Blood Red Sails! and a Black Mast! March 26
I saw “The Flying Dutchman” last night at the Kennedy Center, and it was pretty good. Not great, because I think the plot is not great, but the music and singing were fantastic. I find the singers particularly impressive. Aside from singing for 2 hours, they are acting, climbing on things, and falling on the ground. I wish I had a singer with that kind of dedication.
I do think that they Washington National Opera is missing out on huge opportunity with this performance. They already have the Generation O program, but they really need to get the word out that “The Flying Dutchman” has both a ghost pirate, and zombie brides! Ghost pirates are a bankable commodity, they put butts in the seats. Zombie brides just sweeten the pot.
Photo by Flickr user dwrichards.
Tom Mar 26
You know, it’s not too late to make this a concept album…
Charles Mar 26
I think that it is too late for a concept album.
Josh at DWGP Mar 27
Charles: I thought I saw you like in primo seats at the very front. Since there was no intermission (a very perplexing and offensive state of affairs for a 2.5 hour show), I couldn’t hunt you down to say hi. The music was really great, including the 10 minute plus overture. Wow! But did you really enjoy the almost auto-erotic (er, I mean animatronic) looking zombie brides?
Charles Mar 27
The zombie brides were weird, and unexpected, as were their costumes. I am not sure how much I enjoyed them, as found them odd. A lot of the synopses I read before attending didn’t mention them.
The overture was pretty great.
As for the intermission, apparently that is how Wagner intended it to be performed. Which is unfortunate for the performers, a large part of the crowd rushed for the restroom right when the performance was over, rather than stay and applaud the performers.
As a side note, I hope everyone is doing well at the office.