defying Gravity that goes up to an F5 

This one is very very funny sounding, even though it is technically very impressive

I feel like it's really funny how the two most famous examples of this are Schwartz songs 

Another one that I find really funny is the opt up in I Am What I Am that Doug Hodge does on the cast album 

Not because it isn't fitting, it's just a fifth and it works great in the song

But what I find funny about it is how he literally never did it live

I mean, I'm sure he did once or twice, and I understand why he didn't cause it was an A# in the key he was singing in, but it was just so dang funny to me when I realized he literally never does it

I bet someone somewhere does it 

And the last one I have to say is the Jesus Christ Superstar high E in Last Supper that Judas can sing

See this is hysterical to me because it's the climax of the song right

And he's singing all these extended C#'s, which are already crazy high

But then some Judases just go from that last C# to an E5 and then it just sounds really funny inexplicably 

Again, it fits the song and it's technically impressive 

But it just makes this moment even hammier 

Like the notes in this song are so absurdly high, why would you ever want to go higher? 

I almost always sing this opt up note just cause I think it's really funny 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 1/14/24 at 9:34pm

The funniest is when Glenn Close modulates down.

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 1/14/24 at 9:57pm

I don’t think it gets funnier than this

[BeingAlive44Ever]

Posted: 1/14/24 at 11:38pm

NOWaWarning said: "I don’t think it gets funnier than this"

You're absolutely right that is hysterical

TotallyEffed said: "The funniest is when Glenn Close modulates down."

Kind of reminds me of like Harvey Fierstein and sometimes Carol Channing trying to sing notes that wouldn't be high at all for anybody other than them and struggling to the point that they wind up singing it down a few tones and having to adjust to sing an actual harmony on the fly 

I love both of them, but it is extremely funny when that happens

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/15/24 at 11:57am

Ute Lemper sings an insane two-octave opt up in her only solo from “The Wall: Live in Berlin.”

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 1/15/24 at 1:07pm

https://youtu.be/Z-JK7wUQ8jc?feature=shared

I've always loved the opt ups Keala Settle did in Master of The House

[BeingAlive44Ever]

Posted: 1/16/24 at 7:53pm

Alex Kulak2 said: "https://youtu.be/Z-JK7wUQ8jc?feature=shared

I've always loved the opt ups Keala Settle did in Master of The House"

God damn those are freaking A5's 

Reminds me of Norm Lewis going up the octave in some lines as Javert, but those weren't very funny, they were mostly just really really surprising (never out of place, but as somebody who's heard a lot of Les Mis it was unexpected)