Finished With Beauty

25. May 2008 · 4 comments · Categories: Musical Theatre, Ramble

This was a fun run, even being the reed eater that it was. I think the audiences enjoyed it, for the most part. (I did read one negative review at All That Chat, but oh well!

One thing that I found annoying after a while were the words for the sake of rhyme or filler. They were so unnecessary for what they said. They were merely there.

Here’s a simple example:

Oh, isn’t this amazing?
It’s my fav’rite part because you’ll see
Here’s where she meets Prince Charming
But she won’t discover that it’s him ’til chapter three

In line two the “you’ll see” is entirely unnecessary except for the music and rhyme.

I guess that’s not unusual. I just kept thinking, “Surely they could have thought of something that had more reason to be there?” But yes, I’m silly to even complain about that. Right?

So … the show was fun. I had some enjoyable solos. I think I’ll even miss it a bit.

Smilers

25. May 2008 · Comments Off on Smilers · Categories: Ramble

I read a couple of things recently that made me smile. Or laugh.

  • The head of a Montessori school wrote about classical music, and how much he likes it. He listed a few of his favorite works, including Mendelssohn’s Overature to a Midsummer Night’s Dream”, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overature and Berlioz’s The March to the Scaffold.

  • Then there is the singer whose goal is “to be the greatest opera singer alive”.

    Finally … Lego Tosca (there are more videos, but here is Act 1, Scene 1):

    … and now I must get ready for the final two performances of Beauty & The Beast. I’ll probably miss this just a bit, but I have to confess it was tiring and I’m ready for a break.

    • Distractions

    25. May 2008 · Comments Off on Distractions · Categories: Ramble

    Because the Giants game has been delayed due to rain, they put some science & sports thing on. They are talking about distractions. First they had a basketball player shoot some free throws with no distractions. He got 9/10. Then they had “visual distractions” (but with a lot of noise) and he didn’t do as well. Now they are doing the “ear attack” which, I guess, will be even noisier than the visual ones. I’m guessing that will be the worst.

    But what I thought, right after the “proved” that the visual distractions were bad, was about the order. What if they go back to no distractions now? Could it also be that the guy is just tiring? Would he still nail 9/10? I wonder if they should do the experiment over a number of days, changing the order each time.

    I found the experiment interesting because we have to deal with distractions in the music world too. not like crowd noise, of course, but when we are working with the backdrop of silence even a small noise is heard and can be found distracting. The thing is, we just have to deal.

    I do remember when a fellow oboist was playing an outdoor concert and I heard this, “Oh no!” or some sort of comment from my side, and looked over at the oboist and a fly was climbing up her face.

    Now that is distracting! And icky too.

    And yes, the audio distractions were the worst. But they were also last. He’d already tossed the ball 20 times.

    So let’s see … we have low Bb attacks … they run this experiment on US … would we be tired by that 21st low Bb?

    Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I just don’t get it. I’m no scientist! 🙂

    (And give me back my Giants game!)

    Had Breakfast Yet?

    25. May 2008 · Comments Off on Had Breakfast Yet? · Categories: Links, Opera, Videos, Watch

    Well, okay then ….

    But, clowning around a bit more:

    That’s One Bizarre Bassoon

    25. May 2008 · Comments Off on That’s One Bizarre Bassoon · Categories: Instruments, Links, See

    Cannon plays the contra monster, a leather bassoon played with a crook and double reed. It has an in-built control panel to allow her to guide the electronic effects.

    (Sorry, I still can’t put pictures up here for some reason. Sigh. So check out this link.)