The Proms

They start tonight!

EVERY single year I enjoy watching the Proms and remember that I would really like to go sometime, and EVERY single year I decide that next year I really will go. And EVERY single year I forget until suddenly I realise it's First Night of the Proms night again. I am rubbish!

Oh well! First night tonight - who's going to be watching? And has anyone here been in person?
 
Extended version of the Dr Who prom on BBC3 now. Seems to consist of a woman going "der der der dum der dum" a lot so far :D. Quite nice though.

Bizarrely this broadcast clashes with the "Monteverdi's Vespers" broadcast starting on BBC4 at half past but I guess they are for different audiences and there's always iPlayer.

I went to the Penguin Cafe Orchestra late night prom the other night (not televised) and it was sadly pretty dull with awful sound, every instrument seemed to be mic'd and it was just one jumble of overamplified noise in the Arena, none of the distinct instrument sounRAB that you normally get when attending a conventional live orchestra. The sound for the Jamie Cullum prom was far better in the hall.

The big one tomorrow with the Last Night which I am lucky enough to be attending in the Hall in person, I shall wave to you all, I have my outfit ready :)
 
At least they won't have all those weird filters... 'twas one camera direction that was regretted when it was in the can back in '58
 
It was your summit but not necessarily everyone else's. My summit is something else entirely. I cannot bear to listen to opera for instance apart from the light and fluffy kind.

I am going to see Les Miserables on Thursday and hope it lives up to the London production I saw in the first year it was out!
 
Julian Ovenden isn't from the opera world. He is an actor and singer. He was the best thing in Marguerite apparently. Didn't see it myself. I thought he was great, especially singing the Soliloquy from Carousel.
 
I must say, I have found classical music the least welcoming and accessible of all new genres that I have tried to join. Why can't people say 'well, X isn't my taste, but how wonderful that so many people have enoyed a concert - perhaps some of you will also move on to enoy more music. If you liked X, perhaps you should try Y?' rather than 'oh, how sad that you liked X, I can't stand that rubbish'. Sorry, but we aren't all educated in classical music, we don't all know what's 'good' and what's 'dross' - but how do we learn other than listening to a varied range and seeing what we like and what we don't?
 
Gosh it's all one big anti-Islamic rally - fancy singing a song about Jerusalem on the anniversary of 9/11.

Disgusting - I'm gonna go behead someone
 
I didn't know that............well, I didn't watch it !.........:D

I think it was last year i watched the 'Musicals' prom and it was proper singers trying to do justice to the songs and (I thought) failing

Even the greats like Dame Kiri made a mess of West Side Story.......

I just think these proper singers can't do musicals.........they're not sassy enough...........they can do the notes and the worRAB in the right order, but it's an attitude that they don't have.

Difficult to explain but it just rarely comes off when proper trained singers try to do 'pop'
 
I have just watched Friday nights First Night of The Proms.

Mahler 8th was played wonderfully well, beautifully performed and sung.

Glad I watched it cos its one of my fav Mahler Symphonies.
 
Went to the late night Jamie Cullum / Heritage Orchestra prom tonight ... it's on BBC4 on Friday evening. Quite an unusual one ... there's been a "jazz night" in the series quite a few years recently but this was more like a Jamie Cullum concert than a prom, moving/flashing lights and all sorts. He was good though, as was his band and the Heritage Orchestra. I enjoyed it, as did everyone else there it seemed. Way more TV cameras scattered about the place than there usually are for the televised ones, including two guys with wireless cameras roaming about inside the orchestra all the time, so should look good on the box. No doubt some hardcore classical promenaders will be outraged by the fun.
 
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