Liliputin-5825

My quest ain't over till the fat lady sings ... "
Fitzgarraldo

Liliputins. What, the heck, is this?
http://stihi.ru/2025/03/08/5867


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It ain't over till the fat lady sings


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Amalie Materna as the valkyrie Brunnhilde (1876)

"It ain't over 'til (or until) the fat lady sings" is a colloquialism which is often used as a proverb. It means that one should not presume to know the outcome of an event which is still in progress. More specifically, the phrase is used when a situation is (or appears to be) nearing its conclusion. It cautions against assuming that the current state of an event is irreversible and clearly determines how or when the event will end. The phrase is most commonly used in association with organized competitions, particularly sports.

The proverb is used in baseball circles, such as "the Texas Rangers didn't hear a fat lady sing"[1] when the Rangers went down 2-3 in a seven game series against the Houston Astros.

Definition
The phrase is generally understood to be a reference to opera sopranos, who were typically heavyset.[2] The imagery of Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and its last part, G;tterd;mmerung, is typically used in depictions accompanying uses of the phrase. The "fat lady" is thus the valkyrie Br;nnhilde, who was traditionally presented as a very buxom lady. Her farewell scene lasts almost twenty minutes and leads directly to the finale of the whole Ring Cycle.[3] As G;tterd;mmerung is about the end of the world (or at least the world of the Norse gods), in a very significant way "it is [all] over when the fat lady sings."

Attribution
The first known use in media appeared in the Dallas Morning News on March 10, 1976:[4]

Despite his obvious allegiance to the Red Raiders, Texas Tech sports information director Ralph Carpenter was the picture of professional objectivity when the Aggies rallied for a 72–72 tie late in the SWC tournament finals. "Hey, Ralph," said Bill Morgan, "this... is going to be a tight one after all." "Right", said Ralph, "the opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings."

In the same newspaper on November 26, 2006, Steve Blow followed up the discovery by contacting Bill Morgan about the incident:[5]

Bill vividly remembers the comment and the uproar it caused throughout the press box. He always assumed it was coined on the spot. "Oh, yeah, it was vintage Carpenter. He was one of the world’s funniest guys," said Bill, a contender for that title himself.

The 1976 use of the phrase was discovered by Fred R. Shapiro, who published it in The Yale Book of Quotations. It had previously been attributed to sportswriter and broadcaster Dan Cook, who used the phrase after the first basketball game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Washington Bullets (now the Washington Wizards) during the 1978 NBA Playoffs. Cook used the line to illustrate that while the Spurs had won once, the series was not over yet.[6] Shapiro called this a notable example of misattribution.[7]

Phrases with similar meanings
"G;n do;madan neler do;ar" is a Turkish saying that means "Anything can happen before sunrise" to express "Don't let your hopes gone, keep them alive, you never know what will happen till the next step completely done"
"The game isn't over until the final out" is an older aphorism pertaining to baseball, meaning that even if one team is behind, they always have a chance of winning until the third out of the final inning completes the game.
"It ain't over till it's over", a variation of the above phrase popularized by baseball player Yogi Berra.
"Don't count your chickens before they hatch", a well-known saying which originated in the 16th century.
"The future isn't carved in stone", "nothing is carved in stone" or "it isn't carved in stone" is a phrase meaning that the future can always be changed.
Non dire gatto se non ce l'hai nel sacco, once cited in English as "Don't say cat if you don't have it in the sack [bag]," is an Italian saying used in informal and funny contexts, popularized by football trainer Giovanni Trapattoni.
Lopta je okrugla, cited in Croatian as "Ball is round" which is often said during football games, meaning that any outcome is possible and there is no predetermined winner of the match.
Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt is a German saying, meaning "Hope dies last".
Du sollst den Tag nicht vor dem Abend loben is another German saying, meaning "Don't praise the day before the evening."
Ещё не вечер (pronounced "Yeshcho ne vecher") is a Russian saying. It translates to "It isn't yet evening", but other than the similar German saying above, it can also be used in case the speaker still hopes for something good to happen.
C'est pas fini tant que c'est pas fini is a French expression meaning nothing is over before it is; C'est ; la fin de la foire qu'on compte les bouses is a proverb saying the same in a more colourful manner ("Wait until the end of market to count the cowpatties").
Parijs is nog ver (It's still a long way to Paris) are famous words of the Dutch cyclist and Tour de France winner Joop Zoetemelk, indicating that everything still can change as long as the race hasn't finished.
Neper;ok;s griovio, nesakyk "op" is a Lithuanian saying (Do not say "hop", until you have jumped over the moat"), meaning that one should not get ahead of themselves and proclaim the outcome of a process that has not yet ended.
References
 "didn't hear a fat lady sing"
 "Why are opera singers fat?". The Register. June 23, 2006.
 "Libretti G;tterd;mmerung". Richard Wagner. Archived from the original on October 24, 2016. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
 Pincus, David (March 9, 2010). "Today in Sports History: March 10th". SBNation. Vox Media, Inc. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
 Blow, Steve (November 26, 2006). "Fat lady first sang in the pages of The News". Dallas Morning News.
 Adams, Cecil (October 25, 1991). "What's the origin of "the opera ain't over till the fat lady sings?"". The Straight Dope. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
 Shapiro, Fred R., ed. (2006). The Yale Book of Quotations. Yale University Press. p. xix. ISBN 978-0-300-10798-2.


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Fitzcarraldo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fitzcarraldo

German release poster
Directed by Werner Herzog
Written by Werner Herzog
Produced by
Werner Herzog
Walter Saxer
Lucki Stipeti;
Jorge Vignatti
Starring
Klaus Kinski
Claudia Cardinale
Jos; Lewgoy
Miguel Angel Fuentes
Paul Hittscher
Huerequeque Enrique Boh;rquez
Grande Otelo
Peter Berling
Cinematography Thomas Mauch
Edited by Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus
Music by Popol Vuh
Production
companies
Werner Herzog Filmproduktion
Pro-ject Filmproduktion
Filmverlag der Autoren
ZDF
Wildlife Films Peru S.A., Iquitos
Distributed by Filmverlag der Autoren (West Germany)
Release date
5 March 1982 (West Germany)
Running time 157 minutes
Countries
West Germany
Peru
Languages
German
Spanish
Ash;ninka
(Shot in English)
Budget DM 14 million

Fitzcarraldo  is a 1982 epic adventure-drama film written, produced, and directed by Werner Herzog. The film stars Klaus Kinski as Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, a would-be Irish rubber baron known in Peru as "Fitzcarraldo", who is determined to transport a steamship over the Andes mountains to access a rich rubber territory in the Amazon basin. The character was inspired by Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald, who once transported a disassembled steamboat over the Isthmus of Fitzcarrald.

The film had a troubled production, chronicled in the documentary Burden of Dreams (1982). Herzog had his crew attempt to manually haul the 320-ton steamship up a steep hill, leading to three injuries. The film's original star Jason Robards became sick halfway through filming, so Herzog hired Kinski, with whom he had previously clashed violently during production of Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), and Woyzeck (1979). Their fourth collaboration fared no better. When shooting was nearly complete, the chief of the Machiguenga tribe, whose members were used extensively as extras, asked Herzog if they should kill Kinski for him, though Herzog declined.[2]

Plot
In the early part of the 20th century, Iquitos, Peru, a small city east of the Andes in the Amazon basin, is experiencing rapid growth due to a rubber boom, and many Europeans and North African Sephardic Jewish immigrants are settling in the city, bringing their cultures with them. One immigrant, an Irishman named Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (known by the locals as "Fitzcarraldo"), is a lover of opera and a great fan of the internationally-renowned Italian tenor Enrico Caruso. He dreams of building an opera house in Iquitos, but, although he has an indomitable spirit, he has little capital. The Peruvian government has parceled up the areas in the Amazon basin known to contain rubber trees. However, the best parcels having already been leased to private companies for exploitation, Fitzcarraldo has been trying and failing to make the money to bring opera to Iquitos by various other means, including an ambitious attempt to construct a Trans-Andean Railway.

A rubber baron shows Fitzcarraldo a map and explains that, while the only remaining unclaimed parcel in the area is on the Ucayali River, a major tributary of the Amazon, it is cut off from the Amazon (and access to Atlantic ports) by a lengthy section of rapids. Fitzcarraldo notices that the Pachitea River, another Amazon tributary, comes within several hundred meters of the Ucayali upstream of the parcel.[a] He leases the inaccessible parcel from the government, and his paramour, Molly, a successful brothel owner, funds his purchase of an old steamship, which he christens the SS Molly Aida, from the rubber baron. After fixing up the boat, Fitzcarraldo recruits a crew and takes off up the Pachitea, which is largely unexplored because of the hostile indigenous people who live on its banks.

Fitzcarraldo intends to go to the closest point between the Ucayali and the Pachitea, pull his three-deck, 320-ton steamship up the muddy 40° hillside, and portage it from one river to the next.[3] He plans to use the ship to collect rubber harvested along the upper Ucayali and then transport the rubber over to the Pachitea and, on different ships, down to market at Atlantic ports.

Soon after they enter indigenous territory, the majority of Fitzcarraldo's crew, who are unaware of his full plan, abandon the expedition, leaving only the captain, engineer, and cook. The natives are impressed by the steamship and, once they make contact, agree to help Fitzcarraldo without asking many questions. After months of work and great struggles, they successfully pull the ship over the mountain using a complex system of pulleys and aided by the ship's anchor windlass. The crew falls asleep after a drunken celebration, and the chief of the natives severs the rope securing the ship to the shore. Fitzcarraldo awakens as the boat is going through the Pongo of Mainique, and is unable to stop it. The ship does not sustain any major damage, but Fitzcarraldo is forced to abandon his quest. Before returning to Iquitos, he learns that the natives helped him move the ship so they could attempt to appease the river gods by shooting the rapids in the enormous ship.

Despondent, Fitzcarraldo sells the steamship back to the rubber baron, but there is time before the title changes hands for him to send for a European opera company that he hears is in Manaus. Lacking an opera house, they construct their sets on the deck of the ship, and the entire city of Iquitos comes down to the riverbank to watch as Fitzcarraldo floats it by, managing to bring opera to the city after all.