YSunday, May 06, 2007' 9:32 PM
My Country Garden
Cartel Gangster Outing aka belated bday outing for aloha-act-kawaii-elaine-who-was-miraculously-able-to-meet-us-over-wkend-cuz-her-bf-was-in-camp
Siao one.. we actually stayed like 4 hrs at cartel (duh!) stuffing our faces into free bread and asking qian bian wen da ti.. but tt was some hilarious shit and we all had fun didnt we! actually hor, following the menu revamp and removal of svc charge.. realised the portion for baked marcoroni actually became smaller! but it tasted better..
Pro and Elaine
Us gals
Elaine with her seafood combo - upon knowing we were giving her a belated bday treat, she kinda like went for the erm more expensive item on the menu
Siao one.. we actually stayed like 4 hrs at cartel (duh!) stuffing our faces into free bread and asking qian bian wen da ti.. but tt was some hilarious shit and we all had fun didnt we! actually hor, following the menu revamp and removal of svc charge.. realised the portion for baked marcoroni actually became smaller! but it tasted better..
Pro and ElaineUs gals
Elaine with her seafood combo - upon knowing we were giving her a belated bday treat, she kinda like went for the erm more expensive item on the menuKwok and i being spastic as usual, this time with cartel bread.
Pang pro finally enlightened with regards to the purpose of an eyelash curler
A short session of retail therapy ensued, and it was a fun-filled afternoon no doubt.. next meeting will be like on.. *AHEM AHEM AHEM*. RIGHT?!
*******
Phantom of the Opera
It was my 2nd time watching this opera, afterall, the phantom did come to town some 10yrs ago. (was in pri sch back den)
To be honest, the production this time wasnt all that fantastic. in fact, it kinda disappointed. for one, the arrangement of the music wasnt up to standard. i kinda expected more from "the phantom of the opera" because it was the centre piece of the musical. somehow, it just lacked GUSTO. it couldnt create the effect of 'the phantom is coming!!!' like it did in the previous production. my fave piece "point of no return" was executed in a rather weak fashion too. sigh..
the performance by the actor who played Raoul was rather unconvincing. Even if he really did love and care for Christine, it just wasnt coming through man.
The saving grace of the musical had to be the stage costumes and props. they looked magnificent and the whole chandelier crashing scene was just mind blowing. we couldnt figure how they managed to move the props around with such great precision.. was really quite amazing in that aspect.
also, the pieces "prima donna" and "masquerade" held up pretty well too...
jacky and i were wondering whats wrong with the music till we zoomed in on the orchestra and guess wad.. the conductor was a female, so that made her a conductress.. not sound too discriminating against my own gender, but somehow a conductress doesnt seem as impressive as a conductor. and yea, the orchestra for the night was just alright. not bad, but not fantastic either.
and finally, the phantom and christine. well, they had pretty good vocals and the phantom was probably better.. so thank gawd because operas can suck big time if the leading characters cant deliver their tunes as well as they shld..
the ending - one major gripe we had was how the phantom just disappeared ala david copperfield style and the show ended abruptly. that was just so odd.. thought maybe they could have at least tied it back to the opening where people were bidding for the remaining pieces of the opera house. at least it would been more fitting.
but overall, it was an okay production.. shld watch it lar, because this is prolly one of the more affordable musicals that will come to town. it is supposedly at the lower brow of those higher end operas.
Labels: life
