O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love, what a beautiful Pussy you are!

July 20, 2011 6:31 PM

Often attributed to Rossini, the «Duetto buffo di due gatti» ("humorous duet for two cats") is a popular performance piece for sopranos.

Performed by:

• Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé and her daughter, soprano Montserrat Martí
• Montserrat Caballé and Spanish actress Concha Velasco hamming it up
• the late renowned Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Victoria de los Ángeles
• Swedish soprano Hannah Holgersson and mezzo-soprano Agnes Vojtko
• the glorious Elena Obraztsova and Teresa Berganza
• some cherubic choirboys

Enjoy!
(via Avva)

posted by Nomyte (11 comments total)

Nice title...I tried to find a YT version of Laurie Anderson's version of the poem, but my GoogleFu is too weak. These are great fun!
posted by spacewrench at 7:05 PM on July 20, 2011

The choir boys one always cracks me up!
posted by typewriter at 7:43 PM on July 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

Awesome! I love Rossini and I love cats! My long suffering kitty has grown weary of L'Italiani in Algeri and thanks you.

Sadly, that's not Rossini

and those aren't real cats
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:37 PM on July 20, 2011

Ha, I've performed this before, and I don't think I'd ever actually heard anyone sing it but me and the group I sang it with until just now. I suspect we butchered it, as we were 13-year-old girls and none of us were really very good singers.
posted by troublesome at 10:59 PM on July 20, 2011

The incredibly talented and delightfully eccentric Orriel Smith has combined opera, cats and chickens on her Cluckoratoura performances.
posted by scruss at 4:31 AM on July 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

I like the creeping realisation of the dark haired boy - he's been just going along with this guff in rehearsal, but then finds that yes, this kills and tonight I have them.
posted by hawthorne at 7:23 AM on July 21, 2011

Makes me think of the prizewinning composing cat who died recently.

“We gave the piece serious consideration because it was quite well written,” Guy Livingstone, one of the judges, said in 1997. “It reminded us of Anton Webern. If Webern had a cat, this is what Webern’s cat would have written.”

His piece didn't have lyrics but presumably if it had they would have been "miau."
posted by yarrow at 7:39 AM on July 21, 2011

A friend of mine performed this at her senior recital, and did a really great job. Unfortunately, the other "cat" went a little overboard with the acting, and ended up overshadowing my friend with a "sexy / funny / coy" peformance of her half.
posted by rossination at 9:05 AM on July 21, 2011

The so-called "Cat Duet" is actually a pastiche compiled largely from Rodrigo's two-part aria "Che ascolto, ahimè... Ah come mai non senti" from Rossini's great opera, Otello (most of the borrowed stuff is from the cabaletta at 5:32).
posted by slkinsey at 9:56 AM on July 21, 2011

"My pussy never smelled like that!"
Pussy Pussy Pussy - The Light Crust Doughboys (1936)

I nearly died the first time I heard this.
posted by xthlc at 8:17 PM on July 23, 2011

Apologies for any derail from that last link. I couldn't resist thanks to the title of this (great) post.
posted by xthlc at 8:18 PM on July 23, 2011