Opera Babes Opera Babes The Opera Babes are a crossover classical music duo, consisting of Karen England (born 1974), mezzo-soprano, and Rebecca Knight (born 1970), soprano. The duo came to wide attention when they sang "Un bel dì vedremo" (from the opera "Madame Butterfly") on television sports programmes, beginning in 2002. In addition to performing with major orchestras in Britain and touring with their own shows, they released their first album, "Beyond Imagination" in 2002 and their second album, "Renaissance", in 2006. The Opera Babes met in Cambridge while performing Mozart's "The Magic Flute" in a touring opera company. England studied at
Giacomo Puccini use of Chinese folk melodies in Turandot. All of Puccini's operas have at least one set piece for a lead singer that is separate enough from its surroundings that it can be treated as a distinct aria, and most of his works have several of these. At the same time, Puccini's work continued the trend away from operas constructed from a series of set pieces, and instead used a more "through-composed" or integrated construction. His works are strongly melodic. In orchestration, Puccini frequently doubled the vocal line in unison or at octaves in order to emphasize and strengthen the melodic