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Gah...can't understand why these days I find it so hard to fall asleep.

Really annoying when you know you've got a busy day ahead of you the next day. *sighs*

I have no idea why but currently feeling depressed...even reading, music, etc can't shake this veil of gloom off me.

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I think I have just found someone who can actually come so close to impersonating the great Alan Rickman's voice...which is definitely tough since there's obviously NO one in the world who sounds like him. And since Emma Thompson (who's both worked with Rickman and is probably best friends with him) is literally laughing her head off at John Session's impersonations, it must be they're as accurate as they can get.

See here on Stephen Fry's witty, amusing and interesting show: 'QI':

www.youtube.com/watch

I also love the anecdote of Rickman's encounter with an over-curious kid about why he seems to always play villains. And Emma Thompson's mention of 'Sense and Sensibility' and 'Colonel Brandon' was encouraging, seeing that the film was made about 14 years ago! [But obviously she'll remember because she wrote the screenplay for the film but anyways...]

Ha...and talking about Rickman...I'm dying to see the 6th Harry Potter film which doesn't come out until mid-July? Saw the poster up in Causeway opposite SOGO and my first reaction was: 'FINALLY, SNAPE gets a damn spot on the poster which he deserves!'

EDIT: Here is the poster...SNAPE!!! =DD



What a fan girl I am...much too into everything when I put myself in the mood. XD

A review of the ROH Sweeney Todd

Just listened to a recording of the 2003 ROH production kindly put up on Youtube by a fellow TA fan I've made friends with.

The verdict? Thomas Allen is magnificent as Sweeney Todd. I'm not saying this because of the fact that I'm a fan of him but that he basically blew Johnny Depp's interpretation (an excellent one too when I saw it) out of the water on an emotional level. I thought Depp's performance was powerful but compared to Allen - the latter's interpretation is full of agony, anguish and anger. He was literally howling when he realises that he's just killed his wife in his blind lust for bloody revenge. A year ago, I thought opera singers couldn't even reach the heights of emotional pain that professional actors could. But now I've just been proved wrong...once again by a singer who really could take a job at the National Theatre if he ever gets tired of singing (which I doubt he'll ever do).

It was delightful to hear 'A Little Priest' with TA and Felicity Palmer...it was longer here than in the film but infinitely more amusing - made more so by the audience reaction to the countless double entendres here and there. 'Pretty Women' sounded much better than the film one though I miss Rickman's Turpin. TA's 'Epiphany' sounded deranged as fitting the growing madness of Todd while admittedly, it was also a slightly eye-brow raising moment when I heard the words 's***' and 'piss' being uttered by one of the most charming Don Giovannis, Count Almavivas and Count Danilos around! Okay, okay...I confess that I was also very interested in hearing him say such words (not that I have a fetish for this, god, no) but was wondering whether he'd ACTUALLY say them or if the opera house actually allowed their singers to say it. First time it came out 'spit' so I thought...'Ah, they edited it out...clever.' Then he said it at the end of the song. Ha, talk about being taken utterly unaware. Oh, and I also wanted to listen to this since it was said that he used his native Durham accent in this. Sounded quite rough indeed. Almost sounded Scottish in places. His voice was still cheerful as his usual voice and I was wondering at times whether he could pull off the darker side of the character. Needn't have worried...for the agonising sobbing (I think he was genuinely crying) was enough to prove that he was in character entirely.

Felicity Palmer as Mrs Lovett was quite different from Bonham Carter's one and she had a much lower voice than I expected. Didn't like it at first but after getting used to it and admiring her acting skills, she was an excellent Mrs. Lovett. I prefer Alan Rickman as Turpin than the bass in the opera...hahahahahaha, what an amusing image...two of my favourite people playing enemies onstage and both of them having the same height. What a towering Todd TA must have made. I certainly don't want him standing over me with a razor...

Interesting that the opera house version included the continuous ballad of Sweeney Todd and that there was always an instrumental cue pointing out the turning points of the story. The orchestra was brilliant...as to be expected in an opera house orchestra.

I just wish that they actually made a video of this rather than just a sound recording...it's obvious from the sounds that they did have a swivelling chair as they did in the film to 'dispose' of the bodies but how on earth do you do that onstage where you can't hide anything basically?

Anyways...a very enjoyable recording.