In The Heights and Young Frankenstein Links

http://www.intheheightsthemusical.com/index.html

http://www.youngfrankensteinthemusical.com/home

Times Square is dumb

Times square is dumb - full of annoying tourists and overpriced overcommercialized stores and gimmicks. Each time I go to Times Square it's a mess. The other day I was really annoyed with all the tourist people who wouldn't get out of the way on the sidewalk and yesterday it rained when I was there so that just added to the chaos.
I went to see two shows yesterday. The first was a new musical called "In The Heights". It is the story about a people who live in Washington Heights, a northern neighborhood in nyc that has a prominent Latino population. The music was upbeat, hip hop style with some latin rhythms and traditional broadway style sounds as well. I really enjoyed the show - Thumbs up. the only problem was that although the music was great, it was hard to remember the tunes and songs. The guy who starred in the show, wrote the show, the music, and lyrics as well. He was great. I'm sure this show will win numerous Tony Awards tonight.
I also went to see Young Frankenstein which is the newest Mel Brooks production. Sutton Foster who is one of my favorite broadway performers was in the show as well as Megan Mullally who was Karen in the show Will and Grace. She was hilarious and I loved her character. I give this show a thumbs up too - all the actors were fantastic and there were some good one-liners. I especially enjoyed Christopher Fitzgerald who played Igor - hilarious, hilarious! This show got snubbed this year for Tony Awards which is a bummer. The set was amazing and there were some great special effects.
I was planning on going into Central Park today but it rained and it may rain again and I really don't want to be stuck in the middle of the park without an umbrella. I need to buy one tomorrow. I know my blog is boring due to the lack of pictures so I definitely will get some posted this week!

Youtube clips

I wanted to share the following videos with you from youtube. The first one is of opera star Nathan Gunn who I saw perform at Carnegie Hall the other evening. His voice is wonderful!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gT4ZW_784A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iYfm0zzqWk

These next clips are from the opera Il Trovatore by Verdi. I am writing a study guide for this show and will be flying back to nyc to see the full dress rehearsal for it next February. Most of you know the anvil chorus from this opera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1YsHzTv7mg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swkY88OFPO8&feature=related

Here is my favorite song from La Boheme by Puccini.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkeHr0Oz7aA

Haagen-Dazs Trauma

So I haven't had chocolate all week long which is quite a miracle but today I stopped at the store and bought some chocolate Haagen-Dazs ice cream bars to enjoy later on. I was really glad to find these ice cream bars at the ghetto corner grocery. Well when I got home and opened one of them, it was half the size of the ones I usually buy in Texas! I was not happy about that at all - what's up with that? the packaging was exactly the same but the product was not - dumb marketing packaging people! I demand my regular size chocolate dipped in chocolate Haagen-Dazs ice cream bar!!!
Other annoying news - I was planning on stocking up on some dvd's, cd's and some wall decor to mail home from the opera shop but it is being remodeled and is closed for the entire summer. Fortunately, my new friend Michael who works in finance was able to pull some strings and will take me to the merchandising department to sort through all sorts of leftover items that I can get at reduced prices. I am hoping to find some unique autographed photos and other things.
I am really enjoying the work I have been doing so far. The research aspect is more interesting that I thought it would be and I have enjoyed learning about the operas and the composers. I definitely feel less stressed in the "office environment". I don't feel I am connecting very well with the other interns - they are much younger than I am and we are different places in our lives. They are all extremely nice people and very talented and hard working. I am going to present two ideas to the director of development next week - one is an idea to publish a series of children's books of opera stories and the other is to develop a website for the Met that children can access to learn more about opera. I hope they like my ideas!
Today I went to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts over at Lincoln Center - it was great! Full of many books and just about any cd recording or dvd of a show or concert that you can imagine. I will probably go back again next week to browse around some more. I got two books - Letters of Verdi and Letters of Puccini. Probably extremely boring for most of you but I am looking forward to reading them.

I Love Baritones!

Hi! Well after my second day on the job I feel like I have a much better understanding of what I will be doing here this summer! It will definitely be busy, busy! I started working on writing study guides today for two operas that The Met will be performing next year - Il Trovatore and La Boheme. I'm really familiar with La Boheme so I'm not too worried about that but I don't know anything about Il Trovatore and the more I read and learn about it the more I realize what a great, thrilling, fantastically confusing, and tragic story it is - full of greed, death, mistaken identities, revenge, and most importantly, love! My office is housed at Julliard so every day I pass by the numerous students and teachers. The Met Opera House is across the street and I have access to backstage and underground so today I had lunch over there at the cafeteria.
Tonight I went with one of the other interns, Stacie, to Carnegie Hall to watch a concert of the musical Show Boat. I went to see my "secret opera singer hot boyfriend" Nathan Gunn sing in the show. His voice was amazing - I love baritones!! He was also quite good looking! The show had several other broadway and opera stars performing and it was great! Singer Marilyn Horne made a brief appearance which was exciting. I could have thrown my purse at the idiot who left their cell phone on - it rang right before the big finale of the song Ol Man River (one of the best broadway songs ever written in my opinion). I think venues need to have a rule that if your phone goes off then you get kicked out. Maybe people would remember to turn them off if that was the case. Enough of my ranting. We are in the middle of a heat wave here - almost 100 degrees today but it is going to start cooling off tomorrow they say. Guess that is all for now. I'll have more to share during the weekend.

The first few days

Hi Everyone! I arrived in NYC in good order and so far things have gone quite well. I am living around the corner from Central Park North just south of Harlem. My two roommates are extremely nice and I am so grateful for all the help they have afforded me so far. The apartment is decent although I miss my bed terribly. On Sunday I went to church up the street in the Harlem First Ward. Everyone was so nice and there are several members of the church in the same apartment building I am living in so it is nice to have good neighbors who can help me out! Sunday afternoon I met with some people that I had met earlier at church for a picnic in Central Park but a half hour into it a big rainstorm came our way and we got dumped on. I had my flip flops on and tried to run back to my apartment but running in flip flops in the rain is not easily done so I became quite drenched as a result. Today was my first day as an intern and it went very well. My supervisors, Dottie and Barbara, are fantastic and I am going to learn a great deal from both of them. Today I attended an Aria Workshop which was a lot of fun. There were two ladies who work with Elementary teachers and students in using children's literature as a vehicle for song writing. I learned a lot and was very impressed with what they did. We used the story, Where The Wild Things Are to develop characters, storylines, and eventually a song. I would explain the details but it would sound silly - definitely one of those things that you would have to be there for in order to understand the humor behind it. I was taken to the backstage of the opera house to get my "official id card" and I was so excited to be there in the hallways and near the dressing rooms where so many great performers have been. Later this week I will get an official tour and I am really looking forward to that. I am sorry I don't have much more to share at this point. It is very hot here and I could do without the intense heat but all is well and as the week progresses, so will my news. Tomorrow night I will be attending a show at Carnegie Hall and I have plans for the weekend as well! I will keep you better informed as the week goes on and I will also post pictures too.

Bunco night

Tonight was bunco night and also a goodbye party for our dear friend Noelle who will be leaving tomorrow!! Our bunco theme was pajama party so we wore our pj's and pigged out on pizza, salads, brownies, and ice cream! After a few rounds of rolling dice and exchanging bunco gifts we all got to share happy memories of Noelle! She is truly one of the sweetest and most encouraging people I know! I know all of us will miss her and her family!

NYC update: I am extremely anxious to be finished with the school year and begin working in nyc! I am packed and ready! Just 3 more days!