Charlie K. asks: Where did the expression “It ain’t over until the fat lady sings” come from?
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You might think the expression, “The opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings,” derives from some stereotypical “fat lady” singing to close out operas. In particular, some have theorized that the expression in question derives from the last part of Richard Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Twilight of the Gods (Götterdämmerung), where the character of the Valkyrie Brünnhilde is typically played by a rather plump woman who closes out the lengthy opera via a near twenty minute aria. But none of this is correct.
The exact expression in question is actually a relatively recent invention, tracing its origins to the 1970s. It is commonly credited to Dan Cook, a sports broadcaster from San Antonio, Texas. He was reporting on a playoff game between his hometown Spurs and the Washington Bullets (now the Wizards) in 1978 in which the Spurs were down three games to one. Seemingly off the cuff, Cook stated: “The opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings.”
But this, also, is not the true origin of the exact phrase. For that, we have to go back to 1976, when Ralph Carpenter was giving a report on The Dallas Morning News in March of that year:
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 (Southwest Conference information director), “this … is going to be a tight one after all.” “Right,” said Ralph. “The opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings.”
So while Cook didn’t actually coin the phrase, his utterance did result in its popularization via inspiring Bullets coach Dick Motta to borrow the phrase and repeat it frequently during their playoff run that year as a sort of rallying cry against overconfidence. Motta even had t-shirts made with the expression on it.
At this point you might be wondering if Carpenter really came up with the phrase off the cuff in 1976. Was he, perhaps, an opera aficionado and simply referencing something he observed in various operas?
It doesn’t appear so.
You see, “The opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings,” is just a modern version of a much older Southern expression, with the family of expression going all the way back to at least the 1870s.
For instance, in the October 17, 1872 edition of The Daily Picayune, it states, “As long as the organ is playing, church is not out.” Not literally referring to church getting out, this saying has the same common usage as the “opera/fat lady” expression, simply saying “It ain’t over yet” or, to use a similar phrase, “Don’t count your chickens until they’re hatched.”
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In 1894, another example is seen expressing the same sentiment in a report from the August 17 edition of The Fort Worth Gazette,
The impression is still strong among railroad passenger agents that there will be further reductions in the rate to the Washington encampment of the Knights of Pythias. “Church is never out till the people get through singing,” said one of them this morning, and all of them talk as if they understood the language of this parable.
In yet another instance, this time in 1896 reported in the New York Tribune, one Chauncey M. Depew is asked, “Do you think the Governor still has a chance?” (referring to Levi P. Morton seeking a presidential nomination), to which he responds:
While there is life there is hope. It doesn’t do to count on anything as a certainty until all is over. 777 online casino. Church is never out until they stop singing. I admit that Major McKinley looks like the winner, but I am with Morton as long as he is to be considered as a candidate.
The expression became relatively common from here, particularly in the Southern United States, and, fast-forwarding a bit through history, is even known to have been used by various sports broadcasters in the 1970s. For instance, in 1974 pioneering female sportscaster Lee Arthur noted while broadcasting on KDKA, Pittsburgh during a Rangers / Penguins hockey match: “Back in Indiana we used to say, ‘The church ain’t over till the singing’s through.'”
Two years later, in 1976, it was reported in The Baltimore Sun that the captain of the Baltimore Clippers team, Fred Speck, said of his team’s chances, “Church isn’t over until the choir stops singing. Anything can happen.”
That same year, in a little obscure work called Southern Words and Sayings, the first documented instance of incorporating “fat lady” to the phrase occurred where it states, “Church ain’t out ’till the fat lady sings.” Given the nature of this work, it can be assumed that this variation was at least reasonable well-known in certain parts of the South previous to this documented instance. (It has also been claimed, though I couldn’t find any documented evidence, that another common variation at the time was “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings the blues.”)
From this, it would seem likely that Carpenter’s real contribution (if any) to the sentiment was simply substituting “church” with “opera,” using the already established “fat lady sings” variation of the phrase.
Two years later, Dan Cook and then Dick Motta would borrow the phrase, popularizing the “opera” version with the masses, and the rest, as they say, is history.
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Amalie Materna as the valkyrieBrünnhilde (1876)
It ain't over till (oruntil) 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.
Definition[edit]
The phrase is generally understood to be a reference to opera sopranos, who were traditionally overweight. The imagery of Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and its last part, Götterdämmerung, is typically used in depictions accompanying uses of the phrase. The 'fat lady' is thus the valkyrieBrünnhilde, 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.[1] As Götterdämmerung 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.'
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The saying has become so well known that it was the subject of an article in the journal Obesity Reviews.[2]
Attribution[edit]
The first recorded use appeared in the Dallas Morning News on March 10, 1976:[3]
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[who?] followed up the discovery by contacting Bill Morgan[who?] about the incident:[4] Indian casino reviews.
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.[5] Shapiro called this a notable example of misattribution.[6]
Phrases with similar meanings[edit]
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- 'It ain't over till it's over', a 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', a phrase meaning that the future can always be changed.
- 'Nothing is carved in stone' or 'It isn't carved in stone.' a phrase meaning a situation or plans can be changed.
References[edit]
- ^'Libretti Götterdämmerung'. Richard Wagner. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
- ^Rössner, S. (October 1, 2014). ''It ain't over till the fat lady sings''. Obesity Reviews. 15 (10): 851–852. doi:10.1111/obr.12219. ISSN1467-789X. PMID25213703.
- ^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. ISBN978-0-300-10798-2.
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