Phantom of the Field Museum (Adventures in Chicago)
I apologize in advance for the fact that I'm going to be making a lot of posts over the next few days, relative to my usual frequency, because end of year and stuff we've been doing for the holidays and all of that.
This is not an end-of-year post, yet! It is a post about the things I've been doing since Christmas.
So I last posted on Christmas about our Christmas adventures, and then we had a very busy next two days. Monday was pretty chill up until about 3:30, at which point we all got dressed and headed out to see the new staging of The Phantom of the Opera downtown at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. We went to dinner with paladin's parents first, at a seafood restaurant, and the food was just amazing. I had a North Atlantic cod with prosciutto, browned butter, Marcona almonds, and a butternut squash puree and it was so good. (Also an exceptional crab and shrimp bisque, and a really good Moscato.)
We left there and made our way down to the theatre, which is one I had not been to before. Like the other big theatres downtown, it's incredibly swanky inside--plush red carpets, carved ceiling and walls, all kinds of stuff. We had balcony seats, but the way the theatre is built, we had an excellent view. (I was not willing to shell out twice as much for floor seats. The first time I saw Phantom, for my thirteenth birthday, was at the Kennedy Center and we did have floor seats right under the chandelier and that was amazing, but I didn't feel the need to do it again.)
The new staging is so fucking good. Some stuff I loved about it: They cast the Phantom as a bari-tenor, instead of a pure tenor, which takes his vocal range more into the heroic than the villainous. He is still, obviously, the villain, but this production did a lot to make him a more sympathetic villain. He's not right, his actions will never be right, but I felt for this Phantom in a way I've never really managed for Michael Crawford's brilliant performance. (Also: no longer keeping a doll of Christine in a wedding dress in his lair.)
I also loved that Carlotta was played more sympathetically; she is silly, superstitious, and self-centered, but she is not actively evil as she has been shown in both the original cast recording and the Gerard Butler movie. Raoul, conversely, is less sympathetic; the staging really plays up the lack of respect he has for Christine and her experiences (she actually slaps him and it's glorious). At the end of the day, he still "wins," in that Christine comes with him--but this staging makes it really clear that he wins because the Phantom experienced character growth, not because of anything he did to deserve it.
The actual set itself was also really cool; it had a big half-circle piece of staging that swung around to create the stairway down to the Phantom's lair, and that could be turned the other way and opened out like an Advent calendar to show the managers' office, or the opera sets, or Christine's dressing room. Speaking of the office, I love that they took out the references to Christine being mad from Notes Part 2. She isn't, and this staging recognizes that.
I loved that at the end, the Phantom does not see Christine return the ring; his "Christine, I love you..." is said, he believes, in her absence, which is part of what makes him more sympathetic. He doesn't know she's heard him (versus the original staging where he does see her and it's addressed to her face.)
The main thing I didn't like is that one of the things they crossed over from the movie is the Phantom messing with Carlotta's spray bottle during Il Muto; I liked it better when you just don't know how he accomplished his effect on her. Did she psych herself out? Is he actually preternaturally powerful? we don't know and that's what makes him effective: the stories people tell about his abilities (see also: Madame Giry, who is and remains three thousand percent superior in the stage show to her character in the book.)
Though this staging is less expensive to put on than the original, it hardly looks cheap; it was still glorious. And the orchestra, holy shit, the orchestra was fucking incredible. As were all of the actors. The Phantom gave me chills. (I think I do prefer Steve Barton as Raoul, or Michael Ball, but this guy was still quite good.)
Basically A+++ if you get a chance and you like Phantom at all, then go see it, it's incredible.
So that was Monday. Yesterday we got up and Mom made us a huge breakfast of biscuits, scrambled eggs, bacon, and fried apples, and then we went downtown to go to the Field Museum, which had a bunch of cool exhibits on that we wanted to see.
First we went to the Tattoo exhibit, which was a look at the history and cultural significance of tattoos. It focused pretty heavily on 20th century, but some of the displays were just astonishingly gorgeous.
After that, we went to the main point of our visit, the terra cotta warriors of Emperor Qin Shihuang, which was fucking amazing. The amount of work that went into creating that tomb complex, and all the fascinating individual faces, and the things that he accomplished during his reign--I am just. Flabbergasted. (Granted, he was also rather an asshole, which is more or less how things got done. But I am still astonished.) I am just. Wow. I wish I could go back and see it again, maybe on a less crowded day, but the exhibit is almost over. Still, it's amazing to have been able to see it at all. Several of the pieces were displayed in open air, which is amazing too, but I guess they've lasted this long (and there were people keeping a watchful eye out.)
From there, we visited the Grainger Hall of Gems, which is full of beautiful things that astonish me, and also the Malott Hall of Jades, which is one of those things where I look at what people did with minimal tools and one of the hardest stones we have, and I just shake my head in awe.
The last exhibit of the day was the Tang Hall of China, which was really interesting and had a historical timeline similar to the one the Field has for Egypt. (I've been to the Field before and seen the permanent exhibits, so this time we focused on the visiting/temporary ones.) I had a moment of realizing how lucky I am to have access to this museum, wiht its incredibly high-quality artifacts and scholarship.
One exhibit I didn't get to see much of, but that I thought was fascinating, was Drawing on Tradition, an exhibit that partially overlays the museums exhibits of Native American culture and artifacts with art created by a Native American artist. There were some interesting supplementary notes, like a plaque observing that the Field's exhibits had been designed without the input of the people they were talking about, and asking the viewer to consider what we know and where we learned it from. I found that really fascinating, conceptually, and I think I'd like to go back (again on a less crowded day) to look at it again. Fortunately, that one is there until 2019, so I've got time.
After that we came back home and had leftovers for dinner and worked on putting together the puzzle, while warbling emphatically to the soundtracks of Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera, while the cats helped very enthusiastically. This morning my parents set off to drive back home and paladin and I took advantage of an opportunity to just flop and play video games. Wiht my friend's help, we shepherded paladin through the endgame of FFXIV's base game, including a three-person unsynced run of Praetorium that was a little bit slow but at no point were we in any real danger. So that happened, and then I logged off to write this entry and start wrapping up end-of-year posts.
And I still have five whole days to enjoy before I go back to work!
I've posted this at http://lassarina.dreamwidth.org/1166119.html and you may comment there or here. On Dreamwidth, this entry has
comments.
This is not an end-of-year post, yet! It is a post about the things I've been doing since Christmas.
So I last posted on Christmas about our Christmas adventures, and then we had a very busy next two days. Monday was pretty chill up until about 3:30, at which point we all got dressed and headed out to see the new staging of The Phantom of the Opera downtown at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. We went to dinner with paladin's parents first, at a seafood restaurant, and the food was just amazing. I had a North Atlantic cod with prosciutto, browned butter, Marcona almonds, and a butternut squash puree and it was so good. (Also an exceptional crab and shrimp bisque, and a really good Moscato.)
We left there and made our way down to the theatre, which is one I had not been to before. Like the other big theatres downtown, it's incredibly swanky inside--plush red carpets, carved ceiling and walls, all kinds of stuff. We had balcony seats, but the way the theatre is built, we had an excellent view. (I was not willing to shell out twice as much for floor seats. The first time I saw Phantom, for my thirteenth birthday, was at the Kennedy Center and we did have floor seats right under the chandelier and that was amazing, but I didn't feel the need to do it again.)
The new staging is so fucking good. Some stuff I loved about it: They cast the Phantom as a bari-tenor, instead of a pure tenor, which takes his vocal range more into the heroic than the villainous. He is still, obviously, the villain, but this production did a lot to make him a more sympathetic villain. He's not right, his actions will never be right, but I felt for this Phantom in a way I've never really managed for Michael Crawford's brilliant performance. (Also: no longer keeping a doll of Christine in a wedding dress in his lair.)
I also loved that Carlotta was played more sympathetically; she is silly, superstitious, and self-centered, but she is not actively evil as she has been shown in both the original cast recording and the Gerard Butler movie. Raoul, conversely, is less sympathetic; the staging really plays up the lack of respect he has for Christine and her experiences (she actually slaps him and it's glorious). At the end of the day, he still "wins," in that Christine comes with him--but this staging makes it really clear that he wins because the Phantom experienced character growth, not because of anything he did to deserve it.
The actual set itself was also really cool; it had a big half-circle piece of staging that swung around to create the stairway down to the Phantom's lair, and that could be turned the other way and opened out like an Advent calendar to show the managers' office, or the opera sets, or Christine's dressing room. Speaking of the office, I love that they took out the references to Christine being mad from Notes Part 2. She isn't, and this staging recognizes that.
I loved that at the end, the Phantom does not see Christine return the ring; his "Christine, I love you..." is said, he believes, in her absence, which is part of what makes him more sympathetic. He doesn't know she's heard him (versus the original staging where he does see her and it's addressed to her face.)
The main thing I didn't like is that one of the things they crossed over from the movie is the Phantom messing with Carlotta's spray bottle during Il Muto; I liked it better when you just don't know how he accomplished his effect on her. Did she psych herself out? Is he actually preternaturally powerful? we don't know and that's what makes him effective: the stories people tell about his abilities (see also: Madame Giry, who is and remains three thousand percent superior in the stage show to her character in the book.)
Though this staging is less expensive to put on than the original, it hardly looks cheap; it was still glorious. And the orchestra, holy shit, the orchestra was fucking incredible. As were all of the actors. The Phantom gave me chills. (I think I do prefer Steve Barton as Raoul, or Michael Ball, but this guy was still quite good.)
Basically A+++ if you get a chance and you like Phantom at all, then go see it, it's incredible.
So that was Monday. Yesterday we got up and Mom made us a huge breakfast of biscuits, scrambled eggs, bacon, and fried apples, and then we went downtown to go to the Field Museum, which had a bunch of cool exhibits on that we wanted to see.
First we went to the Tattoo exhibit, which was a look at the history and cultural significance of tattoos. It focused pretty heavily on 20th century, but some of the displays were just astonishingly gorgeous.
After that, we went to the main point of our visit, the terra cotta warriors of Emperor Qin Shihuang, which was fucking amazing. The amount of work that went into creating that tomb complex, and all the fascinating individual faces, and the things that he accomplished during his reign--I am just. Flabbergasted. (Granted, he was also rather an asshole, which is more or less how things got done. But I am still astonished.) I am just. Wow. I wish I could go back and see it again, maybe on a less crowded day, but the exhibit is almost over. Still, it's amazing to have been able to see it at all. Several of the pieces were displayed in open air, which is amazing too, but I guess they've lasted this long (and there were people keeping a watchful eye out.)
From there, we visited the Grainger Hall of Gems, which is full of beautiful things that astonish me, and also the Malott Hall of Jades, which is one of those things where I look at what people did with minimal tools and one of the hardest stones we have, and I just shake my head in awe.
The last exhibit of the day was the Tang Hall of China, which was really interesting and had a historical timeline similar to the one the Field has for Egypt. (I've been to the Field before and seen the permanent exhibits, so this time we focused on the visiting/temporary ones.) I had a moment of realizing how lucky I am to have access to this museum, wiht its incredibly high-quality artifacts and scholarship.
One exhibit I didn't get to see much of, but that I thought was fascinating, was Drawing on Tradition, an exhibit that partially overlays the museums exhibits of Native American culture and artifacts with art created by a Native American artist. There were some interesting supplementary notes, like a plaque observing that the Field's exhibits had been designed without the input of the people they were talking about, and asking the viewer to consider what we know and where we learned it from. I found that really fascinating, conceptually, and I think I'd like to go back (again on a less crowded day) to look at it again. Fortunately, that one is there until 2019, so I've got time.
After that we came back home and had leftovers for dinner and worked on putting together the puzzle, while warbling emphatically to the soundtracks of Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera, while the cats helped very enthusiastically. This morning my parents set off to drive back home and paladin and I took advantage of an opportunity to just flop and play video games. Wiht my friend's help, we shepherded paladin through the endgame of FFXIV's base game, including a three-person unsynced run of Praetorium that was a little bit slow but at no point were we in any real danger. So that happened, and then I logged off to write this entry and start wrapping up end-of-year posts.
And I still have five whole days to enjoy before I go back to work!
I've posted this at http://lassarina.dreamwidth.org/1166119.html and you may comment there or here. On Dreamwidth, this entry has
comments.