Sorry I'm having a ballet night ... this is a really fab video I found right after the above... I guess if you don't like ballet, you can always close your eyes and just listen. Anyway these guys are pretty lively for the 60s!!! So much has probably remained hidden behind the Iron Curtain, just now being dragged out of archives. Apparently that is Khachaturian himself directing.

There is one dude dancer who comes out and "floats" mid leap, about 17 minutes into it. The only dancer I ever heard of doing that was Nijinsky, but I think he had cashed out by this time. I'm wondering if the film isn't even earlier.... allegedly it's the Bolshoi, but if it's the 40s (like the women's hair styles and make up seem to indicate) it could be the Ballet Russe. The dancing is so lyrical, it's almost like Isadora Duncan dancing.... What an awesome clip!!!

https://youtu.be/ChD3F_UyoJo

Again ................... yea a little late for Bastille Day but it's all good.

Indeed turn up the volume.............. it's summer, and roll down the window too.

I'm going to see Carmen tonight, the opera, local production. I'll letcha know how it goes. What I've seen of Carmen, here and there, looks like a really lively stage show. Been watching Amadeus all day, off and on, so I'm off on light opera right now.

This was marvelous last night. You know how community theater can be, especially with singing, folks are cast not for their talent acting, but for their lovely voices, and they were all fantastic vocally. I'd say about a 20 piece orchestra, local folks. They started the Overture and I honestly thought it was recorded, it was so good. Yes, some of the less known music was just sublime, marvelous. I had been watching Amadeus all day so I had Mozart running through my brain, and this Bizet was totally unexpected. March of the Toreadors and another (all I can think of is the Marx Brothers in Cocoanuts "I've lost my shirr") were familiar... but other songs (some of the best) were just marvelous. At one point the tenor and soprano sang a duet, and he ended high, she was lower than him, harmony. It was really wonderful.

I don't think any of them were miked! They just belted it out. The dude playing the Toreador was hilarious, he came in like a rock star and everything... nailed the part. He was the only singer to have sense enough to step in front of the proscenium arch and belt it out into the house. The four urchins faded out alas, poor little dears were scared and forgot to project, and were back behind the arch.... lost their voices.

Sadly it was a very poor turn out. Almost as many people on stage and in the orchestra pit as in the audience! And many were family I think. It WAS nice to enjoy such a good show with no crowds, but sad for their egos I suspect. They were very good.

The conductor was this little old lady with white hair.... she was excellent, they had the light such that her hands conducting were projected (shadows) up on the wall, very classical. When they finished, she crept up on stage with her cane, and took a bow, and I applauded her heartily.

I could have told them a thing or two about not only directing, but the sets.... typical high school "box" sets and they closed and open curtains at every break/act. Sheesh I haven't seen that for years.... I'm used to stage shows where the sets are just changed right on stage as part of the performance. Too many costume changes too, sets too heavy and complex. Nice lighting and color. Sets looked unfinished, I think they were struggling, one of their artistic directors had passed recently.

The sound was very good in there. The Admiral.... yea if any Moody configuration ever comes here to our town, they'll enjoy the theater immensely.

I wish so much I had time to get involved with things like this, but it always turns into a snot fit with some prima donna backstage, and I'm pretty snotty myself.... and have put in the time to back up my suggestions on staging, directing, choreography etc. So I rarely get into community theatre. It's just no fun, but a lot of work, and has to be a labor of love, or no sense in doing it. Like the sets, they needed more work, and you know the performers "just couldn't find the time" to get in and help with a paint brush. It's always the way, I usually get stuck doing late nights on a sewing machine. But considering it was community, I thought it was a really good show, and they did the music justice indeed.