Hate and Love - "A Phantom" Review

I hate music. I hate understanding it because it makes me have an opinion about its
interpretation. I hate knowing about being in tune because I could tell when the violins were out
of tune. I hate knowing about dynamics because the piccolo was loud and plain annoying at the
beginning, and the stupid horn blasted his way through the beginning of the 2nd half. I hate
knowing about keeping in time because that stupid drum couldn't play in time nor had he any idea about dynamics idea (wrt previous sentence). I hate knowing a piece so well that I could tell when the horn missed his note, twice... I hate that I've heard the originals so many times that I
subconsciously make comparisons between the original and the version tonight. I hate that my
hearing allowed me to pick out when Ana's voice faltered from her operatic role and allowed her
accent to slip in. I hate that I could tell that Brad's upper vocal range wasn't very strong.

I love music. I loved that I could feel the waves of emotion from the orchestra when they launched into thick portions of music. I loved that I could pick out the tinkling of the harp from the top floor. I loved that Brad's lower vocal range was thick and powerful. I loved that the actors/actresses didn't miss a single note. I loved that Meg was a nosey kid, and Carlotta was a whiny bitch as was always intended (^^). I loved the actor who played André, but I felt Firmin had too thick a voice to be a comic manager. I loved the lavish sets (although I felt the chandelier could be a lot more elaborate). I loved the mechanics and special effects, en particulier the candles! (Super cool!) But most of all, I loved the company =) Hope you had as fantastic a time as I did!

Ok for a less whiny overview, I felt that the musicians were slightly substandard, dunno if they were having an off day or what, but they could be a whole lot better. I shan't compare Ana Marina to Sarah Brightman, or Brad Little to Michael Crawford, and so... Ana Marina wasn't a bad Christine, but I always felt Christine would be around Meg's age, perhaps like late late late teens or something (which would make Sarah abit old to play it actually, hmm), but anyway I felt she came across as abit too old sometimes. The actor who played Raoul wasn't too bad, because he isn't exactly supposed to be too musically inclined, but he could be alot louder at times, especially during multiple singing parts; he's usually drowned out by Brad and Ana. Brad displayed his rich low tones at the beginning, but lapsed into his weaker high range through the rest of the show, which kind of put me off a little. Carlotta was sufficiently shrieky, and Ubaldo was as incomprehensible as Carlotta was shrieky, which is how it's supposed to be I think. I felt the Esplanade shouldn't have that top area of seats because it's a horrible view, everything that happens more than 2 storeys off the stage is blocked. The falling chandelier was horribly slow, and not scary in the least! So unlike the one I saw in the documentary (Singapore's safety standards?). And the stage doors didn't really work much, after the masquerade scene you can see him sort of run off under cover of darkness rather than disappearing through a trapdoor on the stage as would be more fitting to the requirements. Madame Giry was just a stern old bitch, and gave quite a good rendition of beats with her walking stick. Fierce! The dancers were terribly uncoordinated, and their moves weren't very together most of the time. But all in all, I think it's worth it, especially for CERTAIN SHORT PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET AND DON'T THINK IT'S WORTH THE MONEY.

Having said that, I had a great time today! Was so looking forward to this, and it hasn't disappointed.

Refreshed! Yet things still weigh on my mind... Get out of my head! Shoo!