Recent Occurrences

Greetings, all! Sorry I haven't blogged in so long . . . but to make up for it, here's a huge update on what I've been up to. Toward the end of May/beginning of June, I had an awesome two-week stay in California, during which I got to do quite a few Phantom-y activities.

The first week and a half was spent in Sacramento with my girlfriend Sarah, who I first met on The Phantom's Opera, an awesome online forum on which I serve as a moderator. We got into a few Phantom-related shenanigans, notably trying on each other's Phantom masks. (Well, hey, what else are Phan couples supposed to do?) She also let me read her copy of Angel of Music by Carrie Hernandez, and I introduced her to the 1943 film version of POTO starring Claude Rains. We also had fun picking out "Phantom" references in other movies and TV shows, including Tim Burton's recent Alice in Wonderland.

At the end of the first week, we got to see Wicked at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco, the same venue where I saw POTO a year earlier. Before the performance, we went to lunch at a nearby diner where I introduced Sarah to Jeff (who I'd stayed with during my previous visit) and Jo Fantôme (who some of you may know as the proprietress of Phantom's Theater, one of the oldest and most popular Phantom sites around). The performance of Wicked was fantastic, most notably Felicia Ricci as Elphaba. She was sublime; it was one of the few times in live theater where I truly didn't feel like I was just watching an actor on a stage. She lived and breathed the character, and her vocal performance was among the best I've heard for Elphie. The rest of the cast (including Kendra Kassebaum as Glinda, Nicholas Dromard as Fiyero, and Tom McGowan as the Wizard) was great as well, and having seen the show live, I now understand why so many people adore it. It's a magical experience, and if recent news turns out to be accurate, I hope the (apparently) upcoming film adaptation will do it justice.

So after ten awesome days in Sacramento, I journeyed back down to San Francisco to stay with Jeff and Jo, as we were collaborating on a few music projects. I use a music notation program called Melody Assistant, which was created in France. Jeff and Jo, who had been hearing my work via e-mail for years, finally got to see how the program worked.

I also got a chance to read the brand-new English translation of Gaston Leroux's original novel. This one was done by Mireille Ribière, and compared to the other translations I've read (Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, Lowell Bair, and bits of Leonard Wolf), this one really felt like the translator was trying to emphasize both linguistic accuracy and readability. It was (thankfully) an unabridged translation, and I found it quite easy to get into and understand. I'm now torn between the options of buying it now or waiting for the annotated version (which will apparently be coming out later this year). Decisions, decisions . . .

On my second night at Jeff and Jo's, I got a special treat. Jo, as I learned a while back, is an accomplished makeup designer in addition to her other artistic skills, and so I asked her to make me a Phantom deformity. I'd seen the makeup jobs she had done on herself and Jeff in the past, so I knew it would be good . . . but even so, I was unprepared for just how awesome it would be. See for yourself! (And click on the thumbnails to see larger versions, plus properly formatted captions.) Much as I wanted to go to some public place and see what kinds of strange looks I'd get, it was after midnight and we were all a bit worn out . . . Ah well, maybe next time. (Besides, Jeff said that since it was San Francisco, not many people would notice or care anyway. I'm not sure whether or not to laugh at that.) I did, however, get to keep the deformity, and as I type this, it's sitting on my desk as one of many mementos of my trip.

The next morning, we drove down to San Jose to meet a fellow named Charlie, who was a friend of Jeff and Jo. Charlie showed us his computerized music center, which featured a program that allowed his keyboard to produce almost exact audio replicas of real instruments, ranging from pipe organs to violins. This coupled with his fantastic stereo sound system made it feel like we were really in a concert hall when someone was playing the keyboard. (I had fun thundering out Bach's "Toccata & Fugue in D-minor" and some POTO songs, as well as several from Les Misérables, Sweeney Todd, and more.) We also watched two fantastic films -- an anime movie called Paprika and the Chinese epic Red Cliff. Do check them out if you can.

In addition, I got to watch and listen to quite a few Phantoms I'd been curious about, including Ben Cramer from the Dutch production (who really impressed me) and Ramin Karimloo from London (who, unfortunately, didn't). In all, 'twas an awesome vacation, and I hope to have some more awesome Phantom-y experiences in the future.

And yes, there will be a new blog soon... promise!


I remain your obedient servant,
I.A.E.