CATRIN'S AWESOME OPERA
Oops. Caps lock button hit by mistake...
So Catrin's first year in Musicologie et Chanson Française, Jazz et Musique Actuelle is drawing to a close, and he last week has been marked by the first "Histoire de la Danse" lecture, by several exams, including the "Histoire de la Danse exam, by a concert with Freddo on Saturday and by an epic production of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera, which translates into French as l'Opéra de Quat'sous - or Fourpenny Opera. Everything is more expensive in France.
Before the production started their professor explained that in the first year of the degree in Musicology, title as before, they pile on the stress, and this includes putting on an opera in two weeks, five rehearsals. Catrin came out of the rehearsals knowing that many things were not as they should be and some of the songs were almost pulled from the show...
However something happens on the night, and it was all splendid. The opera is about MacHeath (Mack the Knife) who is a general thug and who marries the strangely sweet and innocent daughter, Polly, of the local pimps who manage the city's beggars and prostitutes. Catrin had to sing Polly's song, "Jenny the Pirate" as well as play in the chorus of call-girls. The songs are musically difficult, and Catrin's was complicated by the fact that she had to sing while standing on a chair and being mistreated by a gang of thugs and cut-throats.
But despite a dress rehearsal that was by all accounts unpromising, the students really pulled it off and their lecturer was later seen lying on a sofa, beer bottle in hand, laughing quietly to himself.
So Catrin's first year in Musicologie et Chanson Française, Jazz et Musique Actuelle is drawing to a close, and he last week has been marked by the first "Histoire de la Danse" lecture, by several exams, including the "Histoire de la Danse exam, by a concert with Freddo on Saturday and by an epic production of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera, which translates into French as l'Opéra de Quat'sous - or Fourpenny Opera. Everything is more expensive in France.
Before the production started their professor explained that in the first year of the degree in Musicology, title as before, they pile on the stress, and this includes putting on an opera in two weeks, five rehearsals. Catrin came out of the rehearsals knowing that many things were not as they should be and some of the songs were almost pulled from the show...
However something happens on the night, and it was all splendid. The opera is about MacHeath (Mack the Knife) who is a general thug and who marries the strangely sweet and innocent daughter, Polly, of the local pimps who manage the city's beggars and prostitutes. Catrin had to sing Polly's song, "Jenny the Pirate" as well as play in the chorus of call-girls. The songs are musically difficult, and Catrin's was complicated by the fact that she had to sing while standing on a chair and being mistreated by a gang of thugs and cut-throats.
But despite a dress rehearsal that was by all accounts unpromising, the students really pulled it off and their lecturer was later seen lying on a sofa, beer bottle in hand, laughing quietly to himself.
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