Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Raoul vs Phantom - Phantom wins hands down!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Wow, it's June. Time is flying by here! It's rather frightening, actually. I can't believe I only have two weeks left...but that's not what I want to thing about. I want to think about two things:

First, the British Library. It's actually more of a museum, at least for tourists. We saw so many cool things there - original Beatles lyrics written on the back of a birthday card and on scraps of paper, the original copy of Alice in Wonderland (which was actually called Alice's Adventures Underground - we saw the original copy handwritten and drawn by Lewis Caroll!), the original, handwritten score for Handel's Messiah, handwritten scores by Mozart and Bach, the actual Guttenberg Bible and Magna Carta, illuminated manuscripts from centuries ago, and so many more amazing things. I absolutely loved it. I would have liked more time to explore the actual library part too - it's huge, and, if you know me you know that I have a bit of a love affair with any and all libraries. It was wonderful.


After dinner we ran to West End to try to see Lion King, but tickets are near impossible to come by in the manner in which we students do it (go an hour before and take whatever tickets haven't been sold for a reduced rate). I'm still determined to see it, but we'll have to go earlier to get tickets next time. Instead, we ran down the block and went to Love Never Dies, the Phantom of the Opera sequel. Okay, I'm still conflicted about this play. As a sequel to Phantom, it did not work for me - the characters changed too much (granted, there is a ten year gap between the two story lines) but they just weren't the same people. I'm going to try not to ruin the ending for anyone who still wants to see it, but the end just was not what I was expecting or wanting. That is, what I thought should have happened in a Phantom sequel. However, if looked at completely separately from Phantom, this musical was absolutely wonderful. I liked it in its own right - the music was great, especially Till I Hear You Sing as sung by the Phantom. I absolutely loved that song - so so so much. I just bought it on iTunes, in fact. The lyrics of the songs were rather poor, but the orchestrations were wonderful. And the story in and of itself, separate from Phantom, was actually quite enjoyable.If it had not been a sequel and just a musical on its own, I probably would venture to say that I loved it. If you want to hear how it ends, just ask - I love discussing it. The guy who played the Phantom had the most incredible voice, and he was quite good-looking, two things I delight in immensely especially when combined. It was an interesting, conflicting experience. My faithfulness to the original play inhibits my total love of the sequel, but I would recommend seeing it. And, afterwards we went to the stage door and we met Christine! She's American, from Denver, and she also played Ariel in the Little Mermaid on Broadway! And we met her! Woo! It was a fabulous night. I still can't believe I'm here doing things like this - going to plays, walking the streets of London, etc. And tomorrow we depart for Wales and Liverpool! Yay! So I won't be blogging for a couple of days, but don't worry. I'll have a zillion pictures to show when I get back :) Goodnight, faithful readers!

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