Happy Days & Cynthia Erivo
I have been struck down by a cold. Not surprising really given at least 2 people in our office were sniffling last week and Dad's been sick too and I guess I should be glad it waited till after my interview but bleuch. I do not have time to be sick. So far we're going with sore throat making it hard to swallow and a lovely sinus headache which is lovely /o\
To distract from bleuchness some nice things. I got a lovely new duvet cover set today, it said it was for kids but it's grey and covered in big stars and IDK why it can't be for adults too. (On a related note why were there double duvet covers in the kids range?!)
I have daffodils. That's always a good thing right? I do love this time of year when you can reliably get a bunch of daffs for £1 and then watch them open and bring a bit of sunshine inside <3
I'm currently listening to my Tom Jones & Jools Holland album and remembering how much I love it. Similarly I suspect next week I might have to have Praise & Blame on in the car (when not listening to LOTR because I am still experiencing ALL of the nostalgia)
I just booked myself tickets to the rest of Aurora Orchestra's Lock In series. I was realising I haven't been to/booked much orchestral/classical music recently and I miss it but Aurora's concerts got more expensive when they moved out of LSO St Lukes so this is a good balance - £5 a tickets and a real mix of experimental stuff which is why I started loving them in the first place AND because KIngs Place is right next to St Pancras I am fairly confident I'll be able to get home even though they're all starting at 9:45pm (about 90 minutes long the website says).
(I also got over myself enough to book a couple of Globe/SWP things for this year MOSTLY because Ed Hogg is playing Romeo and I couldn't resist <3)
The greatest joy this week though (job permanence aside) was Cynthia Erivo's concert last weekend and that's allowing for the ridiculous queue in the rain *g*
Cynthia Erivo Homecoming @ Shoreditch Town Hall
I mean... basically my review is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ but maybe I should say more? At some point in the first half, having started out cold and slightly fed up, Becca and I looked at each other and knew it was 100% worth it to be in that room with her. Every time I see CYnthia Erivo I'm a bit more amazed by her, like I know I love her and she's incredible and yet STILL hearing her sing live is something incredible.
She started out with Happy Days Are Here Again all slow and beautiful and grinning like she couldn't quite believe she was home ♥ and then she said that this concert was going to be a chance for us to hear some of the things she'd sung whilst in America last year and some other bits she loved and then she talked about singing for Obama like she still couldn't believe it had happened (twice!) and sang The Impossible Dream.
Next song was a gospel song, I Won't Complain, which was what they sang when Heather Headley left The Color Purple (you can find that on YouTube if you so wish). I didn't know that but I very much liked it, Cynthia singing full on gospel is one of my favourite things and then she followed it with God Bless the Child (which was the first time I cried, or got choked up anyway, it very much wasn't the last)
At that point Cynthia pointed out Leslie Odom Jr who was in the audience and I'd been keeping my fingers crossed for a duet and they delivered <3 I mean I was hoping Cynthia would sing Hamilton's lines when Dear Theodosia started up instead of just having Leslie sing Burr's part and then joining with him but AS IF I'm going to complain about anything I got to see Leslie sing.
(then he got all American and gushy about how incredible she is which is TRUE but... so American)
The odd piece out of the night has to have been when Cynthia decided she was going to give some Disney a go and sang Let It Go... it's the closest I've ever seen to her singing less than spectacularly :-P as in there were the odd notes she seemed to have to work for rather than it all seeming effortless (well, not effortless but straight from the heart). But she was clearly loving in.
First half then finished and Cynthia has said in the past she doesn't like singing songs from shows she's in when she's in concert but she wanted a little extra (and after the poor pianist had a minor panic attack) she sang Somebody Gonna Love You acapella.
(and I died all over again at my own uselessness in never seeing The Color Purple)
Second half was just ALL the divas and I still don't understand how she can do all of them and just... I mean she started, STARTED the second half with I Will Always Love You! And in the middle she had a little giggle and decided to riff the sax solo and then she was blasting those notes like nobody but Whitney has ever managed (that I've heard anyway). Get you a girl who can do both?
After that she had a little section of all the name dropping culminating in a song from Dear Evan Hansen (which I've had to look up the name of) It was called You Will Be Found and it was really lovely but also reminded me of half a dozen other songs which can be good and can be not so good. I mean she sang it beautifully but I know very little about the rest of the show.
After that we were back into a series of artists I love and clearly Cynthia loves starting with Etta James and All I Could Do Was Cry which might be my favourite song of the night... I mean all of it was my favourite but if I had to pick it might be this there was just so much feeling in it.
Then to change tack completely she sang Somewhere Over The Rainbow- the Eva Cassidy version (after a restarting because the piano intro went a tad wrong). I mean nobody sings it like Eva but Cynthia's spin was heartbreaking too.
Next was Natural Woman with every bit of feeling Aretha gives it and rather hilariously backing singers aka the entire audience. I mean I guess it's not a surprise there were so many musical people and so many Aretha fans in that audience but they (we) managed it all and you could see Cynthia's grin get bigger and bigger at every ah-woo ♥
And then we were nearly at the end but she said she could make the next song last ten minutes (not quite but it was close) and broke into Ain't No Way which was... see I just can't talk about it. I hung on every note ♥
And then it was over! And she thought about an encore but she hadn't prepared one so she made up a song. I mean honestly, right there and then on the spot she made up a little thank you song and the whole audience was in her pocket.
*sighs*
She's just kind of perfect.
This entry was originally posted at http://morganmuffle.dreamwidth.org/1392985.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
To distract from bleuchness some nice things. I got a lovely new duvet cover set today, it said it was for kids but it's grey and covered in big stars and IDK why it can't be for adults too. (On a related note why were there double duvet covers in the kids range?!)
I have daffodils. That's always a good thing right? I do love this time of year when you can reliably get a bunch of daffs for £1 and then watch them open and bring a bit of sunshine inside <3
I'm currently listening to my Tom Jones & Jools Holland album and remembering how much I love it. Similarly I suspect next week I might have to have Praise & Blame on in the car (when not listening to LOTR because I am still experiencing ALL of the nostalgia)
I just booked myself tickets to the rest of Aurora Orchestra's Lock In series. I was realising I haven't been to/booked much orchestral/classical music recently and I miss it but Aurora's concerts got more expensive when they moved out of LSO St Lukes so this is a good balance - £5 a tickets and a real mix of experimental stuff which is why I started loving them in the first place AND because KIngs Place is right next to St Pancras I am fairly confident I'll be able to get home even though they're all starting at 9:45pm (about 90 minutes long the website says).
(I also got over myself enough to book a couple of Globe/SWP things for this year MOSTLY because Ed Hogg is playing Romeo and I couldn't resist <3)
The greatest joy this week though (job permanence aside) was Cynthia Erivo's concert last weekend and that's allowing for the ridiculous queue in the rain *g*
Cynthia Erivo Homecoming @ Shoreditch Town Hall
I mean... basically my review is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ but maybe I should say more? At some point in the first half, having started out cold and slightly fed up, Becca and I looked at each other and knew it was 100% worth it to be in that room with her. Every time I see CYnthia Erivo I'm a bit more amazed by her, like I know I love her and she's incredible and yet STILL hearing her sing live is something incredible.
She started out with Happy Days Are Here Again all slow and beautiful and grinning like she couldn't quite believe she was home ♥ and then she said that this concert was going to be a chance for us to hear some of the things she'd sung whilst in America last year and some other bits she loved and then she talked about singing for Obama like she still couldn't believe it had happened (twice!) and sang The Impossible Dream.
Next song was a gospel song, I Won't Complain, which was what they sang when Heather Headley left The Color Purple (you can find that on YouTube if you so wish). I didn't know that but I very much liked it, Cynthia singing full on gospel is one of my favourite things and then she followed it with God Bless the Child (which was the first time I cried, or got choked up anyway, it very much wasn't the last)
At that point Cynthia pointed out Leslie Odom Jr who was in the audience and I'd been keeping my fingers crossed for a duet and they delivered <3 I mean I was hoping Cynthia would sing Hamilton's lines when Dear Theodosia started up instead of just having Leslie sing Burr's part and then joining with him but AS IF I'm going to complain about anything I got to see Leslie sing.
(then he got all American and gushy about how incredible she is which is TRUE but... so American)
The odd piece out of the night has to have been when Cynthia decided she was going to give some Disney a go and sang Let It Go... it's the closest I've ever seen to her singing less than spectacularly :-P as in there were the odd notes she seemed to have to work for rather than it all seeming effortless (well, not effortless but straight from the heart). But she was clearly loving in.
First half then finished and Cynthia has said in the past she doesn't like singing songs from shows she's in when she's in concert but she wanted a little extra (and after the poor pianist had a minor panic attack) she sang Somebody Gonna Love You acapella.
(and I died all over again at my own uselessness in never seeing The Color Purple)
Second half was just ALL the divas and I still don't understand how she can do all of them and just... I mean she started, STARTED the second half with I Will Always Love You! And in the middle she had a little giggle and decided to riff the sax solo and then she was blasting those notes like nobody but Whitney has ever managed (that I've heard anyway). Get you a girl who can do both?
After that she had a little section of all the name dropping culminating in a song from Dear Evan Hansen (which I've had to look up the name of) It was called You Will Be Found and it was really lovely but also reminded me of half a dozen other songs which can be good and can be not so good. I mean she sang it beautifully but I know very little about the rest of the show.
After that we were back into a series of artists I love and clearly Cynthia loves starting with Etta James and All I Could Do Was Cry which might be my favourite song of the night... I mean all of it was my favourite but if I had to pick it might be this there was just so much feeling in it.
Then to change tack completely she sang Somewhere Over The Rainbow- the Eva Cassidy version (after a restarting because the piano intro went a tad wrong). I mean nobody sings it like Eva but Cynthia's spin was heartbreaking too.
Next was Natural Woman with every bit of feeling Aretha gives it and rather hilariously backing singers aka the entire audience. I mean I guess it's not a surprise there were so many musical people and so many Aretha fans in that audience but they (we) managed it all and you could see Cynthia's grin get bigger and bigger at every ah-woo ♥
And then we were nearly at the end but she said she could make the next song last ten minutes (not quite but it was close) and broke into Ain't No Way which was... see I just can't talk about it. I hung on every note ♥
And then it was over! And she thought about an encore but she hadn't prepared one so she made up a song. I mean honestly, right there and then on the spot she made up a little thank you song and the whole audience was in her pocket.
*sighs*
She's just kind of perfect.
This entry was originally posted at http://morganmuffle.dreamwidth.org/1392985.html. Please comment there using OpenID.