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icepixieBack from London! Swan Lake was SO. PRETTY. OMG. It was a very traditional production, and the sets and costumes were amaaaaaaazing. They went back to some of the choreography from 1895, when it was first sort of standardized, which meant a bunch of children got added to the swan maidens, making thirty-six of them onstage at one point in the second act. And I practically imploded during Odile's 32 fouettes. That was awesome.
Although I have to say, I didn't understand the story at all until we bought a program after the show. We never quite figured out who the evil owl/von Rothbart was, and it came as a big surprise to learn that Odette and Siegfried die at the end. (The leaping off what was essentially a stepladder and going by on a swan boat didn't quite communicate the whole death thing, I have to say, although probably I should've known beforehand, since it is Russian.)
We had a bit of an adventure getting to our seats. Our section was the only one not labeled,a nd ushers kept telling us to go different ways, until finally we figured out out at about 7:29 and thirty seconds. Oy. Covent Garden is beautiful, and has the best nosebleed seats in the world, but it needs better signage.
*
We went to see Star Wars tonight for Ellen's birthday. Oof.
I've spent better two hours. (Not that I spent them all awake. Or even in the theatre. But.) It was kind of like watching somebody else play a very long video game. And you could tell that some scenes had been designed specifically for the video game--the ship and the dude with four lightsabers was level one, lava planet was level two, the Senate chamber was level three, etc. etc. And of course the dialogue was wretched, but who expected otherwise, anyway? I did have to laugh at most of it, though, especially Vader's big "NOOOOOOOO!" at the end. Heh. Burnination didn't improve your acting skills, buddy.
Oh, and we noticed that going over to the dark side apparently changes your nationality from Canadian to British. I choose not to comment on the connotations this brings in light of the past year.
Ah, well. I knew it would be awful going in, so I brought a book. Got a few minutes of quality sleeping time in, too, so it wasn't a complete loss. Hopefully Lucas will stop making movies now so people I want to do things with will stop wanting to go to them.
(And before anyone who doesn't know about this facet of my Mutant Outgrowthness asks, I dislike what I've seen of the original trilogy about as much as I dislike these new ones, so I'm really just a hopeless case.)
Although I have to say, I didn't understand the story at all until we bought a program after the show. We never quite figured out who the evil owl/von Rothbart was, and it came as a big surprise to learn that Odette and Siegfried die at the end. (The leaping off what was essentially a stepladder and going by on a swan boat didn't quite communicate the whole death thing, I have to say, although probably I should've known beforehand, since it is Russian.)
We had a bit of an adventure getting to our seats. Our section was the only one not labeled,a nd ushers kept telling us to go different ways, until finally we figured out out at about 7:29 and thirty seconds. Oy. Covent Garden is beautiful, and has the best nosebleed seats in the world, but it needs better signage.
*
We went to see Star Wars tonight for Ellen's birthday. Oof.
I've spent better two hours. (Not that I spent them all awake. Or even in the theatre. But.) It was kind of like watching somebody else play a very long video game. And you could tell that some scenes had been designed specifically for the video game--the ship and the dude with four lightsabers was level one, lava planet was level two, the Senate chamber was level three, etc. etc. And of course the dialogue was wretched, but who expected otherwise, anyway? I did have to laugh at most of it, though, especially Vader's big "NOOOOOOOO!" at the end. Heh. Burnination didn't improve your acting skills, buddy.
Oh, and we noticed that going over to the dark side apparently changes your nationality from Canadian to British. I choose not to comment on the connotations this brings in light of the past year.
Ah, well. I knew it would be awful going in, so I brought a book. Got a few minutes of quality sleeping time in, too, so it wasn't a complete loss. Hopefully Lucas will stop making movies now so people I want to do things with will stop wanting to go to them.
(And before anyone who doesn't know about this facet of my Mutant Outgrowthness asks, I dislike what I've seen of the original trilogy about as much as I dislike these new ones, so I'm really just a hopeless case.)
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Date: 2005-05-23 12:01 am (UTC)Weirdo.
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Date: 2005-05-23 03:55 pm (UTC)