A question ...

[ericcoleman]

In the "Leaving The Comfort Zone" post celticmom1967 asked

"Tell me about your appreciation for the traditional arts. Do you like art, theatre, opera, classical music, etc? What do you like or not like about it?"

Art: - I like the Impressionists I love the softness of it. How it is real, yet other worldly at the same time. Claude Monet is my favorite by a rather large margin.

Theatre: - I have a degree in theatre (mostly lighting and directing) and worked on and off in it for many years. My loves in theatre would take to much time but a couple of favorites for me would be Shakespeare's Tempest , and Joe Orton's What The Butler Saw. Those two I think show the range of plays that interest me.

Opera: - I don't tend to like opera much, mostly because I don't tend to like trained voices. I can appreciate it, but it isn't something that I listen to much. On the other hand I do love Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas, but I think they are best when the comic roles are cast with non-operatic voices.

Classical Music: - If you want to get technical, I like the periods that frame the Classical Era. I absolutely love Baroque music. The Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 is one of my favorite pieces of music, but I can listen to most Baroque at any time.

I love the lushness and passion of Romantics. Respighi is a particular favorite.

Comments

[ravenclaw-eric.livejournal.com]

I'd like to read the script for What the Butler Saw sometime...I've always been curious about it.

I wish you could have known my mother (before her head injury)---she was involved in theater while she taught HS for quite a few years, and I'm told she was very good at it. The plays she directed---I remember Harvey in particular, because we had pictures of the show around when I was a kid---were very good, according to people who were there.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

I don't think it is a matter of "trained voices" for me, so much as the specific style of vocal training. I also don't much like opera, due to the vocal style. However, I think you know Susan Urban and have heard her Home Repair Aria. She has had quite a lot of vocal training, including some operatic, and in this song she switches back and forth between her usual folk-style and operatic style, making it funnier than I can, because I don't have the training she does. She also makes the switching back and forth seem perfectly natural and un-forced, which I find impressive. If you haven't heard it, you should ask her to play it sometime.

[controuble.livejournal.com]

She's cheating - I got the same question.

[ericcoleman]

Ok ... now go answer it ...

[mstrhypno.livejournal.com]

"Opera is where when somebody gets stabbed in the back, instead of dying, they sing." - Yogi Berra

You could say that Tosca leaps to a conclusion... (my favorite operatic joke)

We are both in something of a Baroque Period at he moment... we're both too baroque to pay attention and are having trouble getting a Handle on our finances...

And, for real, you are aware that George Hunt and Swami Beyondananda (who, in his secret identity as Steve Bhaerman, used to work for George at the Ann Arbor Parks Department) were going to sponsor a series of Classical Music concerts through the Park District. Swami wanted to call the series "Hayden in the Bushes!" I'm actually not kidding about that last part - ask Bork...

Seen on a T-shirt over the appropriate musical notation:

"I'm a Fermata. Hold me."

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

[ericcoleman]

thanks ... he'll be here all weekend ... try the veal

yer a bad person ... but that seems to run true with a lot of my friends ... dunno why ...

[mstrhypno.livejournal.com]

I'll have to check my notes... I'm working for scale these days since I'm on staff, so you may treble at that thought... after all, I am bass-born (Daddy sang bass, my brother is a bargain-counter tenor), mean and, sometimes vicious... but I never, never eat veal... That's my one serious concession to the animal rights movement...

But I hear the sushi is pretty good...! But they may just be fishing for compliments...!

NOW you understand what happens when a guy gets raised by a cartoonist...!

[ericcoleman]

Anyone who throws in a PDQ Bach reference deserves whatever they get ...

Hmmm ... speaking of which, let's bother the co-workers

[ka-klick.livejournal.com]

I may have a go at this one over on my blog, but wanted to comment: I now know why we seem to get along. My wife and I have theatre degrees as well.

Now, lets see if I kill this thread too. (I seem to have that effect lately).

[ericcoleman]

It was dead already, you actually woke it up a little ...