Musical Theatre ( that's right dears )

Teetonetal

If any one ever wants an amazing but cheap opera experience.... IF you find yourself in Vienna you can by standing tickets for 5 eur (well it was in 2009) 50% of the places are at the back of the stalls. You have to queue a while but it''s well worth it. One of the regular highlights of my time there!

olafgarten

I haven't seen much opera but did go to see Cosi fan tutte which was really good. My university is right in the west end and I can get discounts on all of the local theatres. I'm planning to see Lion King again because I last saw it when I was 5 and from what I remember it was pretty good. 

boogieman

Gassage said:

If there's a better vocal performance, ever, in any genre of music, I've yet to hear it.

Bjoerling was the sweetest and most musical tenor in history. Merrill arguably the greatest baritone too (fucking Aussie!) Bjoerling makes Pavarotti sound like Katy Perry.

I think if he was still around my dad would argue that Gigli was the best tenor of all time. He saw him sing several times and said it was almost a religious experience. I'm too much of an operatic ignoramus to really know the difference (personally I like Andrea Bocelli, don't know what that says about me  )

axisus

I love musicals. 

TheBlueWolf

I *almost* got the chance to see Andrea Bocelli a couple of years ago. It fell through but a hunt on YouTube got me into him I saw an Italian opera as a 15 year old but I don't remember much about it.

Musicals are the sort  of thing where you have to be there to get the full experience, much like opera I suspect.

boogieman

TheBlueWolf said:

I *almost* got the chance to see Andrea Bocelli a couple of years ago. It fell through but a hunt on YouTube got me into him  

Saw him at the O2 a couple of years ago, not the best music venue as far as I'm concerned but it was still a good evening. He sang a surprising amount of opera considering most of his latest albums are full of modern ballads

EricTheWeary

My parents and grandparents loved the classic Hollywood musicals so I heard a lot growing up. But the Lloyd Weber stuff doesn't do anything for me and the Elaine Paige show is some sort of torture.
I saw Les Mis live a few years ago and really enjoyed it but have no interest if it comes on the radio. Off to see Shakespeare again in March, Antony and Cleopatra, live performance done well is a thing of joy to me even when I don't know what's going on. 

RaymondLin

Not really a fan, never seen the movie of singing in the rain, sound of music, Mary poppins, west side story and all that but I have through my photography, photographed an amateur musical company for 4/5 years with shows twice a year with rehearsals etc so I appreciate the hard work.

as for the OP, go take your family to see La La Land.

it or magnificent, they will love you for it.

Jalapeno

Carmen is the best musical ever written !  It's THE Opera/Musical crossover.

mudslide73

I've seen a few musicals but not enjoyed them much. I would like to see a proper opera one day though.

That Bjorling performance (and his performance of Nessun Dorma) are wonderful and I wouldn't have heard them if it wasn't for @Gassage  posting them a while back. Cheers matey.

The closest performance I've seen to "religious" was seeing Jeff Beck play Angel (footsteps) from about 10 feet away. 

boogieman

RaymondLin said:

Not really a fan, never seen the movie of singing in the rain, sound of music, Mary poppins, west side story and all that but I have through my photography, photographed an amateur musical company for 4/5 years with shows twice a year with rehearsals etc so I appreciate the hard work.

as for the OP, go take your family to see La La Land.

it or magnificent, they will love you for it.

You should definitely watch Singing in the Rain sometime, if nothing else. It's a wonderful film, a real feel good experience. 

Dominic

@boogieman - seen it.....You are quite right ,but Old Hollywood musical films are in a different league to modern musical theatre ....even the old Cole Porter / Irving Berlin / Sondheim theatre productions have musical gems in them - I think its the Lloyd -Webber Cats type of thing that grates on me
@RaymondLin - Yes they love it 
Have to say I was a bit wierded out by the Moulin Rouge /Ewan McGregor thing

Col_Decker

I'm with the OP. I hate it. I hate it ALL. What gets me most is the way the dancers walk away after a routine with some sort of weird straight legged prancy skip walk.

One of my biggest film disappointments was watching Sweeney Todd. Oh goody a gritty Victorian murder romp with lots gore I though to myself, oh wait WTF why is Johnny Depp singing? Fuck it off.

Gassage

boogieman said:

Gassage said:

If there's a better vocal performance, ever, in any genre of music, I've yet to hear it.

Bjoerling was the sweetest and most musical tenor in history. Merrill arguably the greatest baritone too (fucking Aussie!) Bjoerling makes Pavarotti sound like Katy Perry.

I think if he was still around my dad would argue that Gigli was the best tenor of all time. He saw him sing several times and said it was almost a religious experience. I'm too much of an operatic ignoramus to really know the difference (personally I like Andrea Bocelli, don't know what that says about me  )

All greats. Bjoerling just has a sweetness to his voice that I personally love. Love to hear these guys recorded in  modern studio

@robinbowes wouldn't give these recordings houseroom, they're THAT compressed.

EricTheWeary

boogieman said:

RaymondLin said:

Not really a fan, never seen the movie of singing in the rain, sound of music, Mary poppins, west side story and all that but I have through my photography, photographed an amateur musical company for 4/5 years with shows twice a year with rehearsals etc so I appreciate the hard work.

as for the OP, go take your family to see La La Land.

it or magnificent, they will love you for it.

You should definitely watch Singing in the Rain sometime, if nothing else. It's a wonderful film, a real feel good experience. 

Singing in the Rain is excellent, so much packed in. Annie Get Your Gun was the big favourite in our house. 

CabbageCat

I love musicals. Some aren't my cup of tea I guess but I generally enjoy them and often listen to the soundtracks. I was just listening to "Hello, my name is Elder Price..."

I guess the music is a pretty specific format. You can't have a musical song that's just a handful of repeated lines like with pop music, some effort needs to be put into a clear narrative and I dig that. Most of the bands I really like are quite lyrical. 

Motorhate

It's fucking abysmal. All of it. Personally I'd fucking ban all musicals, there's just no need.

robinbowes

Gassage said:

@robinbowes wouldn't give these recordings houseroom, they're THAT compressed.

I only see an image, not a link to the youtube clip - I'll have a listen if you give me the link.

Generally, I'm more than happy to listen to old recordings of the greats - a great musical performance is not masked by the limitations of the audio. For example, this is my favourite performance of Rach 2:



On the original topic, I'm ambivalent about musical theatre. Generally, it needs to be viewed in context, ie. in the theatre. I'm a big opera fan though.

Oh, and one of the most sublime experiences of my life was seeing Cecilia Bartoli sing live - simply wonderful.

R.

Dominic

Love Rach...........always sound so Russian
He was reputed to have had the most enormous hands and fingers and wrote accordingly - very difficult for all but especially women pianists ....quite normally sections are re-arranged/voiced to accommodate and make them playable
Labeck twins have played some interesting Arrangements

robinbowes

Dominic said:

Love Rach...........always sound so Russian
He was reputed to have had the most enormous hands and fingers and wrote accordingly - very difficult for all but especially women pianists ....quite normally sections are re-arranged/voiced to accommodate and make them playable
Labeck twins have played some interesting Arrangements

I saw the Labeque sisters too, in the 90s. Very good. My memory is hazy, but I believe John McLaughlin was also involved.

More recently, I saw Katia on tour in support of her "Unspoken" album. The live band featured Viktoria Mullova (a fantastic violinist who I've been a fan of for years) and Fred Frith (who I had not heard before - crazy guitarist, played with Henry Cow).

Ah, great memories...

R.