Cultured like yogurt
I'm feeling as cultured as yogurt these days. Besides consuming large quantities of fruit flavored yogurt and parmesan cheese (not fruit flavored), I managed to cram a lot of theatre and music in this past weekend. In addition, I have a paper due for Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven (21M.240) examining various movements of Mozart and Beethoven sonatas. Alas most of the assigned movements are slow and not very complex. Easier for analysis and critiquing but not nearly as exciting to listen to over and over and over.
Friday night Kyle, Johnny, Chris and I went to go see The Old Law, a play performed by MIT's Dramashop. The theatre was quite small and intimate, we also sat in the second row so we were very close to the action on stage. I enjoyed the play; it was written in old english but the producers chose to give it a modern flair complete with gaudy suit jackets, sparkly heels and interesting techno music. There were many humorous moments and some very talented actors. I wasn't as convinced by the assigning of multiple roles, some actors pulled it off and were able to convince me they were a different character while others were obviously the same people.
Saturday night I went to see Don Giovanni as performed by the BU Opera Institute. The theatre was much smaller than a normal opera house and we sat in the front center mezzanine, perhaps the best seats in the house. I loved being able to see the expressions on the singers' faces and the clever staging. The set was also beautifully constructed and lent itself to smooth scene changes. The orchestra was a bit muddy and some of the singers were not as strong but this was scarcely the Met. For $15, I was perfectly satisfied with the performance. Zerlina was very adorable and endearingly clueless. My favorite character was Leporello, he was witty, clever, and perfectly conveyed his hapless role as Don Giovanni's accomplice. I thought Don Giovanni did not have as strong a stage presence as I would have liked and neither did Donna Elvira. Donna Anna often overpowered Donna Elvira's voice.
The weekend ended with a bang: Les Mis at the opera house! This is my absolute favorite show, I could watch it for days straight and not be tired of it. I'm not exactly sure why... maybe having performed it in high school conditioned me to like the music. I know every word and note but still yearn to see it over and over. After the end of Sunday's show all I could think about was the next chance I would have to see the production. Alas that may not be for a while; probably not until a Broadway revival. I thought Jean Valjean had an excellent voice, I am always amazed by the range he has to cover. He hit all the high notes cleanly and powerfully. Javert was also quite imposing. The thenardiers were histerical, probably the funniest out of all the productions I have seen and Madame Thenardier was thin as a rail with big poofy hair in contrast to other productions where she is usually heavy. I was not fond of Marius, he sounded fine most of the time but then on random vowels he would have an extremely nasal tone. If there's one thing I can't stand it's nasal singing... and belting. Fantine was a belter. Eponine did a pretty good job of covering instead of belting. I think I've yet to be satisfied by any Marius or Cosette, in part that is quite possibly due to their rather untragic characters. In a show filled with strong, tragic characters they seem shallow and not as complex. They don't wrestle between right and wrong, they don't confront tragedy... haha, in other words they survive and live happily ever after. I supposed I am quite biased towards other characters that I think are much more interesting. I love the complexity of the characters and plot, we have Victor Hugo to thank for that. They struggle to do good and die or survive by being crooks. Themes that apply even to today's world :-)
In other cultural news I'm playing rehearsal piano for Gilbert and Sullivan again this semester and I'm going to try to play in the pit for Chicago. Also I'm going to play the Beethoven piano sonata in e minor and the Eroica Variations during class for 21M.240. Professor Lindgren likes to use live performances to illustrate his points and we've had a lot of people in the class play various pieces. I also managed to appreciate those years of technique; Hanon, Czerny and such. All those silly exercises Carole made me practice contributed a great deal to my playing. I can tell when people need more technique... namely the ones complaining about those silly exercises!
I'm also taking a figure drawing class once a week. It's fun, mainly a reason to actually draw although 2 and a half hours of drawing on an easel from a live (naked!) model makes my shoulder very very sore. It's hard work being an artist!
I just saw the kitten's nose!!! While I was typing this entry I was simultaneously reading an article for 5.08 about hydroxyl radical footprinting to determine the tertiary structure of ribosomal RNA. We basically covered all the steps in detail during class but for most of the lectures I was spacing out (the lecturer has a really uninteresting method of giving lectures) and didn't really know how all the pieces fit together. But now I do! And I have a full appreciation of good science writing.
Oh, and I'm still running. After a long day of class a good hard run just kicks off the evening in the right way. Although I sometimes have a hard time getting back to work and well, waste time typing long Livejournal entries :-)
Friday night Kyle, Johnny, Chris and I went to go see The Old Law, a play performed by MIT's Dramashop. The theatre was quite small and intimate, we also sat in the second row so we were very close to the action on stage. I enjoyed the play; it was written in old english but the producers chose to give it a modern flair complete with gaudy suit jackets, sparkly heels and interesting techno music. There were many humorous moments and some very talented actors. I wasn't as convinced by the assigning of multiple roles, some actors pulled it off and were able to convince me they were a different character while others were obviously the same people.
Saturday night I went to see Don Giovanni as performed by the BU Opera Institute. The theatre was much smaller than a normal opera house and we sat in the front center mezzanine, perhaps the best seats in the house. I loved being able to see the expressions on the singers' faces and the clever staging. The set was also beautifully constructed and lent itself to smooth scene changes. The orchestra was a bit muddy and some of the singers were not as strong but this was scarcely the Met. For $15, I was perfectly satisfied with the performance. Zerlina was very adorable and endearingly clueless. My favorite character was Leporello, he was witty, clever, and perfectly conveyed his hapless role as Don Giovanni's accomplice. I thought Don Giovanni did not have as strong a stage presence as I would have liked and neither did Donna Elvira. Donna Anna often overpowered Donna Elvira's voice.
The weekend ended with a bang: Les Mis at the opera house! This is my absolute favorite show, I could watch it for days straight and not be tired of it. I'm not exactly sure why... maybe having performed it in high school conditioned me to like the music. I know every word and note but still yearn to see it over and over. After the end of Sunday's show all I could think about was the next chance I would have to see the production. Alas that may not be for a while; probably not until a Broadway revival. I thought Jean Valjean had an excellent voice, I am always amazed by the range he has to cover. He hit all the high notes cleanly and powerfully. Javert was also quite imposing. The thenardiers were histerical, probably the funniest out of all the productions I have seen and Madame Thenardier was thin as a rail with big poofy hair in contrast to other productions where she is usually heavy. I was not fond of Marius, he sounded fine most of the time but then on random vowels he would have an extremely nasal tone. If there's one thing I can't stand it's nasal singing... and belting. Fantine was a belter. Eponine did a pretty good job of covering instead of belting. I think I've yet to be satisfied by any Marius or Cosette, in part that is quite possibly due to their rather untragic characters. In a show filled with strong, tragic characters they seem shallow and not as complex. They don't wrestle between right and wrong, they don't confront tragedy... haha, in other words they survive and live happily ever after. I supposed I am quite biased towards other characters that I think are much more interesting. I love the complexity of the characters and plot, we have Victor Hugo to thank for that. They struggle to do good and die or survive by being crooks. Themes that apply even to today's world :-)
In other cultural news I'm playing rehearsal piano for Gilbert and Sullivan again this semester and I'm going to try to play in the pit for Chicago. Also I'm going to play the Beethoven piano sonata in e minor and the Eroica Variations during class for 21M.240. Professor Lindgren likes to use live performances to illustrate his points and we've had a lot of people in the class play various pieces. I also managed to appreciate those years of technique; Hanon, Czerny and such. All those silly exercises Carole made me practice contributed a great deal to my playing. I can tell when people need more technique... namely the ones complaining about those silly exercises!
I'm also taking a figure drawing class once a week. It's fun, mainly a reason to actually draw although 2 and a half hours of drawing on an easel from a live (naked!) model makes my shoulder very very sore. It's hard work being an artist!
I just saw the kitten's nose!!! While I was typing this entry I was simultaneously reading an article for 5.08 about hydroxyl radical footprinting to determine the tertiary structure of ribosomal RNA. We basically covered all the steps in detail during class but for most of the lectures I was spacing out (the lecturer has a really uninteresting method of giving lectures) and didn't really know how all the pieces fit together. But now I do! And I have a full appreciation of good science writing.
Oh, and I'm still running. After a long day of class a good hard run just kicks off the evening in the right way. Although I sometimes have a hard time getting back to work and well, waste time typing long Livejournal entries :-)