YES!

Sun Prairie's very own Kyle Ketelsen is performing at the Met!.  He's sharing the role of Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Bryn Terfel (they take turns singing the role on different nights).  While I don't think he's performing when the opera get's broadcasted in two weeks, it's still awesome that he's performing at the Met.  I mean, how often does Sun Prairie's own piece of vocal awesomeness get to perform at the Met?  It's not often, I can tell you that.

ALRIGHT, MAN!  BRING IT ON!

Bumper Stickers 2

I'm beginning to think that many of the bumper stickers I see a lot of are on people's cars not because someone has something to say, but because people think that they're cool.  And many of them are just plain weird.

For example, there's a bumper sticker similar to the "Coexist" bumper sticker labeled "Tolerance" and written in the same religious symbol font of the former.  Like the "Coexist" stickers, the "Tolerance" ones are stupid.  You're not going to get people to tolerate one another by telling them that they should.  They have to make the decision for themselves whether or not they'll accept somebody.  Granted people are not nice to each other and will judge people needlessly based on race, sex, etc., but you won't get far by telling them to accept someone's differences.

I'm also sick of seeing "Kerry/Edwards" bumper stickers because they are six years out-of-date.  The same goes for "Obama '08".  Come on.  Both of those elections are in the past, so why can't people get rid of those old stickers?

Oh, and today I saw a bumper sticker reading "I Give Evolution Two Opposite Thumbs-Up."  In other words, it's somebody who has forgotten the point of the Creation.  It's not a "how", it's a "who".  I've hated the Creation/Evolution debate since I first heard about it back in the sixth grade and I do not want to hear anymore from either Dishonest Evolutionists or Dishonest Creationists.  I can't stand either of them.

Random Question of the Day

What would PETA think if they faced a plague of frogs like the one the struck Egypt?  These folks make it their pet crusade to fight for "ethical treatment" of animals (which is silly), but how would they like having frogs jumping around in their homes and making noise all the time?  I don't doubt that they would grow weary of them quickly.  Now that would be incredibly amusing to even hear of.

Not This Again! (Why Pop Culture Celebrity Sucks)

Whoever is in charge of making clothes for children has really gone too far.  While shopping at Kohl's today, I saw an outfit for a little girl (probably in the first and second grade age-range), that had Justin Bieber of all things on the front of the shirt.  That guy has got to go.  He's just a face and a name and lacks real talent.  The lyrics of his songs are also unimaginative.   And he's a sex symbol.  Do you really  want something like that on your eight-year-old's clothes? 

That's the reason why I hate the whole celebrity business.  They are out there primarily so that their face and name can be in the paper.  Don't get me wrong; some of these folks do have good talent (Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift, Reba McEntire, Johnny Cash, folks like that), but most of the pop icons are just names and faces.  And most of them last only for a few years and then they get replace by new lust objects.  Also what's the point of being famous if all it means is that you have your name and face on a shirt or backpack? 

That's also why I prefer the opera singers to these pop idols.  Many of these opera singer have been going strong for decades (Juan Diego Florez and Jonas Kaufmann to name a few).  They have much more talent and the music that they do has had a lot of imagination put into it.  And they are cast into the roles they take on mainly because they can sing the music (Case in Point: Juan Diego Florez singing Cessa di piu Risistere from Rossini's The Barber of Seville which was long considered too hard for tenors to sing).  They also have had many more years training: Heck, my top seven favorite male opera singers are now in either their late thirties, mid forties, or early fifties.  They are more mature than most of the pop icons and have had more experience over the years.  That's why I prefer them.

Put Hostess Snoballs in with Linzertorte, Will You?

Who in their right mind would put a picture of the mass-marketed fangirl lust object* known as Justin Bieber in with picture of the awesome German tenor Jonas Kaufmann?  That's what I found on Google Images while looking up pictures of Kaufmann.  He is a handsome tenor, but he also is genuinely talented (listen to this excerpt of him singing the tenor aria from Faust).  But Bieber is merely a name and face marketed for the mass media.  He has no real talent.  Why should his picture be in with those of a person who is truly talented?
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*I'm not using this web term carelessly here.  Bieber is only popular because he is an attractive teenage boy, not because he's talented in any way.

Faust: New Production Costumes for Faust and Marguerite

I went to see the encore simulcast of Charles Gounod's "Faust" on Wednesday.  Des McAnuff reset the opera in the first half of the 20th Century starting with the dropping of the A-bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  When Faust regains his youth, they go back the beginning of WWI.  They then travel through the Twenties and Thirties and end where they started in the Forties. 
Mr. McAnuff recast Faust as a nuclear physicist who is haunted by the destruction of two Japanese towns.  HE calls on the devil because he is tired of life and wants to re-experience the rapture of youth.  When the devil grants him his wish, Faust loses the heavy overcoat he was wearing and reappears in a white tuxedo and hat circa 1914 (he is also moving much more energetically than before).  He only changes tuxedos over the course of the opera.  Marguerite is the one who changes clothes between periods.  When she first appears and when Faust seduces her, she is wearing a bright blue girlish Victorian dress.  Her hair was long with small blue ribbon in the back.  The intent was to emphasize her innocence; heck, she looked like she was no less then fifteen or so.  After Faust seduces her and she becomes pregnant out of wedlock (the set moves to the 1930's), she wears a long plain skirt, a shawl, and her hair is in a braid in the back.  By this time she is much more somber.  Faust wears a black tuxedo  for the scene where he seduces Marguerite and later when he goes the devil to the Witch's Sabbath. 
In the final scene, all Marguerite is wearing is a prison dress and her hair is cropped short (for her execution no doubt).  Faust wears this black tuxedo with really narrow grey stripes. 

I'm not writing much on this performance because of how long it would take to describe everything. 

"The Count Of Monte Cristo": Book vs. Film(s)

I first got a taste of this Alexandre Dumas classic when I was watching the Children's-Introduction-To-Classical-Literature show known as Wishbone.  The Count of Monte Cristo is an amazing story of betrayal and revenge.

Basic gist of the story: At nineteen, French sailor Edmond Dantés has everything.  He's going to marry a beautiful girl named Mercédès (a Catalan), and he's been promoted to captain.  However, two men, Danglars and Fernand Mondego (another Catalan), are jealous of Edmond and they betray him.  Edmond is sent to a horrible island prison where he stays for fourteen years.  Eventually he escapes and sails to the island of Monte Cristo.  There, he uncovers an enormous treasure vault.  He claims the treasure and sails back to France and becomes the Count of Monte Cristo.  Now he wants only one thing: Revenge.  And he gets it in an amazing and subtle way.  

I have seen two film version; one from '02, and the other was from the Nineties, in French, starred French acting sensation known as Gérard Depardieu.  The first one kept the basic gist but made the story very different.  The French version was more faithful to the story, but had a few unexplained characters.  Both films ruined the ending.  The original ending is where Edmond goes off to make a new start with his ward, Haydée.  Both movies had Edmond being reunited with Mercédès (which didn't happen).  After being long married to Edmond's rival, as much as she still loved Edmond, Mercédès still would not marry him because being married to someone for a long time dies leave a mark on people.  Even though her husband is dead by the end of the story, she still won't go with Edmond.  That would cause scandal.  So, I found the endings of both movies incredibly disappointing.  I was expecting the films to be somewhat different, but not so different as to muck up the ending.  

Oh, and one film left Haydée completely out while the other only had her so that she could testify against Edmond's rival.  She did the same in the book, but she a somewhat larger role.  And she fell in love with Edmond and stayed with him.  Haydée is my favorite character in the story and that is the other reason why I don't like her role being either cut or reduced. 

My advice, skip the movies and read the book.  It's a good book, although it is a little long.