Saw Opera Australia’s regional tour La Boheme in Bendigo last night. Aside from the head scratching over its setting being switched to the 1970’s and therefore why does Mimi have TB , it was great.
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another La Boheme performance, this time from Melbourne Opera this afternoon at the Athenaeum. Was terrific. Can’t fault any of the singers, and particularly enjoyed the potrayal of Musetta - although she didn’t have the typical coquettish figure, she was totally believable as the woman that would drive men mad with desire.
Afterwards, we actually travelled as far as the G with Stephen Smith, the tenor who played Schaunard - was wondering why this Geelong fan was going to the footy so late then realised who he was!
There’s one performance left on Tuesday night, and not many tickets left, but I totally recommend heading along if you can!
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today I went to see ‘Pride & Prejudice – An Adaptation in Words & Music’ at Fairfax Studio. Was a pianist, a violinist, and Nadine Garner. Set was very simple - the two musicians, a writing desk and chair, a music stand and an ornate couch. The back drop was a series of pictures and portraits, plus a couple of empty frames.
It started with the violinist talking about the time that Pride and Prejudice was written, the composers that were active then and how they influenced the score that Carl Davis composed for the 1995 series.
Nadine then read an abridged version of the book, carrying it around the stage, and becoming some of the characters - for her Lady Catherine de Bourgh, she moved behind one of the empty frames and became her portrait momentarily. Was really well done. Naturally her portrayal of the exasperating mother was a fave! She also included the audience nicely. The musicians joined with well placed pieces, including the theme song fans of the series know so well.
If you like the book/series/movie, you’d probably enjoy this! it’s on for another week.
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Pride and Prejudice is my favourite book ever!
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It’s a great book. So is Emma.
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last night I went to see ‘SIX The Musical’ at the Comedy Theatre. Soooo much fun! It’s about the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII, and they have a competition to try to determine who had it the worst. Goes for 80 minutes without an intermission, and has the six queens plus the four musicians (electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and keyboard, all female) on stage for basically the whole time. Really high energy, catchy tunes, clever lyrics with lots of laugh out loud moments. Shame it finishes on Sunday and I can’t get back to see it again… hopefully it will return!
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Reckon Anne Boleyn might’ve been a warm favourite in that race 
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it was one of the running jokes - comments like ‘ohhh your child had chickenpox and you couldn’t be with them. So much worse than YOUR HEAD SEPARATING FROM YOUR BODY!’ 
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Was at Hamer Hall last night seeing the MSO doing some of the music from John Williams. It was presented and conducted by the guys who do the Art of the Score podcast. If you like movie/tv scores, do yourself a favour and check this series out - they delve into different scores, talking about the main themes, the way the characters are represented and how that can change simply by using particular parts of the orchestra - I find it really interesting!! some of them they split up over different episodes if there’s a lot to dissect (ie Star Wars!).
anyway! the concert was terrific. Included pieces from Superman, Schindler’s List, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Close Encounters, ET, Jurassic Park and Star Wars.
Heading back again tomorrow afternoon 
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I’m currently playing the Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Suite with a local orchestra. The Balcony Scene music has been a favourite for a long time. To keep the Russian flavour we are also playing Night on Bald Mountain (anyone who has seen the original Fantasia would know this).
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Night on Bald Mountain and In The Hall of the Mountain King are two pieces I’ve always considered to be among the ‘heavy metal’ of classical music!
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just got home from seeing ‘Menopause The Musical’.
Is four women recounting their experiences with menopause, set to well known songs. Good fun - lots of laughs!
Quite amusing and not unexpected looking at the demographics of the crowd - only saw five men, one very young - I asked him if it had been an educational experience and he grinned and said yeah!
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for fans of John Williams - new documentary on Disney
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went to see Sister Act yesterday.
It basically follows the storyline of the movie, with a few little twists - for example, the detective working the case turns out to be an old school friend of Deloris who had a crush on her back in the day!
None of the same music though, it’s all original stuff, with some numbers that really got the toes tapping!
Casey Donovan was terrific as Deloris, the guy playing the detective had a particularly good voice, and the rest of the cast was great.
Worth a watch!!
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Last weekend went to see Handel’s Messiah on Sunday afternoon. Had a great spot at the front of the circle at Hamer Hall, very well placed to appreciate the orchestra/choir combination!
The main section people know from this piece of music is the Hallelujah chorus, which (quite unsurprisingly) is where the choir sings
Haaaaallelujah
Haaaaallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hal-le----lu-jah
At this point, most of the audience stands. This because of a tradition that purportedly began when King George II is said to have stood during the chorus at the debut in London in 1743. The fact that when historians look back, they could find no record of King George actually attending that night doesn’t matter!! People still stand anyway!
Yesterday’s outting was quite different - it was the Love Actually? The Musical Parody at the Athenaeum.
If you weren’t familiar with the movie, most of it would have gone over your head. I however have seen it many many times, and while there were some weak bits, the rest was absolutely brilliant. Lots of sarcastic references to characters and scenes, but also bringing in references to the actors other movies - for example, the Alan Rickman character was dressed as Professor Snape; ‘Hugh Grant’ making continued references to being the king of romcon; when the boy Sam starts talking to the Liam Neeson character, Daniel, about what was troubling him, Daniel says ‘Have you been taken? because I have a particular set of skills…’
Only six people in the cast, but they did a brilliant job of playing a wide range of roles.
Sooo much fun - my cheeks and stomach are still sore from laughing! Two shows left, one tonight and one tomorrow night. If you like the movie, and are free, do it!!!
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