The book. The Broadway. The movies. The spin-off plays and musicals and books.
All of it.
NOT Love Never Dies.
May the Hero Otto Webber rest in peace.
(Some of you understand what that means and I commend you.)
But there's something that really irks me about the play and the movie.
They used fake operas.
In a tale that takes place almost entirely in an opera house, there's not a single real opera in it.
There is in the book and in other versions: they perform Faust multiple times, which is actually far better suited to the Phantom than the fake ones, but that's a rabbit trail you don't want to see me go down.
But I checked on the operas, because Il Muto sounds hilarious.
But alas, it does not exist.
The fact that they're all English should have tipped me off, but it didn't.
It irked me for a while, but then I forgot about it . . .
. . . till I saw the opera scene from Fifth Element.
Not sure I would suggest the movie, but for those of you who have missed this glorious scene, you can thank me later:
Yeah.
Is that not beautiful?
And here's where it gets even better - IT'S REAL.
It's from Lucia di Lammermoor, and this is the famous "mad scene".
You know, the "mad scene"?
Like THE "shower scene" . . . ?
No . . . ?
Oh.
Okay.
Anyway, this happens right after Lucy marries the guy she doesn't want, kinda snaps, and stabs him.
On their wedding night.
With all the guests downstairs.
Yeah . . .
Awkward.
But she's calling for her true love when she sings this.
Um . . . drenched in blood. . .
But here's what I don't get . . .
. . . a play about an opera ghost can't take the trouble to fit a real opera into the play somewhere, but a sci-fi movie that has nothing to do with operas does. . . ?
The plot's a bit convoluted, and I don't want to spoil anything by trying to explain it, so I'm just not going to.
It sounds kinda rough, but that's just because it's in German. After a while, you get used to it, but there is this really funny part right at the beginning where this guard's trying to woo the jail keeper's daughter, and she's so sick of it that she pounds the table over and over shouting "Nein nein nein nein!"
Funniest. Opera scene. Ever.
And it only works in German, so yeah.
But it's an awesome love (and sort of a spy) story, but not mushy. Totally not mushy.
I'd give it a 5/5.
It's really that great.
Any thoughts on my review? Did I miss anything or not give it enough praise? Comment below!
So, Carmen's pretty much one of the most famous operas ever.
Meh.
What would I rate it?
Gosh, probably a 2 or a 3 out of 5.
I'm really not a big fan of it.
Why?
Well, not because it's "too mainstream" -- that really doesn't bother me.
It just feels like there's something lacking in the ending, and if you don't know the ending, I'm certainly not going to spoil it for you. Go watch it yourself.
(Though I did stick a hint in the tags . . . )
The music is wonderful, and although the overture and music from the first and last acts are the most famous, there's some pretty good stuff in between, too.
I have to admit, though, that the first time I watched it, I was struck by the irony . . .
It's an opera set in Spain, where they speak French, performed in Germany, while I was watching it in America, with English subtitles.
(Oh yes, I do suggest watching operas with subtitles - very helpful. Unless you're actually going to one, in which case I'd suggest sticking a libretto in your mother tongue in your bag.)
But yeah, something just seems missing to me. And it's a bit overused (not the same as mainstream).
Overall rating: 2.5/5
Any thoughts on my review? Did I miss anything or not give it a fair shot? Comment below!
This may be beating a dead horse, but this occurred to me whilst in the shower, so it's automatically groundbreaking.
Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) was a sensation when she was 16, right?
Me and a lot of my friends thought she had been pushed out onto the stage too early and didn't give her voice time to develop. That may be true, but I realized something the other day -
Christine Daae (Emmy Rossum) was also 16 in Phantom of the Opera. And when I say Christine Daae, I don't just mean the character: I mean Emmy too.
This brings us to an unpleasant thing to admit: I was mistaken about voice maturation.
(That means I was . . . um . . . wrong.)
But I was right about something else: Miley never really had it. Sorry HM fans.
Emmy was trained in some opera school, I think. That's crazy! You know how much talent you have to have to be accepted . . . ? Yeah, a LOT.
