"Battlestar Operatica" from Bear's BSG Songbook

Standing alongside "Kara Remembers" as the only other Battlestar duet Bear has published (to date), the "Operatica" beckoned to my sense of challenge and creative opportunity. I was fortunate enough to find a stellar friend and musical partner in Elowyn Corby, and together we decided to go all out in answering Bear's call for "unique or entertaining" uses of his songbook. Our performance, to be conducted with such tongue-in-cheek hauteur as could only befit this gaudy "space opera" (of the most literal variety), would be set in Vancouver's Orpheum Theater, the real-world filming location for Kobol's mythical Opera House. With a stack of neon-green poster board; some photos my dad had snapped on a recent business trip to Vancouver; and my nascent compositing skills at the ready, (please pardon the occasionally jittery mattes), we had all the necessary ingredients! Of course, it still took a summer's worth of meetings, spirited practice sessions, and more post-production than I'd bargained for to bring this all together... I can only hope that the care we took and fun we had along the way is evident in the final product!

"Operatica" ranks among Bear's less easily recognized works and, as such, may appeal more to fans of the soundtrack than to fans of the show itself. Nonetheless, its Italian lyrics, (here accompanied by English subtitles), are a hilarious Easter egg that anyone should appreciate -- and a real testament to Bear's wonderfully geeky attention to detail! Plus, the track marks a particularly amusing scene, (Baltar's listless contemplation of an entire fleet's worth of blood samples), in what may be one of Battlestar's only light-hearted episodes, ("Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down").

Enjoy, and thanks for watching!

To check out other videos of Bear's work, (including several more fan projects of my own), visit:
http://www.youtube.com/bearmccreary

To purchase Bear's Battlestar Galactica Songbook, go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Battlestar-Galactica-Songbook-Piano-Solo/dp/1617803677/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301456454&sr=8-1

The collection includes substantial piano arrangements from all four seasons of the show, and it has my highest recommendation for anyone interested in giving the music of Battlestar Galactica new life with their own hands.