A Capella Group Performs Portal 2 Opera

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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A Capella Group Performs Portal 2 Opera


Not only do humans make good test subjects, they sing pretty well, too.

As those who have completed Portal 2 know - and anyone who hasn't should probably stop reading right now for fear of having the ending spoiled - the game ends with not one, but two songs. The first, "Want You Gone,"
is in a similar vein to "Still Alive," but the other is significantly more operatic.

For those of you who have completed the game - and for those who haven't, why on Earth are you still reading this? I wasn't kidding about the spoilers - might recall that as Chell rides the elevators out of the Aperture Labs after defeating Wheatley, she is serenade by a chorus of turrets, including the magnificent and powerful Animal King Turret. It's this tuneful snippet that vocal group Acquire, via A Capella Records, has recreated, using only the human voice and what they call "various robot enhancements," which is mostly limited to the occasional sound effect.

According to the description on the video, this is all part of a grand experiment. "Today, we at A Cappella Records are GLaD to announce a partnership with Aperture Science," it says. "The video involves a cappella music. It is designed to see how test subjects react to a cappella music." Bizarre as it sounds, that's actually the kind of experiment you could almost see GLaDOS trying as she gets more and more bored.

It's a fun little number, even if opera isn't usually your thing, and it's quite remarkable how rich a sound they manage to achieve with just four people. If you like it enough that you want to carry it around with you, then A Capella Records has stuck it on iTunes [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/turret-opera-a-cappella-feat/id436537588]. If you're in the mood to recreate it, then A Capella is offering free sheet music [http://sebastianwolff.info/news/2011/04/turret-opera-cara-mia-a-cappella/], which also contains the lyrics in both Italian and English.

Source: Geeks Are Sexy [http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2011/05/14/portal-2s-turret-opera-a-cappella/]








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Torrasque

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Aug 6, 2010
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/tear
Absolutely beautiful.
Its too bad that the bass isn't that prominent, but this is still excellent.
 

PunkRex

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Feb 19, 2010
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Im glad I watched that.

Always have been a fan of classical, now if only theyd do a "Phantom Turret of the Opera" version and id be in heaven.
 

Shymer

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Feb 23, 2011
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Fans of light opera and HP Lovecraft can do worse than search the Internet for (and aquire a copy of) the cast album of "A Shoggoth on the Roof".

I liked Portal 2 a lot and there is insuffucient attention paid to the audio/soundtrack elements of computer games.
 

Helios_(DEL)

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Mar 22, 2010
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Torrasque said:
/tear
Absolutely beautiful.
Its too bad that the bass isn't that prominent, but this is still excellent.
wow that was powerful that had alot of energy, just wow!
 

UltraXan

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Mar 1, 2011
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That was great... I would have like to have the animal king turret's sound a little more present, but that was great...
 

Jesus Phish

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Jan 28, 2010
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I have to say I didnt enjoy that. It was done very well, apart from the backing track and the bass, but for some reason I just prefer the original a million times more.
 

Saltyk

Sane among the insane.
Sep 12, 2010
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Wow, that was beautiful.

Also, was it just me or did that one guy look like Seth Rogen?
 

Lambi

Yuki-Onna
Oct 20, 2009
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Simply beautiful. Loved the song at the end of Portal 2, and love it here. Bravo to the people that sung it. :'3