Tonight I totally met PATTI LUPONE!!!!!!!! Oh my god! How awesome is that?
That said, the Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (pronounced Mah-Hah- GOH-Ny) is not very good. But to be fair, there is no one to blame more than the composer of the score, Kurt Weill, and he's been dead for 57 years. The dull, lifeless, endlessly serious score, which is the undercurrent for some actually rather funny and fiercely political libretto from Brecht, provoked many people to leave during intermission. The director didn't really do much to fill the void either, but enough nay-saying, Patti LuPone was glorious and Audra MacDonald was radiant. And I didn't think I was much of an Audra fan, considering I saw her in Ragtime and kind of didn't understand what all the hype was about. But after tonight I can wholeheartedly say that if you must see an opera, it must contain Audra MacDonald, whos easy voice floats beautifully over every note available to the human range of hearing. And I didn't want to kill the male lead, a feat since his part was so massive that by the second Act I really just wanted him to die. So he would shut up of course.
However, the most important part of the evening was when we couldn't find the restaurant we had considered eating at, so we went to the french place downstairs from the Music Center. A large table sat two down from us, and a man in a turtleneck joined them. My mom asked if that was the conductor, but I really could have cared less (although he also did a fabulous job). That is until his old college chum sat down next to him. I turned to my mom and reported, "That is the conductor, Patti LuPone just sat down next to him!!!" I contained my squee admirably until we were leaving. I purposely walked by their table, thanked the conductor for a wonderful show, then moved to the petite powerhouse to his right, gushing something about how I had only come to see her, because I had never seen her live, and thanking her profusely for being incredible. She held my hand the whole time, and I must say, she has lovely soft little hands. AHHH! The woman is a theater ICON! I touched a theater ICON!
And Scene.
you will never wash again.
nor will i, but that's just because the cast makes it difficult.
PATTI LUPONE!
Posted by: miss kendra | February 23, 2007 at 11:42 AM
I was puzzling all night, was it on purpose that Mahagonny rhymes with agony? And...don't forget, you can't help a dead man.
Posted by: theater geek's Mom | February 23, 2007 at 02:12 PM
I second Miss Kendra's "PATTI LUPONE!" I would have killed to have seen her in Sweeney Todd (no pun intended).
Posted by: Catherine | March 06, 2007 at 07:37 AM