Pre-Season Countdown#4:Cliché Music Count
This entry probably only happened because I got back from my first class and promptly got hit by a bad headache. Though I shall have to do a lot of reading Wednesday and Thursday, and do my shopping Friday: Saturday and Sunday I'll be watching Lake Placid with only forty-five minutes for dinner Saturday from 11:30 onwards! What often-used music pieces are making the rounds this year, and with whom. No Carmens or Phantoms yet this year(though there is an Evita), but perhaps their extensive use last season caused them to take a year off.
Romeo and Juliet(Rota): 1. Pang and Tong LP. And after two years of Phantom from them!
Malaguena: 2. Carlotte Belair and Derrick Delmore, both SP. Did Delmore use it last year, or have I confused him with someone else?
Rachmaninoff 2nd Piano Concerto: 2.5. Danielle Kahle's and Pflumm and Pottenger LPs are completely made up of it, and Mira Leung's combining it. Which doesn't sound as bad, until you hear she's combining it with his first concerto!
Swan Lake: 2. Eva Lim's and Khodkova and Sliusarenko's SPs. Khodkova's costume looks too much like the Adam-and-Eve wardrobe change/Fallen Angels costumes as well.
Turandot: 1. Alexander Uspenski LP. I have heard men don't use it as often, though.
The Mission: 1. Savchenko and Szolkowy. Keeping the program for another year. You can't deny it worked for them.
Handel's Sarabande: 1. Megan Oster SP. Which version not yet specified.
Liebestraum: 1. Nam and Leftheris' LP. I'll be kind and not comment.
The Feeling Begins: 1. Kimmie Meissner SP. Most are very worried about this.
Scheherazade: 1. Castile and Okolski's LP. One would think pairs would prefer to stay away from that music!
Tosca: 1. Evan Lysacek LP. Others have already commented on this much more snarkily than I can.
Dark Eyes: 1. Virtue and Moir's OD. Thankfully I'm willing to forgive them anything.
Masquerade Waltz: 1.25 Domnina and Shabalin are using it for their free(growing less and less fond of them by the day), and Jeremy Abbott is using it for a quarter of his waltz LP, which is so cool I don't care if a quarter of it counts as cliche.
Romeo and Juliet(Prokofiev): 1. McLaughlin and Brubaker LP. They'll be like every other pair that way.
La Cumparsita: 1. Inoue and Baldwin's SP. I think people should have refrained from tangos this year, after last year's overload. But then, with these two you always suspect they're about to age out.
Moonlight Sonata: 1. McLaughlin and Brubaker's SP. I'm intruiged to see on the senior level, but both their music choices are horribly cliche.
Umbrellas of Cherbourg: 1. Virtue and Moir FD. Again I'll forgive them anything.
Daphnis and Chloe: .5 Evora and Ladwig are combining it with Debussy for their LP. A good match, at least.
Otonal: 1. Mukhortova and Trankov's SP. Only announced today. Though really, Kawaguchi and Smirnov doing Love Story is the funnier news right now.
Madame Butterfly: 1. Yukina Ota SP. I've always wondered why so many Asian skaters take to passing around music from operas that don't really portray them, but rather exoticize them for Westerners.
I've Got Rhythm: 2. Emily Hughes and Mirai Nagasu, SP for both. Is she competing senior at nationals? Buecause this'll be direct confrontation if she is.
Ave Maria: 1. Caroline Zhang LP. After doing Meditation from Thais. There seems to be a pattern here.
Kalinka: 3. ODs for Domnina-Shabalin, Davis-White, and Samuelson-Bates. Those are just the ones I've noted so far.
Por Una Cabeza: 2. Ashley Wagner SP, and Paetsch and Nuss's FS. At least they aren't competing against each other.
The Godfather: 2. Ryan Bradley's SP and Grebenkina and Azrojan's FD. How the latter are going to pull that off may be interesting though!
O Fortuna: 1. Emily Hughes LP. Unless by some miracle she's actually using some other part of Carmina Burana, but I doubt it.
West Side Story: 1. Alissa Czisney LP. A violin version. She's also doing Swan for her short, which is borderline cliche, I think(most go for Swan Lake instead), but is dangerously copycat.
Les Miserables: 1. Vise and Trent LP. Same as last year. Keeping with the familiar to focus on landing the quad?
Special OD Entry-Zorba the Greek: 1. Bailey and Herring's OD. This one came up quickly on the discussion board along with Kalinka as a piece of music that would no doubt be overused in ODs this year, but this is the only announced one so far.
Romeo and Juliet(Rota): 1. Pang and Tong LP. And after two years of Phantom from them!
Malaguena: 2. Carlotte Belair and Derrick Delmore, both SP. Did Delmore use it last year, or have I confused him with someone else?
Rachmaninoff 2nd Piano Concerto: 2.5. Danielle Kahle's and Pflumm and Pottenger LPs are completely made up of it, and Mira Leung's combining it. Which doesn't sound as bad, until you hear she's combining it with his first concerto!
Swan Lake: 2. Eva Lim's and Khodkova and Sliusarenko's SPs. Khodkova's costume looks too much like the Adam-and-Eve wardrobe change/Fallen Angels costumes as well.
Turandot: 1. Alexander Uspenski LP. I have heard men don't use it as often, though.
The Mission: 1. Savchenko and Szolkowy. Keeping the program for another year. You can't deny it worked for them.
Handel's Sarabande: 1. Megan Oster SP. Which version not yet specified.
Liebestraum: 1. Nam and Leftheris' LP. I'll be kind and not comment.
The Feeling Begins: 1. Kimmie Meissner SP. Most are very worried about this.
Scheherazade: 1. Castile and Okolski's LP. One would think pairs would prefer to stay away from that music!
Tosca: 1. Evan Lysacek LP. Others have already commented on this much more snarkily than I can.
Dark Eyes: 1. Virtue and Moir's OD. Thankfully I'm willing to forgive them anything.
Masquerade Waltz: 1.25 Domnina and Shabalin are using it for their free(growing less and less fond of them by the day), and Jeremy Abbott is using it for a quarter of his waltz LP, which is so cool I don't care if a quarter of it counts as cliche.
Romeo and Juliet(Prokofiev): 1. McLaughlin and Brubaker LP. They'll be like every other pair that way.
La Cumparsita: 1. Inoue and Baldwin's SP. I think people should have refrained from tangos this year, after last year's overload. But then, with these two you always suspect they're about to age out.
Moonlight Sonata: 1. McLaughlin and Brubaker's SP. I'm intruiged to see on the senior level, but both their music choices are horribly cliche.
Umbrellas of Cherbourg: 1. Virtue and Moir FD. Again I'll forgive them anything.
Daphnis and Chloe: .5 Evora and Ladwig are combining it with Debussy for their LP. A good match, at least.
Otonal: 1. Mukhortova and Trankov's SP. Only announced today. Though really, Kawaguchi and Smirnov doing Love Story is the funnier news right now.
Madame Butterfly: 1. Yukina Ota SP. I've always wondered why so many Asian skaters take to passing around music from operas that don't really portray them, but rather exoticize them for Westerners.
I've Got Rhythm: 2. Emily Hughes and Mirai Nagasu, SP for both. Is she competing senior at nationals? Buecause this'll be direct confrontation if she is.
Ave Maria: 1. Caroline Zhang LP. After doing Meditation from Thais. There seems to be a pattern here.
Kalinka: 3. ODs for Domnina-Shabalin, Davis-White, and Samuelson-Bates. Those are just the ones I've noted so far.
Por Una Cabeza: 2. Ashley Wagner SP, and Paetsch and Nuss's FS. At least they aren't competing against each other.
The Godfather: 2. Ryan Bradley's SP and Grebenkina and Azrojan's FD. How the latter are going to pull that off may be interesting though!
O Fortuna: 1. Emily Hughes LP. Unless by some miracle she's actually using some other part of Carmina Burana, but I doubt it.
West Side Story: 1. Alissa Czisney LP. A violin version. She's also doing Swan for her short, which is borderline cliche, I think(most go for Swan Lake instead), but is dangerously copycat.
Les Miserables: 1. Vise and Trent LP. Same as last year. Keeping with the familiar to focus on landing the quad?
Special OD Entry-Zorba the Greek: 1. Bailey and Herring's OD. This one came up quickly on the discussion board along with Kalinka as a piece of music that would no doubt be overused in ODs this year, but this is the only announced one so far.