Ranting #22

Sound of Music

went for the matinee show for sound of music yesterday... was supposed to blog last night but was studying til i fell asleep... haha...

was the first musical that i went to watch with mudpie... so was actually looking forward to it... anyway... the seats that i got wasn't exactly the ones that could enable me to see the face of the actors and actresses (which was like the 3rd or 4th row from the stage in the case for Oliver!) but was pretty good as they were from the middle stall so still quite alright... but then after the first half of the show... i had this bad headache... mudpie had it too... think it's all becos of someone out there who wore so much perfume (which was so disgusting sweet) that made both of us had this bad headache... haiz...

anyway... the show pretty good... though i prefer the hollywood movie version with julie andrews... the musical version is also shorter... think it left out most of the parts about the training of the von Trapp children in the house... esp the part of singing on the mountains... but generally still quite enjoyable...

some of the more memorable stuff are:
mother abbess (beth kirkpatrick) is such a soprano that whenever she sang so high-pitched that i really think that any glass in the theatre will break...

captain Georg von Trapp has a chinese name that is the translation of george... (yesh... they have chinese OVERhead titles...) and the actor Jim Ballard playing him is a Basso... deep manly voice...

i think Maria played by jennifer semrick is very dramatic... her acting is quite exaggerating in some parts... and she is not very tall and as tall as Lisel... von Trapp eldest daughter...

i like the part when the executive officer of the house (housekeeper) was asked why they never fly the Nazi flag then one the von Trapp daughters described the flag as 'the red flag with the black spider'... haha... but then the spider only have 4 legs...

well... read thru the program only at night... kinda regret buying it cos it costs a good 10 bucks... but anyway... read thru the cast and the timeline of the real von Trapp family... i think they are the most well-loved family in the whole history...

here are some interesting facts that i read... Baron Georg von Trapp was born in 1880 and Maria Augusta Kutschera was born in 1905... a bit of math will tell us that Georg was 25 years older than Maria... hmmm... and they met in the year 1926 when maria was 21... not the same as in the musical/movie when they met pretty near 1938... effectively Georg was 46 when they met... hmmm... no comments... period.
the couple married in 1927 and maria gave birth to their 1st child in 1931 before they fled Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938... by that account... the muscial did not really reflect the real von Trapp history (which everyone knows...)
In 1939 they migrate to U.S and 1956 marks the year of the final von Trapp family singers concert in U.S... the Sound of Music first open on Broadway in 1959 while the von Trapp family concentrates on lodging business... the Sound of Music movie premieres in 1965....

the von Trapp family has their lodging business in U.S and it's supposedly one of the top locations for skiing at winter time... this is their site...

well... mudpie kept reminding me that miss saigon is still his favorite musical... having watched miss saigon at the darkest moment in my life... i do not share the same thought until a little while ago when i listened to the songs and read thru the story again... i recalled the scenes and do think that they are touching... yesh... that's after 4 years then i feel touched by that musical... maybe if they ever come back to s'pore or if i ever happen to go Broadway... i'll watch it again... but i still love oliver! for their nice songs... looking forward to more musicals being brought to s'pore... hopefully Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera will come back to s'pore soon...