Gettin' Cultured

Last week Emily and I saw an Opera and Musical not only in the same week but back-to-back days!!  I felt smarter, better, and snobbier than you! Also, a little tired of sitting still for several hours at a time.

Anyways, we saw The Flying Dutchman at the Seattle Opera and it was actually pretty good.  Because Emily is a total dork and likes to learn we bought tickets to the lecture before the show.  We were 15 minutes late and it lasted another 35 minutes.  I learned that we were the youngest people in the lecture hall and out of 42 people in the 4 rows in front of us 27 of them had gray hair.  I assume the others used dye.  I completely zoned out and it was worse than any college class lecture.  I did learn a few things about the legend of the Flying Dutchman which was actually interested.  However, the difference between Wagner's intro to the Dutchman and one of Beethoven's symphonies is enough to make you fall asleep.

After the lecture we stood around for a bit, took our seats, and the opera started.  Actually, the Overture started which was nice but way too long.  By the time the first Act started I was really pissed about being at the opera.  The first act was okay and then we took an intermission.  Coffee!  I love coffee!  Wow, Act II and III were really good after being stimulated by caffeine.  All in all it was an excellent opera and I was glad I went.  It's not something I want to do every weekend but it was enjoyable.

The funniest thing about the entire opera was that the lead male character (the Flying Dutchman) was talk dark and handsome with long hair (I'm sure every girls dream) BUT the lead female character was huge.  Not my dream girl at all.  But she could sing.  The Stranger wrote about this too.  See the last paragraph.  Pretty funny.

The next day was Mel Brook's Young Frankenstein at The Paramount.  This was hilarious and a lot of fun.  The crowd was a great mix young and old, funky and dressy.  I have to say I enjoyed the movie more but watching a live musical is a great way to see it.  Also, Gene Wilder rules and I don't think he can be beat at any role he does.  Kind of like Christopher Walken.

Young Frankenstein the musical is being tested in Seattle and then possibly taken to Broadway.  I've only seen one Broadway Musical, Beauty and the Beast, but I think they will have to up their budget to pull it off in New York.  I assume The Paramount has a smaller stage than they are used to and it was a "test" show in Seattle.  I hope they take it to Broadway, people would enjoy it for sure.