hey everyone, I was watching a particular video on you tube from my favorite theatrical troupe, and I thought I might open this thread.
I personally LOVE musicals, Japanese Musicals at that, especially the all female theatrical troupe called the Takarazuka Kagekidan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fsc6N1oGKQ
here the vid I was watching. My "boys" are singing "Too darn HOT" mind that this vid is dated back on 1997, and here the actresses:
Kouju Tatsuki in Red shirt
Shibuki Jun in White
Shizuki Asato in Blue
Wao Youka in Green
So the question is How do you feel about Musicals, like them ? Hate them?
Love them. I tend to stick mostly to classic ones, Cats, Rent, Hairspray, Phantom of the Opera, Oliver - all of those old Andrew Lloyd Webber ones, plus a few others.
Nothing beats a good ol' singsong :D Me and my two female flatmates used to do it all the time, though not anymore since we're not really living together now.
BUt musicals, yeah. Awesome!
I love dance, so musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly I like, but most stage music just annoys me, so they rarely appeal otherwise.
@2- What, no mention of West Side Story or Les Mis?! Hang thy head in shame.
Musicals are awesome (opera, too). They wear you out, but they're more rewarding for it. The cast form a closer bond (unless you're performing Grease; that's a miserable experience) than with plain old acting, and you get to SING. Oh, and Oliver! is the most fun play to perform in a school EVER (except the song 'Who Will Buy'; just one weak singer makes that stressful).
I can only offer sneak peeks on Japanese versions of Classical musicals like this scene from Phantom of the Opera: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBqcecz7nns
singin' in the rain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu8b5ARH3vo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_fhyayuoKA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-EaoTYVl3A
I love the effect the real water gives to the whole scene
Earnest in love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kgR4LhVO2U
Carmen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urVolO4lsEw
and Takarazuka's speciality: Berusaiyu no Bara (Rose of the Versailles):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjJ_ux-8TYo
Carmen's an opera, not a musical.
>>6 there is also a musical. if you check the video you'll see for yourself.
and Carmen is a book, that became a play and Bizet wrote the music for. (the opera one)
here the musical adaption 60 years ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Jones
I've yet to see Les Mis, I must admit, it is on my "too watch" list for this summer, once I have a bit of time on my hands.
I do hang my head in shame, but I'll be watching more this summer so I'll probably work my way through a few, my flatmate recommended loads to me :)
>>6 I make me search for it and i found out that the Japanese version of Carmen(musical) is an original adaption from a Japanese straight from the book. So it is nothing like the Broadway adaption
Jose and Carmen(Takarazuka adaption):
Based On: Carmen by Prosper Mérimée
Adaptor: Shibata Yukihiro
Director / Choreographer: Sha Tamae
Flamenco Choreographer: Ran Konomi
Flamenco Guitar Composer & Player: Hiroshi Someya
Composer: Takahashi Jou, Saitou Tsuneyoshi
it seems like Japanese composed new music as well, so they don't touch Bizet's music at all.
@7- Oh, you meant Carmen Jones, not Carmen. I've heard that it's not great (from what I've read, it's Bizet's talent that keeps the thing afloat, rather than any of Hammerstein's alterations), although not terrible.
@8- WATCH IT. Make sure you see a good production, though. I saw it in London in 2007, and it was awesome. The film adaptation, on the other hand, sucks.
So far the productions I have seen are
Regular Japanese theater: SeraMyu (sailor moon musicals) that run for 12 years 1993-2005
Films: Chicago, Singin' in the rain, Fiddler on the roof.
Takarazuka: 7 different productions of Elisabeth, 2 different productions of Phantom of the opera, Scarlet Pimpernel, The Wind of Buenos Aires.
on August I'm going to see Romeo & Juliette(musical) and If I find a ticket i'll probably see another musical, which no matter how many times I have look at the title I can't remember it, I know the leading actresses though.
Whenever in the future I'll find my way to America I'll totally go and watch a Broadway play
Also I forgot In Japanese regular theater I have also seen Revolutionary girl Utena Musical
@12- You know what this board is like; when I clicked 'reply', your comment wasn't there.
BUT WHY WOULD ANYBODY WANT CARMEN WITHOUT BIZET?!! Melons, coupons?! The Haba-frickin'-nera?!
I haven't seen the whole play to know for sure. But knowing Takarazuka, they totally care more for the actual story than the music. check the video and decide for yourself if it is worth it or not
To be honest, I haven't seen too many musicals. The ones that I have seen are movie adaptations like the Phantom of the Opera (which is so beautiful)and Hairspray.
My friends and I are planning to see Wicked in the West End as a belated birthday present for a friend, I'm really looking forward to that.
So do you guys have an recommendations for good musicals to see on stage?
I'll watch it when I have a spare minute. To be fair, the story is not the opera's strong point- it may have just been the direction in the version I saw (and obviously, you'll never see a Stanislavkian performance in an opera!), but the characters' motivations were opaque, their actions contradictory, and the whole thing lurched along from one unbelievable circumstance to another. The Don Jose I saw gave a rather wooden performance, which didn't help. But then he's a rather wooden character. So keh.
(that was @16, btw)
>>18 I wanted to watch Carmen opera when i was in Prague but everything was sold out and I lost my opportunity.
I have played Bizet's music though, and i loved every single note of it
Mmm, the dude's awesome.
I've seen some of that Carmen musical thingy now, and I have to say that I prefer the opera. They're a talented bunch, but the music's a bit too reminiscent of Eurovision for my tastes. This is the way I like my Carmen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYB5p6GI0nI
!
As for Singin' in the Rain, I found that the strong sexual undertones she gave to the first section were a bit odd, and I'd have preferred it if the dance had been directed in a unique way, instead of just a weak imitation of Gene Kelly's. Obviously, this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmCpOKtN8ME
is a pretty impossible act to follow (that step thing he does on the kerb!), so the performance suffers for attempting to copy it.
(More Carmen, because I think these songs are beautiful, even if the women's delivery is strangely hard rather than airy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ9sejvN9Os
And this, in which Escamillo bears a striking resemblance to Derren Brown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5qmSEvDEGs&NR=1
And this, a more in-time version of Les Voici!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tu4H1VnAgw&feature=related
I think all the subtitles are in Russian, but who knows...)
>>22 Oh man I love this piece, and It is so fucking hard to play it that fast by the way.
Just one thing PLEASE I beg you DO not call an musical orchestra composition ... eurovision T_T. call it whatever else you want if you don't like it but not eurovision :pukes:
and now I'm confused, what do you mean by "sexual understones" ??
as for the dance it is an adaption not a copy, but still they follow a script, also on the how much more Gene Kelly did in the movie, do not forget it was a movie not a live, the choreography is simpler, I have seen some scenes from the Broadway production and the dances are simpler than the movie.
>>23 the vids are beautiful and the language is far from Russian, is Czech, or Slovak.
Opera is completely different thing
here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOyXEh2kWfY
same actress who played Jose in the other video here as Carmen, i don't know why she doesn't sing in her deep voice though and uses fake notes all the while, apart from that the whole scene very funny, and the music is just amazing!
@24- Note her expression and the way she uses her hands. She's not hugging that lamppost; she's poledancing on it.
I haven't seen the Singing in the Rain script, but I'd be willing to bet that it doesn't contain the directions 'Don jumps onto a lamppost on this beat... Don flips his umbrella here and here... Don stands under a little water chute here'. Generally, scripts for musicals are pretty vague; the choreographer is the one who decides on the dances. The fact that it has so much in common with the film version suggests to me a wasted opportunity. Of course film and theatre are completely different media; that was my point. For a film, you can film a scene as many times as it takes to get it right, cut parts, add parts, etc. For a live production, the choreographic process is completely different, so it seems strange that they just copied the dance (leaving out the most difficult, visually engaging bits). They had a chance to do something completely new, but instead they did the same dance (just not as well).
Carmen's a mezzo soprano role, so you can't really sing it with lower notes; it just doesn't have the same sense of build-up. I have to agree that she sings far better in her deep voice, though; in that video there are quite a few patches where she sounds like she's struggling to cope with the music, and her high voice lacks power (and that's with a mic!). She sings like someone singing for a musical, but opera's completely different. I also don't get why they didn't have any women in the chorus; their parts really boost the piece (par example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJLyZqETuBU&feature=related). I'm curious to know if the lyrics are a direct translation or not, because obviously they affect the performance style. As it is, she seems like a very cute Carmen, but Carmen isn't supposed to be 'cute'.
>>25
She sings the whole thing in fake-notes which means that they are not strong note that come from the depths of her lungs, they are just powerless out of her original voice range notes, here listen this, her voice is One hell of a powerful one, when she sings on her range
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzAzgtOla6s
I don't know why but it is not just Carmen she did with the fake high pitched notes but her post Takarazuka recording as well. and It gets on my nerves because voices like hers are very rear.
Yeah, she's much better in that. Tbf, it's not that the Carmen notes are out of her range, they're just out of her tessitura, and she's not singing with an operatic technique.
I'm always envious of singers who can do that 'growly' thing seemingly effortlessly (Freddie Mercury, Hope Jackman, etc); I find it hurts my voice after a while. Speaking of Hope Jackman, she had the best Widow Corney voice ever. If you get a chance to listen to a recording of the original London Oliver! cast, you'll see what I mean.
>>27 that's what I meant with "out of range" thing, I just suck at terminology even though being a musician for 20 years already, whatever term has to do with vocals I do not know at all.
on Zunko's voice YES she doesn't use opetatic technique, that's why her notes are powerless.
as for the growling thing and her low range voice, she was trained to do so, actually all the actresses in this theater who play the male roles [Zunko is one of them] they actually destroy their voices by training it like that. Also for the years they are in the company they abandoned anything girly, they are posing as boys on and off stage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfkbABgyVzk
here another vid that shows off Zunko's voice from Musical Elisabeth.
The mustache/Emperor Franz Joseph: Wao Youka
Rudolph(in the blue jacket): Asami Hikaru
Death/Der Tod/Touto: Shizuki Asato (Zunko)
I've never actually seen one but I am currently completely and utterly obsessed with WICKED, in particular the OBC, Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel. I have read the book which is a lot darker but I love it just as much.
@28- I'd have thought the growling and the low tessitura would be two completely separate matters. Growling does wreck your voice (and it can hurt), but the relative pitch of the tessitura is a natural thing. For example, I can sing between g2 and g6, so my range is roughly baritone to soprano, but my tessitura is that of a contralto, and always has been, even as my range has increased. (But I normally sing sop. parts in our chamber choir, because the other girls can't hit the higher notes. Gah.)
>>30 that's very interesting
I really do not have a clue about how voices really work.
my speaking voice is a little [very little] higher than my singing voice, and it is also depends on the language I speak/sing
for example I do sing/speak in higher range in English, than In my native tongue (greek) or Japanese.
at some point I asked a conductor to name my voice, he said that my range is quite rear for a woman, since I can hit notes of a male Tenor. And that's as much as I know about my voice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GUtqUPgpKQ
this shows some skill, it is for fun but I do believe that is really hard to change between voices that much, they lose it at some point but they find their tune back almost immediately :)
I'll always have a soft spot for Les Miserables (which my pushy secondary school did, seeing as we were all girls we had to borrow some people from the boys school up the road.) Legally Blonde was a surprisingly good musical. For sheer scale it's got to be Les Mis, Wicked, and Phantom of the Opera. Avenue Q is a good one too.
>>31 Baritone to soprano is like the lowest male voice to the highest female voice. G2 to G6 is impossible (most sopranos can only reach C6) so unless Anonymous has proof it's some rather advanced trolling there. (I'm impressed at their knowledge of music though, anybody who uses the words tessitura in everyday conversation is alright in my book.) What was the lowest note you hit?
It is not impossible because I can sing it. Four octaves is humanly possible; just because your range is lower does not mean everyone else's is. Admittedly, on bad days when I have a slightly sore throat, my range is a2-e6 (although when I have a cold I lose all the notes from about c5, and can then sing from c7. I sound like a kettle). Most sopranos can sing a little higher than C6, but most music written for sopranos does not demand notes above this. If you do some research into vocal range, you'll see.
>>33 I'm not to sure about the actual terms for vocal notes but, I'm just going to go for an all out guess here, does that mean you have a range similar to Yma Sumac?
In which case, wow.
@34- Not as large as hers (she had about an octave more at one point!), but I suppose it is a bit larger than average. On the other hand, there's a difference between notes that are in your range (which I take to mean 'you can sing and sustain') and notes which you can sing well in a live performance. I'd probably stick to notes between C3 and C6 if I was performing a song onstage, because I can easily sing those notes, even if I have a dry throat etc. There's also a lot more to singing than vocal range.
>>35 If not impossible, you'll agree still rather improbable. If true, then I take my hat off to you, it's a rare singer that can do that. My personal range is D3 to C6 (the higher notes on a good day.) I agree most sopranos can sing a little higher, sometimes a lot. Any particular songs you like? I get stuck trying to find decent contralto ones.
@35- If you take the contralto range to be between E3 and g5, then most famous female singers sing within this range. I can suggest singers that sound 'low' to me, but I can't be sure if they're within the contralto range; I don't check the notes. Anyway, off the top of my head, Debbie Harry, Mama Cass, Fiona Apple, Nina Simone and Judy Garland sing lower notes than most. You can also try singing along male singers- Freddie Mercury, especially, sings in a range that's easy to join in with.
uh... hate musicals. Maybe I've just never seen a good one. The music absolutely drives me batty.
>>38 musicals are not for all ppl, I know a hella lot who hate them, no matter if they are amateur school plays or Broadway.
To enjoy musical you have to be able to surpass the the fact that they sing 2.30 hours non stop!
So it is a gender that not all ppl find pleasurable :)