so, there was a moot this past weekend...
...and as it was in my own town, I didn't have to travel. I liked that part rather a lot. ;) lavendertook was the awesomest and arranged everything in advance (I pretty much just served as an extra chauffeur), and the group consisted of, at various times and in various combinations: shirebound, claudia603, lovethosehobbit, Lavender's coworker L, romeny, moit, lbilover, belleferret, and aprilkat and her friend C, and we visited mews1945 and obeliamedusa. Quite an impressive gathering, you must admit. :)
Several of the others are doing a much better job at posting reports (along with pictures; I didn't take any), so I'll let you find those (some are f-locked).
For me, I mostly wanted to comment on the RotK showing with live orchestra, which was the impetus for our gathering.
The setup was the same as for the TTT performance last year, though this year our seats were much closer to the stage (the biggest part of the group was about five rows back), so we could barely see the choir over the percussion, and I couldn't watch the conductor's screen nearly so much because I could hardly see it. :)
There seemed to be more silent spots scattered through RotK than there was in TTT. The low strings were still consistently playing throughout the bulk of the performance, and half of the basses had these strange fingerboard-extender-like things attached to their scrolls -I need to go look up what those were.
I did indeed cry a bit at several points (you know that conversation between Gandalf and Pippin with the far green country and all that? The cello that comes in there just slays me. Slays me dead. It was beautifully done by the performing cellist). And, of course, the ending had me all sniffly. I didn't cry as much as I did sometimes in the theater, perhaps because I felt more exposed, but I did definitely have tears running down and dripping down my throat and all that fun stuff. ;)
Performance-wise, the low strings and the percussion absolutely rocked, particularly with the transitions from one mood/scene to another. I'm sure the woodwinds and brass were fine, too, but being a string person I notice the strings. ;) The concertmaster (aka lead violinist) flubbed a bit on the solos when the Rohan stuff first came up, but he did do them properly during the second half. The violins did quite well for the lighting of the beacons, and I didn't notice any obvious errors after the solo issues. The only other obvious (and obvious to the point of wincing) bit that was off was the pan flute or whatever that is that plays when you've got Gandalf driving up in the cart with Bilbo near the end -it was so horribly flat when it first came in! The performer did manage to get the pitch up to where it belonged after a measure or three, but... *shudder* (Which isn't to say I could do any better in that position!)
Oh, and I think the female singer was the same young lady that performed in Houston for the LotR Symphony (in 2005! My, how time flies. That entry is f-locked, btw). I haven't confirmed it, but the name (Kaitlyn Lusk) sounded very, very familiar.
All in all, the performance was lovely, and the company was excellent too. :D
Other than that, the weekend mostly consisted of eating, talking, driving around, more eating, more talking... and a little sleeping. ;) A few came over to meet Jeffrey (he really enjoyed having the extra hands to pet him!). Everyone who was still around (we started losing people on Saturday) left on Sunday, with our hobbits (shirebound and moit) the last to be dropped off at the airport. I was sorry to see everyone go, so all I can do is look forward to the next moot or other fannish get-together. :)
Several of the others are doing a much better job at posting reports (along with pictures; I didn't take any), so I'll let you find those (some are f-locked).
For me, I mostly wanted to comment on the RotK showing with live orchestra, which was the impetus for our gathering.
The setup was the same as for the TTT performance last year, though this year our seats were much closer to the stage (the biggest part of the group was about five rows back), so we could barely see the choir over the percussion, and I couldn't watch the conductor's screen nearly so much because I could hardly see it. :)
There seemed to be more silent spots scattered through RotK than there was in TTT. The low strings were still consistently playing throughout the bulk of the performance, and half of the basses had these strange fingerboard-extender-like things attached to their scrolls -I need to go look up what those were.
I did indeed cry a bit at several points (you know that conversation between Gandalf and Pippin with the far green country and all that? The cello that comes in there just slays me. Slays me dead. It was beautifully done by the performing cellist). And, of course, the ending had me all sniffly. I didn't cry as much as I did sometimes in the theater, perhaps because I felt more exposed, but I did definitely have tears running down and dripping down my throat and all that fun stuff. ;)
Performance-wise, the low strings and the percussion absolutely rocked, particularly with the transitions from one mood/scene to another. I'm sure the woodwinds and brass were fine, too, but being a string person I notice the strings. ;) The concertmaster (aka lead violinist) flubbed a bit on the solos when the Rohan stuff first came up, but he did do them properly during the second half. The violins did quite well for the lighting of the beacons, and I didn't notice any obvious errors after the solo issues. The only other obvious (and obvious to the point of wincing) bit that was off was the pan flute or whatever that is that plays when you've got Gandalf driving up in the cart with Bilbo near the end -it was so horribly flat when it first came in! The performer did manage to get the pitch up to where it belonged after a measure or three, but... *shudder* (Which isn't to say I could do any better in that position!)
Oh, and I think the female singer was the same young lady that performed in Houston for the LotR Symphony (in 2005! My, how time flies. That entry is f-locked, btw). I haven't confirmed it, but the name (Kaitlyn Lusk) sounded very, very familiar.
All in all, the performance was lovely, and the company was excellent too. :D
Other than that, the weekend mostly consisted of eating, talking, driving around, more eating, more talking... and a little sleeping. ;) A few came over to meet Jeffrey (he really enjoyed having the extra hands to pet him!). Everyone who was still around (we started losing people on Saturday) left on Sunday, with our hobbits (shirebound and moit) the last to be dropped off at the airport. I was sorry to see everyone go, so all I can do is look forward to the next moot or other fannish get-together. :)