I’m back in my hotel room, having seen the UCI production of Urinetown tonight.
It was fantastic. I have to say, if anyone is interested in a musical theatre major, UCI is a great choice. Their shows are better than even some of the professional productions I’ve seen in the past. And this was the “all undergraduate” show. Wow.
What a fun, fun night!
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There are some great voices like Gerry Finley’s which have that real stamp of character, but I’m bothered by the way classical singers always sing loud. For years I’ve been looking for a different sort of voice, something more intimate, but still intense.
Read here.
That quote, by Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage … well … I wonder if what he really meant was “sing large” rather than “sing loud”. I’ve heard plenty of classical singers sing softly. It’s just that they sing in very much a large sort of way, if you know what I mean, even when they sing softly.
Just thinkin’ ….
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I do this because everywhere else all I’m offered is fun. This is the only place where I can experience something that offers me a different experience.
-16 (or thereabout) year old boy
I don’t always go to movies to have fun. I don’t go to concerts to have fun either. I have fun when I go to Disneyland. (And I admit I love Disneyland … sorry to those of you who don’t get it! I become a little kid the minute I walk through that gate!)
I go to movies, concerts and operas to be moved. I go to learn something new. I go to somehow be changed. I go for a variety of reasons, but fun isn’t usually one of them. (Okay, maybe when I go to see goofy movies, but those are fairly rare for me.)
I want to be left with something when I am done with whatever event I’m attending. I love it when, days later, I’m still thinking about what I saw or heard. And I want to feel something … even if it’s anger. I don’t like to walk away thinking, “Whatever” or “So what?”
I don’t think I’m unique. In fact I’m sure I’m not.
It’s not that I go to something to feel miserable … don’t read it that way please! (I avoid movies that I think are merely out there to make me cry, actually; I don’t particularly care to be manipulated.) I just want to care about what I’m viewing and hearing, and I really like being challenged and, believe it or not, I like learning. Mostly about the human condition.
I appreciated this article, and was especially pleased to read that quote by a 16 year old.
Well … maybe more later … Kelsey just IM’d me and I think we are going out to have fun. Or something. 😉
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Art belongs to the unconscious! One must express oneself! Express oneself directly! Not one’s taste, or one’s upbringing, or one’s intelligence, knowledge, or skill. Not all these acquired characteristics, but that which is inborn, instinctive. And all form-making, all conscious form-making, is connected with some kind of mathematics, or geometry, or with the golden section or suchlike. But only unconscious form-making, which sets up the equation ‘form = outward shape,’ really creates forms; that alone brings forth protoytpes which are imitated by unoriginal people and become ‘formulas.’ But whoever is capable of listening to himself, recognizing his own instincts, and also engrossing himself reflectively in every problem, will not need such crutches. One need not be a pioneer to create in this way, only a man who takes himself seriously—and thereby takes seriously that which is the true task of humanity in every intellectual or artistic field: to recognize, and to express what one has recognized!!! This is my belief!
-Arnold Schoenberg, letter to Kandinsky, 1911, translated by Joseph Auner in A Schoenberg Reader
(First read here at Alex Ross’s site.)
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