Saturday, April 16, 2011

Phantom of the Opera

Last week I mentioned going to see a local high-school performance of `Phantom of the Opera.'  I was a bit too worn down to write about the experience that evening (so worn down that I now have a cold that makes me sound like Daffy Duck) but I thought now would be a good time to talk a little about the experience.

First of all, I went with a great group of friend and family.  There's something about company to a theater that magnifies the experience.  When a particularly funny or dramatic moment happens on stage you can glance over at the people you're with to catch their expression.  

Second, seeing things live allows you to experience the story in a way you just can't  when listening to a CD.  I never got the full impact of the song `Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again' until last Saturday.  It is a truly awesome, showstopping song -and I never knew.  In fact, it's one of the songs I've always had a tendency to press skip-track for.


Third -is it just me, or are highschool students getting younger?  I admit, it's hard to properly appreciate the tragedy and horror of the story when you keep thinking, "aww, those kids are so cute up there on stage." 


There's something about a live performance that connects the audience with the story in a way that no other art form does.  Plays have been around in one form or another since the time of the Ancient Greeks, and no matter how technologically advanced society becomes, I doubt that's going to change.  People like hanging out with people sharing the experience, showing their appreciation directly, clapping until their hands are tired to make the kids on stage take just one more bow.


What can I say?  I love theater.

7 comments:

  1. That does sound like a special show. I do like musicals, when I can get to live performances. A friend has recently gotten me into opera-on-the-movie-screen, but that's not always quite the same. I'm sure the wood grain on the faces wouldn't have been visible if I'd been in the audience. Unfortunately, it was annoying on camera. {lop-sided smile}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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  2. P.S. I think they decide to have you approve posts when the initial post is "old enough." This post is offically old enough. {lop-sided Smile}

    A.E.B.

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  3. Ah, is that what it is. (Sigh.) Well, at least I know what caused the glitch and it wasn't me.

    I haven't seen many films of operas, but I did watch `Marriage of Figero' on tv once. Who knew Opera involved so much bouncing in and out of closets?

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  4. No, it wasn't you. It's probably a way they use to catch those spammers who drop irrelevant comments into old posts so you'll visit their website. I've noticed a few of those around. {lop-sided smile}

    {SMILE} The New York Metropolitan Opera recently began a deal where you can watch their shows at your local movie theater. Nominally it's live, but not when my time zone is 6-7 hours behind theirs. That worked in my favor when Die Valkyrie was on. We saw a lot of fast-forwarding. Then the gal running the projector came out, and explained that in New York, the show 38 minutes late, so she skipped that part, and got to the show itself. Apparently the high-tech set malfucntioned again. {lop-sided smile}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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  5. Oooh, you got to see Die Valkyrie? That's pretty awesome. I've never seen any of Wagner's operas, but I have the Das Rhinegold soundtrack. :)

    That's interesting about the time difference. I have an aunt and uncle who used to go to church just across a time-zone. It was convenient for them because they got to sleep in.

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  6. Yes, I got to see Die Valkyrie. They're in the middle of doing the entire ring cycle. Apparently they don't do it that way often. Wagner is very impressive, isn't he? {Smile}

    Time difference is something we're pretty aware of. The cable channels usually usually give the eastern and west coast times, and expect others to translate. {Smile}

    It's neat that your aunt and uncle cfound a church in a different time zone more convenient. {Smile}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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  7. We're fortunate to be on eastern time (which is easy to remember because we're on the east coast.) so we don't have to do any translating. :)

    That's cool that they're doing the whole Cycle, and I can see why they wouldn't very often. It must be expensive.

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