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Cannons in enclosed spaces
Monday, March 17th, 2008 02:14 pmSo, last night at the Royal Albert Hall.
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ellefurtle and I met up with westernind and forbinproject at the Goethe Institute in South Kensington for an early dinner before three of us (not forbinproject) went on to the Classical Spectacular: two to watch, one to perform (I shall leave you to decide the distribution of tasks).
I had a very toothsome sea bass followed by lemon tart, Furtle necked a very passable bangers'n'mash.
It takes a special sort of person to go to an indoor Classical Spectacular that includes Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture when that person is scared of loud bangs. More of that shortly. Equally, wandering to the seats on the front row up in the Gods is no real fun when you have trouble with heights, though to be fair it was really only a problem the first time. On the way out and during the interval there were fewer people to squeeze past, so the life-threatening drop and the calf-high guard rail were less threatening.
I have already forgotten most of the names of the pieces played, but included, in no particular order, we listened to Zadok the Priest by Handel, a particular favourite of Furtle and worth the price of admittance to see the big grin on her face alone. Pomp and Circumstance no.1, the final part including the choir (and audience) singing 'Land of Hope and Glory', Jerusalem, The Great Gate of Kiev, Nessun Dorma, Rule Britannia a couple of fairly tedious opera excerpts from Verdi, Ravel's Bolero and other well-known bits and pieces.
I thought we might have blown it when the conductor announced that the next piece up would be the Nabucco Chorus Of The Hebrew Slaves - another tedious piece by Verdi. I whispered to Furtle that it didn't sound like a ball of laughs and that unfortunately started a giggle loop, which infected the pair of us to the extent that we had tears running down our faces trying to suppress laughter and the malteasers melted.
There was a short military piece that featured some chaps dressed in Napoleonic uniforms trooping about downstairs - that gave us a taste of things to come on the 1812.
When it was built, the organ in the Royal Albert Hall was the largest in the world; now it is the second largest Britain. It is very loud. The orchestra played Saint-Saens' Symphony No.3, second movement, which goes something like, "violin-violin-violin piccolo-piccolo-piccolo-ORGAN!!!. I know the orchestra was playing because I could see them, but other than the Timpanist going mental, all I could hear was the ORGAN.
The final piece before the encores etc was, of course, the 1812 Overture. Opposite and above us the Napoleonic soldiers, complete with muskets appeared. Furtle was reasonably cool about that as she thought that she would see them readying the muskets and prepare herself for the loud bangs. That confidence drained away when I pointed out the cannon above and behind us. The light show was pretty spectacular for the Royal Albert Hall and I had to pin Furtle down when the white lights flashed. That was without the musket fire. When the muskets, fireworks and cannon started, I pretty much had to hold her down with a finger pushed in her one ear while she stuffed things in her other ear to keep the sound out. It was marvellous.
ellefurtle and I met up with westernind and forbinproject at the Goethe Institute in South Kensington for an early dinner before three of us (not forbinproject) went on to the Classical Spectacular: two to watch, one to perform (I shall leave you to decide the distribution of tasks).I had a very toothsome sea bass followed by lemon tart, Furtle necked a very passable bangers'n'mash.
It takes a special sort of person to go to an indoor Classical Spectacular that includes Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture when that person is scared of loud bangs. More of that shortly. Equally, wandering to the seats on the front row up in the Gods is no real fun when you have trouble with heights, though to be fair it was really only a problem the first time. On the way out and during the interval there were fewer people to squeeze past, so the life-threatening drop and the calf-high guard rail were less threatening.
I have already forgotten most of the names of the pieces played, but included, in no particular order, we listened to Zadok the Priest by Handel, a particular favourite of Furtle and worth the price of admittance to see the big grin on her face alone. Pomp and Circumstance no.1, the final part including the choir (and audience) singing 'Land of Hope and Glory', Jerusalem, The Great Gate of Kiev, Nessun Dorma, Rule Britannia a couple of fairly tedious opera excerpts from Verdi, Ravel's Bolero and other well-known bits and pieces.
I thought we might have blown it when the conductor announced that the next piece up would be the Nabucco Chorus Of The Hebrew Slaves - another tedious piece by Verdi. I whispered to Furtle that it didn't sound like a ball of laughs and that unfortunately started a giggle loop, which infected the pair of us to the extent that we had tears running down our faces trying to suppress laughter and the malteasers melted.
There was a short military piece that featured some chaps dressed in Napoleonic uniforms trooping about downstairs - that gave us a taste of things to come on the 1812.
When it was built, the organ in the Royal Albert Hall was the largest in the world; now it is the second largest Britain. It is very loud. The orchestra played Saint-Saens' Symphony No.3, second movement, which goes something like, "violin-violin-violin piccolo-piccolo-piccolo-ORGAN!!!. I know the orchestra was playing because I could see them, but other than the Timpanist going mental, all I could hear was the ORGAN.
The final piece before the encores etc was, of course, the 1812 Overture. Opposite and above us the Napoleonic soldiers, complete with muskets appeared. Furtle was reasonably cool about that as she thought that she would see them readying the muskets and prepare herself for the loud bangs. That confidence drained away when I pointed out the cannon above and behind us. The light show was pretty spectacular for the Royal Albert Hall and I had to pin Furtle down when the white lights flashed. That was without the musket fire. When the muskets, fireworks and cannon started, I pretty much had to hold her down with a finger pushed in her one ear while she stuffed things in her other ear to keep the sound out. It was marvellous.
Page 4 of the strip (currently at about 84 pages), featuring the 2nd, 7th, 9th and 10th Doctors. The rest turn up and get involved in the adventure as it progresses.
Page 4 of the strip (currently at about 84 pages), featuring the 2nd, 7th, 9th and 10th Doctors. The rest turn up and get involved in the adventure as it progresses.