Opera Theater of Saint Louis is hosting the world premiere of The Golden Ticket, a new opera based on Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. One of my favorite mezzos, Jennifer Rivera, is playing Veruca Salt. (Of course the mezzo would play the bratty kid...)

As exciting as this is, this brings up a topic that I've been thinking about/talking with other people about recently. What is with this new trend of making musicals out of movies? Granted, Charlie is a book, but there are two big movies and a musical based on it already. Now there needs to be an opera of it? I think the question needs to be: is this good operatic material?

So here's my problem: medium. Every medium -- be it opera, broadway musical, movie, play, novel, whatever -- has its inherent strong points. Some stories just work in a certain medium. When you start juggling it around, the story loses its original impact. Shrek the musical? Spiderman the musical? An opera based on An Inconvenient Truth? I mean, come on -- who thought this was a good idea? You see the same thing happen when they make your favorite book into a movie. Some movie renditions are wonderful and they even enhance the original story, but some books just lose all their power when they're put into movie form.

I've noticed a trend, especially in broadway musicals, and I think that these media are being compromised because everything new that is being written isn't taking into account the strengths and weaknesses of the form in mind. I could blame it all on commercialism, but this trend began before the recession came in full-force. I think the cause is more laziness than anything. There isn't a commitment to the craft. There needs to be a commitment to the craft! Nothing good ever came from half-hearted writing.

Joyce Didonato, a very successful mezzo-soprano with a refreshing, ever-present awe of life, said it perfectly in her last post when she explained Dr. George Gibson's philosophy. He believes in the three Ds: Dedication, Disclipline, and Determination. I think that is such a great motivator and thing to live by. If only the entertainment industry would do the same...

This is by far the creepiest thing I have ever seen in real life.



This guy, a count from forever ago, is enshrined in the middle of the altar at the front of a church. And it's not just any church; it's the church where they filmed the wedding in The Sound of Music.

Um, ew.

Here he is with his buddies in the altar.


On a happier note: sunsets are so much prettier in old cities.


Check out all my pictures here. I visited a fortress (Helmsdeep, anyone?) and other famous Sound of Music spots.

5 Favorite Symphonic Works
1. Beethoven's 7th Symphony
2. Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
3. Mozart's Sinfonia to The Marriage of Figaro
4. Beethoven's 5th Symphony
5. Mahler's Second Symphony ("Resurrection")

5 Favorite Quotes From Real Life
1. "That last sip of apple juice tasted like a snail!" - Tina
2. "That was a potentially tragic moment." - Kirstie
3. "This is the real world and this is Brian's world.  The only thing in common is Brian." - Katy
4. "Haydn was the guy who'd short-sheet your bed at camp." - Prof Krasner
5. "Jane is Wendy's illegitimate child.  You never see the husband." - Heather, age 13

5 Favorite Shakespeare Plays
1. Twelfth Night
2. The Tempest
3. Hamlet
4. Romeo and Juliet
5. A Midsummer Night's Dream

5 Favorite Bands
1. Anberlin
2. Jars of Clay
3. Eisley
4. Daughtry
5. Sixpence None the Richer

5 Movies That I Can Watch 20 Million TImes
1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
2. The Emperor's New Groove
3. Mansfield Park (w/Billie Piper)
4. The Incredibles
5. Ella Enchanted

5 Opera Roles to Play Before I Die
1. Cherubino - The Marriage of Figaro
2. Rosina - The Barber of Seville
3. Sesto - The Mercy of Titus (Mozart)
4. Octavian - The Rose-Bearer
5. Romeo - The Capulets and the Montagues

5 Actresses That Are Fun To Watch
1. Amy Adams
2. Sandra Bullock
3. Nana Visitor
4. Emmy Rossum
5. Anne Hathaway

5 Favorite Places
1. home
2. the library (pretty much any library)
3. Great Aunt and Uncle's house in Rheinbeck, NY
4. Metropolitan Opera House
5. Grandma's house

5 Musicals I'd Love To Be In
1. My Fair Lady
2. The Phantom of the Opera
3. Tarzan
4. The Sound of Music
5. Beauty and the Beast

5 Favorite Authors (in no particular order)
1. C.S. Lewis
2. Madeleine L'Engle
3. F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. Ray Bradbury
5. Eoin Colfer

5 Operas I Have Left To Listen To This Summer
1. The Saint of Bleecker Street - Menotti
2. Werther - Massenet
3. Othello - Verdi
4. Tristan und Isolde - Wagner
5. Faust - Gounod

Don't you love it when someone remembers you? It's a beautiful thing.

I went to cash a check at the bank today and the teller asked me if I'd looked into wiring my money to Europe yet. I'd been at the bank a few days ago and inquired about sending money to Europe for my glorious AUSTRIAN ADVENTURE. Apparently it was the same guy. And he remembered me! And he was pretty good looking. Glorious!

He asked me where I was going and what I was studying.

"Austria for opera."

The conversation abruptly ended with an uninterested "oh." WHY DOES THE WORD "OPERA" TURN EVERYONE OFF SO FAST?!? I don't understand this. Does opera = boring in some subliminal way? Granted, I thought it was boring and didn't care two cents about it until I saw Marriage of Figaro. But, still! I could have said "astronomical geology" and gotten a better response. Am I doomed to singleness forever because I'm an opera singer? Ahhhh!

On another note: I babysat Tammy's 6-year-old kid Rainer on Sunday. What a trip that was. The kid's a frickin' genius.

We played Stratego and he won. I'm relatively smart and pretty good at strategy games (I'm undefeated at Risk and almost undefeated at Monopoly) but this kid WHIPPED me. He watched what I was doing and said, "My dad uses the same strategy. He attacks in groups, too." He also made comments on what he guessed was happening on my side of the board and 80% of the time he was dead on. I had a few tricks up my sleeve, but not enough to win (apparently).

He could build these really intricate Lego ships without instructions. He used the pieces in ways that I've never seen before. It was crazy. And he understood the word "hydraulics." What the heck?

Sure, he still acted like a 6-year-old sometimes (he refused to eat peanut butter with bread; he wanted to eat it with a spoon), but he was incredibly smart. I've babysat a lot of kids, some of them pretty smart, but this kid tops them all. I'm kind of scared/interested to see what he'll do in ten years.

STAR TREK: I saw the movie and I liked it. It wasn't "Star Trek" but it was good as its own thing. The cinematography was outstanding and I really liked the characters. Bones rocks the house!

Question: Has anyone ever read Rainer Maria Rilke's "Sonnets to Orpheus"? I will have to talk about them when I finish. They are so incredible...

Sidenote: This cracked me up. Opera Chic writes: "Please don't tell Stephen Colbert that an Iranian who, suspiciously, always wears sunglasses and has been denied in the past a visa to the USA went to France to direct a show about marital infidelity and Albanians written by a Jewish heretic/Catholic priest obsessed by sex and by an Austrian kid obsessed by p00p."

This of course refers to Abbas Kiarostami's Così Fan Tutte. Ahhh, OC always makes me laugh. That is, OC and any reference to Mozart. :)

Mrs. Incredible HANDS DOWN!!

I just got a new video-editing program and I made this video! It's Wall-E and it's cute and I hope you like it. I'd love some feedback. I tried to make something that was visually and musically appealing. I love when the two media work together to make something better than the sum of the parts. Tell me what you think! It's short, I promise. :)



P.S. The song is "Without a Sound" and it's by a great (unfortunately little-known) band named Edison Glass. Their album, Time is Fiction, is really outstanding.  The music is original (and good!) and the lyrics are stunning.  My personal favorite is "Jean Valjean."  You should check them out.

I felt like Tohru this New Year's because I almost spent it by myself. I was too sick to go out with my family. My mom offered to stay home with me but I didn't want her to miss out on the party, so I told her I'd go to Kirstie's. Which I did.

It was fun. We did all the usual stuff: performed surgery (aka made cookies), watched Mean Girls, and made fun of the Jonas Brothers and John Adams on Youtube. We tended the fire while the electricity/heat was out. Quite an adventure. All the "adults" were mad but we liked having the electricity out. It's fun. I guess we're still kids.

We exchanged Christmas/birthday presents. (haha) I gave Kirstie some very thoughtful t-shirts and she got me MUSIC! I am now the proud owner of the complete La Clemenza di Tito (which I've taken out of the library about once every two months) and a Susan Graham CD that ROCKS. I'll probably do an entire review on the CD on my other blog once I've absorbed it all, but for now all I can say is that she never ceases to amaze me. She really is incredible.

It was weird to be away from my family on New Year's, but I was with my other family, so it's okay. Randi was like, "I'm so glad we could have you." The Cummings were babysitting me. :)

I hope everyone had a great New Year's and that 2009 holds tons of amazing things for you all.

Much love!
~K

Another year come, enjoyed, and going. So much happened this year! I think it's really good to look back over the year and remember. I meant to do this before, but 2008 wasn't over until tonight, so I'm glad I waited. Things happen right up to the end. So, here's my 2008 in review, a meme stolen (as usual) from mcollinknight


( 2008 in Review )

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:


You give me every broken dream,
I'll give you restoration.
Come and trade in all your hatred for
A brand new motivation.
This Love is all the power we need
To sound out a revelation.
We join our hands and all agree tonight
For one thing...our salvation.
~New Wave Revolution - Rock 'n' Roll Worship Circus

Happy New Year, everyone. May your 2009 be filled with joy and blessings and new challenges to overcome. Life is the greatest adventure; enjoy it.

10 Best Books I Read (For the First Time) This Year

1. The Figaro Plays (The Barber of Seville/The Marriage of Figaro/The Guilt of a Mother) - Beaumarchais
2. A Circle of Quiet - Madeleine L'Engle
3. The Robot Trilogy (The Caves of Steel/The Naked Sun/The Robots of Dawn) - Isaac Asimov
4. Understanding the Women of Mozart's Operas - Kristi Brown-Montesano
5. Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. The Inner Voice - Renee Fleming
7. Marrying Mozart - Stephanie Cowell
8. So Yesterday - Scott Westerfeld
9.  What Not To Wear - Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine
10. Penelope - Marilyn Kaye

10 Best Movies/Videos I Saw (For the First Time) This Year

1. Star Trek Voyager
2. Wall-E
3. Mansfield Park
4. La Fille du Regiment - Royal Opera House 2008
5. I Dream of Jeannie
6. Northanger Abbey
7. Finding Neverland
8. Shrek the Third
9. A Wrinkle in Time - miniseries
10. Trollflojten
Bonus: Beethoven Lives Upstairs (55 minutes of educational bliss!)

Ta-da!  Do we like the new layout?  I really wanted to go for a new feel.  I'm NOT abandoning Narnia (you shall always be first in my heart!) but I want something different.  I like change.  Change is good. :)

Besides, I've been reading a morbid amount of robot books lately.  I go through these phases.  I like robots.

Has anyone read either: I, Robot or The Caves of Steel or The Naked Sun OR The Robots of Dawn?

I finished the first three and I'm in the middle of the fourth.  They're OUTSTANDING!  They're written by the robot master, Isaac Asimov.  *sigh*  There is such good literature out there.  I love old stuff.

Since I have nothing better to write, here's my to-do list:

-sell my clarinet
-get posters up for my voice lessons
-arrange a garage sale
-finish The Robots of Dawn
-see Wall-E again
-pay my tuition (always a good thing)
-watch Fidelio
-exercise
-make it through the week :)

Two nights ago, Mom, Heather, and I watched Northanger Abbey (the new Masterpiece Theater version with Felicity Jones). I wasn't so into it, but Heather insisted on taking it out. So we did.

It was really good! I think I'm really growing into these sorts of movies. Sure, I still need my fill of action-packed robot/dinosaur/sci-fi/etc stories, but this was really good. The acting was fantastic and the characters were really interesting. The plot was a bit elementary (I would assume that it's one of Jane Austen's earlier works, although I don't know if that assumption is accurate). It built up to nothing and wrapped up REALLY fast.

It was so good that Mom begged to watch it again. So we watched it last night. Mom barely ever asks to watch the same movie twice (much less one night after the other!). She's such a softie for these period romances. I really enjoy them, too. They have depth to them and I like that. They're safe and innocent and I like that. Besides, the characters are always so intriguing and I'll watch almost anything with good characters in it.

I'm probably going to see Journey to the Center of the Earth tonight. I love old sci-fi. I've adored that book for a long time now. I hope they do it justice. I mean, it has dinosaurs and peril and near drownings...it's gotta be good. :)

We shall see.

I just finished Isaac Asimov's The Caves of Steel. AMAZING book! Man, I almost forgot how much I love mid-century sci-fi. I just remembered. :) I mean, Asimov is always amazing. Caves was just outstanding. I'm really having a hard time following it up with another book. Everything seems so dull after reading that. I've requested the next book in the series (I love series!) from the library. Hopefully it will come soon. If not, I just might have to drop in on B. Dalton and see if they have it...

Oh, I haven't gotten the new Artemis Fowl book yet. How shocking! I suppose it's my cash deficit. It's hitting me everywhere! I always buy the new Artemis Fowl book immediately. That would be a good follow-up to Caves. Hmmm...Let's see what the Mom Bank says about chipping in for Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox (considering that she reads it right after I do). Ooo, more sci-fi goodness. Ah! I just can't help myself. It's so good!

Alright, I'll shut up now. I have some more shocking news (that no one will care about), but I'll save that for my next entry.

Howdy! I've returned from abroad. In short, my trip was WONDERFUL! I have tons to talk about but, alas, I'm exhausted!

It was loads of fun. I'll talk more soon!


P.S. I just saw Wall-E. AMAZING! I'll also talk about that later (and I'll put spoilers under a cut, I promise!).

I'm really enjoying life with time. I can do what I want to. Omgosh, what a concept.

I'll admit: it took me a while to get into the swing of things, but I get it now.

I've written about 25,000 words of my new book. In four days. Hurray for free time!

My goal is to finish it this week. That seems feasible to me. Sure, I've put aside a bit of my music time, but it's only for a week, right? Hugo Wolf can wait. Besides, I don't have my next audition until August. That gives me plenty of time. :) Still, my crazy practicing self is whining, but sometimes you need to ignore yourself, you know? Well, that's what I'm doing: ignoring myself. hehe It seems mischievous somehow...

Besides, I AM getting things done. I fixed my grandparent's computer today. It couldn't find the primary drive (aka it lost itself). I had it fixed (with the help of some really great tech support) in about an hour. Wipe the sweat away on that one! I'm glad it's over. My aunt was crabbing about it yesterday at Father's Day festivities. Well, she can't crab about it anymore!

Speaking of Father's Day, my computer battery stinks on ice! It died in 20 minutes with one program running and the screen luminosity all the way down. It's my third battery only because Dell kept making me send mine back because it was liable to blow up or something. Well, I liked my old one better! This is making me kind of mad. >:|

I had a really fun time at Kelly's party on Saturday. I got to see some people that I hadn't seen in FOREVER. Happiness! Also, I've made an agreement to go see Wall-E with someone. Yay! I LOVE ROBOTS! They're so cute! I don't even know why I love robots so much; I just do! I guess that's why I adored Bicentennial Man when I saw it last month. I had to buy it and I never buy movies!

Ok, I've blabbed enough.

Oh, a Narnia update. I really love the PC soundtrack (especially A Door in the Air). I've listened to it in earnest now. I really wasn't so into The Call at first, but now I am. :) Yay. (I just had to erase the Susan/Caspian image from it. hehe)

So, until I'm sane!!

As I said in my last entry, I had completely confused feelings about the Prince Caspian movie. Here's the deal:

There were things that I really liked and there were things that I really DIDN'T like. The intensity/frequency of those opposing things evened out. There were moments when I was like, "Yes, this is Narnia!" and I loved. There were others when I cringed or just got annoyed. So, I think I'll have to see it again to have a real solid opinion on it.

Things I liked:
-moments from the book that were done right
-the transformation from England to Narnia (amazing!)
-Lucy and Edmund - their characters were perfect!
-special effects - the minotaurs, etc looked great
-Aslan's effects - he looked amazing
-added scene with the White Witch
-music! (of course!)
-costumes, photography, overall directing
-fact that they used the last line of the book as the last line of the movie :)
-portrayal of the waking of the trees and the water - very cool!
-basically good plot restructuring (there are some exceptions to this, explained below)

Things I DID NOT like:
-Susan and Caspian - that was just lame
-Susan in general - completely out of character (thumbs down!)
-Peter - somewhat out of character
-Caspian - why was he so old?
-Caspian and Peter - their relationship wasn't true to the book
-overall dark mood - I understand that this one is a bit darker than LWW, but they made it too dark
-diminished nobility of Narnia
-excessive amount of fighting/violence/death
-lessened power and influence of Aslan
-blowing of the horn - Aslan brought them into Narnia, not the horn; it fit well into their plot, but it severely impaired Aslan's character

That's about it. I don't feel like doing into too much more detail. It's too much to say, and I want to see it again.

I saw the digital presentation of it. I'm really glad I did because it was amazing! What a difference!

*sigh* All that waiting. Only another few years until Dawn Treader. They should have an easier time sticking to the book (and therefore making an amazing movie) with this one. Good luck to them!