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Went to see a local production of Rent this evening. <3

It was delightful! Lots of heart went into it, and you could tell that everyone involved was having a blast. They totally nailed most of my favourite songs (especially "Santa Fe" and "I'll Cover You").

The duo playing Angel and Collins were a DELIGHT. I'm probably biased 'cause I know both of them from Pride stuff, and those characters have always been my favourites, but yeah. (Also, the actor playing Collins is like, smoking hot AND a great singer, which sure doesn't hurt.)

Saw a few people that I knew, but by the time the show was over, I was too tired to stick around and talk. I'd forgotten how long it is! Worth it, though.

Anyway - when I was in high school, I was really into this musical. It was just... very, very special to me. When the film version came out, I saw it. But I'd never actually seen the stage version performed. So, I'm really happy that I was able to see it now. Yeah. <3

I watched the musical version of The Phantom of the Opera today. :D It was the 2011 one performed at Royal Albert Hall for the 25th anniversary.

I've enjoyed Phantom a lot for a long time, but I've never actually seen the musical. I've watched the 2004 film, and one of the old B&W versions, and I've read the novel. That's it. Back when I was in high school, there was a big in-person "fandom" for the musical among the artsy kids, me included. But none of us had ever actually seen it, and only one of us owned the cast recording on disc (and it wasn't me). For the rest of it, it was scattered individual pirated tracks all the way.

So... finally being able to actually watch it was a real treat. Delightful! Good fun! Tempted to watch it again, honestly. It feels good to finally be able to see it in some form. And of course this particular one is a great performance. (And they did some clever things with the staging that I really liked.)

It'll be up on youtube until Sun 11th, 2PM Eastern, if anybody else is interested in watching while it's available: here.

It's part of "The Show Must Go On" - an offical stream for a full musical goes up every Friday (channel here). I haven't been able to find a schedule for these; it looks like the titles are announced a couple of days before streaming.

Things I did in the last two days -

Yesterday:

+ Work! I do that occasionally.

+ Walked the dogs. Our street is deserted even at normal times, and it was no different today.

+ Watched Wagner's Das Rheingold via the Vienna State Opera's free streaming. It was okay; not one that will be a favourite. I would classify it as "interesting" rather than "enjoyable", if you know what I mean.

+ If anyone's curious, the total of operas I've seen up to this point are: Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, The Magic Flute, Tosca (1976 film version), and now Das Rheingold and La Boheme via streaming.

+ Did a whole lot of knitting. I've started a new project; Susan Ashcroft's Little Waffles scarf, using some cream-coloured DROPS Air yarn. It's very soft and cuddly and squishy! And the "waffle" texture shows up really well. I really love S Ashcroft's patterns; they're written in a very clear and easy-to-understand style.

+ Finished reading Richard Wagamese's Ragged Company. This was an excellent book. I've enjoyed his work before, but I think this might be my new top favourite of his stuff. He builds up these wonderful characters and weaves their stories together in a lovely, incredible way.

Today:

+ Work :V

+ More knitting!

+ More dog-walking! The little one was being a complete brat, so I had to take him outside to stop him from constantly barking.

+ Watched one episode of Rise of Phoenixes. I'm almost finished this series... 5 more eps to go, I think. (FINALLY.)

+ Watched Puccini's La Boheme via the Met Opera's free streaming. Oh, this was lovely! I really enjoyed the singing, the costuming, the sets, everything. I think my favourite of the singers was Ramón Vargas - since I haven't heard any other productions of this opera, I don't have anything to compare it to, but I found his Rodolfo very heartfelt and expressive, and he has such a lovely voice!

Also, it was very interesting to see the inspiration for Rent, which I was a big fan of back in high school. (Or rather, I was a fan of the Rent soundtrack - there was actually a big in-person fandom for that at my school, even though none of us had ever actually seen the musical. Ditto Phantom of the Opera.)

+ Worked a little bit on an FTH fic. I've written hardly anything this month and the previous, so it felt good to put something down, especially for a project that does have a due date. It's not entirely because of current events; I have had a case of the blahs since around mid-February, and it just happened to coincide with... well... you know. But I think if I keep moving words around, something might happen. ;p

And that's that. I expect the next few days will be more of the same.

The Anne of Green Gables ballet was lovely. Really glad that I decided to go. :D I laughed, I cried, it was a good time.

The dancer for Anne's part was an absolute delight. Perfect for that role. The duo playing Marilla and Matthew were also really really excellent.

This performance is based on the musical, rather than directly from the book. I looked for clips of the ballet, but cursory flip-through doesn't turn up much. There's a trailer though: here.

It's been quite a while since I saw a Ballet Jörgen performance, but this one fit with what I remember of their style from when I saw them several years ago in Halifax.

C and I decided that we would dress up for this, because why the hell not. When we got there, we were pretty much the only ones who had, and stuck out quite a bit. Oh Fort McMurray, oh you. Ah, well.

We ran into C's friend M after the show, and got to talking. Apparently he's part of a writing group that meets on weekends. I gave him my contact info, so hopefully I'll receive more details some time soon! That could be interesting.

I ended up getting home wayyyy past my bedtime, and I totally paid for it today. ;) No regrets, though. It was a good time.

☆ Yesterday my car battery died again while I was at the library. Dad came down to give it enough of a boost that I could get home, and we decided that Enough Was Enough; whatever's wrong with it, it's a dud.

Fortunately, I had saved the receipt from when we bought/changed the battery last winter, and it was still within warranty (thanks again for the suggestion that I take a look at that, kanadka. You saved me a hundred bucks.) So we were able to get a new one without problem. Hopefully it'll all be fine now. I'm really sick of this thing crapping out on me on the coldest days of the year. ;V

☆ Because of the cold and aforementioned car issue, I've pretty much stayed inside all day. Knitting, and watching the Royal Ballet version of Swan Lake, and drinking too much hot chocolate. ;) Well, maybe it's not so bad.

☆ Speaking of Swan Lake, having now seen both the Happy Ending version (Moscow Ballet, live), and the Tragic Ending version (Royal Ballet, on disc) I must say I prefer the happy ending. Call me a sap, I guess. Though I must say the Royal Ballet's version was really well done.

(But any Swan Lake is good Swan Lake, I say - then again, it's my favourite of the ballets I've seen.)

On the topic of of various versions, consider: F/F version of Swan Lake. I wish that existed. ...I'm pretty sure it has never been done as an actual ballet, but maybe there's some sort of manga of this out there? It seems like the kind of thing that would exist as a manga. I should take a look when I'm more awake. I know that an M/M version of the ballet exists, Matthew Bourne's version of it, but I don't like the costuming in that one. ...Anyway.

☆ Signups for fandomtrumpshate start tomorrow. I CAN HARDLY WAIT (yes, this requires capslock. :D )

☆ Managed to finish the draft for my Chocolate Box fic yesterday. Very happy about that. Unsure if I will have time for treats this year, but I'm going to try. Or maybe I'll just write two stories for my recip, who has very good taste.

(Well, of course they do, they're requesting things I offered. ;p ;p ;p)

☆ In for more cold weather this week. Oh dear....

So! This evening I went to see that famous ballet, Giselle, performed by Great Russian Ballet.

Going into it, I wasn't very familiar with Giselle; the only thing I knew about it was that the second act features copious amounts of willis/vile. (The internet is telling me that 'vile' is the correct plural of 'vila', but it looks so odd to me; I instinctively want to write it as 'vily') And of course that the role of Giselle herself is notoriously difficult. I'm not very knowledgeable about this stuff, so I can't really say what would make this one difficult over others (haven't researched that) but the dancer playing her part sure did do an excellent job.

The story isn't one of my favourites, but the dancing was spectacular, and the aesthetic in the second half was A++. Wonderfully ethereal. :D So, I'm glad I took the time to go see this one. :)

This is only the second "big title" ballet that I've seen (out of four in total); the other was Swan Lake. Between those two, I think I prefer Swan Lake, though I am unsure if that's partly because I went into that one with a bit of pop culture osmosis, and of course familiarity with the music. Hard to be sure.

Anyway... definitely worth the trip. :) I'm glad I took the time off for this.