Being a music student we have to submerge ourselves in the music scene. So last week I went to the rather posh Royal Opera House! Not the first time I've been there, I saw Puccini's Turandot some weeks back and it was just amazing, good story with moving music and passionate singing. However, this time I saw Richard Strauss Elektra which is the complete opposite to Turandot, weird story (very confusing plot but basically a load of bitter nutters who all end up dying) with no tunes (out of 2 hours I couldn't hum anything I'd heard) and I couldn't tell if the singing was good or awful. Although it was advertised as this epic tragedy I couldn't help laughing, perhaps because I didn't really understand what was going on or because this random apparently dead slave (who was on stage for the whole opera) kept moving! Gradually migrating around the stage with the odd roll here and there, it was hilarious.
Ah yes Richard Strauss fans will be screaming at me by this point. But I shall admit I have not 'developed' an ear for this music yet, I'm sure if I studied this work it would be very interesting indeed, but if you were to go to the cinema, the director would not have expected the audience to have read a book and studied the music and lyrical content before the film started, somethings should just be obvious! So if your uneducated in the world of opera (like me) don't start with Strauss!
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