Piano Prodigy Shuan Hern Lee on Australia's Got Talent

Sheer insanity how good this kid is! =D

Singing Cats -- not the musical!

A few months ago, my classmate Kelly's daughter, Melissa showed me a video of two boys singing as cats. It is insane, and the fact that this is live makes it all the better! Today I also found a "music video" of sorts, featuring the same two boys. It's absolutely hilarious, but it's also a great piece to show off their voices.

RENT Libretto and Rosie is Awesome =D

So last week, I finally got my RENT book in the mail. It's awesome! I got it through the Barnes and Noble site from used bookseller for about $5, which is amazing, especially considering it should have cost me about $40 and despite being 'used', the book's binding had never been cracked open. So it was like getting a brand-new book for only $5!

What makes it even more awesome is that besides the behind-the-scenes background information and interviews with the original cast, the Larson Family, and the many people who collaborated on RENT, it also included a full libretto of a musical, which I listened to on the entire 4 hour trip to my cousin's hometown. She graduates from UC Davis tomorrow morning.

Anyways, so the book was published in 1997, at the height of RENT's critical acclaim. The musical had successfully survived the death of Jonathan Larson, author of the book, music, and lyrics, moved to the Nederlander theatre on Broadway, and in 1996 received 4 Tony awards out of 10 nominations: Best Musical, Best Book (Jonathan Larson), Best Original Score (Jonathan Larson), and Best Actor in a Featured Role (Wilson Jermaine Heredia).

I was introduced to rent my Freshman year of college at De Anza. By that point I was heavily into musicals, especially Wicked, a musical that pulled me out of depression and basically saved my life. Besides my idol, Kristin Chenoweth, the other leading actress in the show was the absolutely stunning Idina Menzel, who of course played Elphaba. I was really excited to find out that she was also in the musical RENT, a movie that my family already owned but I had previously been reluctant to watch.

I watched the movie. I fell in love with the actors, with the music, and especially with the story. Although I had initially watched the movie for the purposes of seeing more of Idina, I was absolutely floored by all of the other actors in the production. I especially loved the character of Angel (portrayed in both the obc and the film by Wilson Jermaine Heredia) and the song Seasons of Love, performed by a show-stopping Tracie Thoms (who later went on to portray Joanne in the closing cast of RENT on Broadway in 2008. Her performance in Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway is undoubtedly my favorite performance of Joanne. I love Freddi, but Tracie steals the show.

I don't have time tonight to look up 5,000 videos of RENT, so I'll just post one. This is the video on YouTube that inspired me to write tonight. It's a clip of Rosie O'Donnell on The View, talking with a 12-year-old girl named Stephanie who suffers from Cystic Fibrosis whose favorite musical is, of course, RENT. Rosie gives her a very special surprise:

You Got a Friend in Me

One of the people I'm subscribed to on YouTube is danwright32.
He put this vid up today, and it totally made my day! =D

Les Mis is going to be a movie!

Saw this and now I'm beyond ecstatic! This cast is AMAZING Hugh Jackman! And Anne Hathaway! And Amanda Seyfried! And not to mention Helena Bonham Carter! =D

I can't wait for Christmas!

The Gavilan Press (and me) on Commedia dell'Arte

I am especially excited about this article because I think it talks about something that not too many people (outside of the theatre community) are aware of:  Commedia dell'Arte.

Commedia dell'Arte is a theatre performance style that originated in Italy in the 1500s and is best known for its use of stock characters and slapstick comedy. It also had a profound influence on our production of The Taming of the Shrew.

Because of my budding interest in the theatre form, I decided to write an article for The Gavilan Press discussing Commedia dell'Arte and said influence on our production. It was a great opportunity for me to talk about the theatre, something I have a strong passion for, and to educate people about Commedia. Here is the link to the published article on The Gavilan Press.

Through this article, I was also able to talk to some very cool people about Commedia - namely Connor Clark and Dr. Kate Booth. Connor was one of my castmates - he played Tranio, and for his senior project for GECA (the early college program at Gavilan) he researched a great deal on Commedia. Dr. Booth was my theatre history teacher this semester, and I was very excited to talk about Commedia with her because I knew she'd have something to say; she'd taught it in our class just a week or two prior to our interview.

In the photograph above, taken by my own brother, Kevin, on opening night of our Shrew run, you see Andy Garcia as the dottore character, Hortensio, Talia Vlaovich as the Pantlone, Gremio, Alaric Lund as an Innammorato, Lucentio, and me, Megan Brittani Nacionales, as Petrucchio's head servant, the Zanni, Grumio.

Vintage, Lullabye, and Libera

Today on Facebook, I somehow managed to drag myself to the group page for De Anza's Vintage Singers, the advanced choir that I proudly sang with for two quarters while I was there. About halfway down the page, I found that Pauli, one of my former classmates, had posted this video on the page:



It brought back so many memories from being in Vintage because a small group from within the choir performed this piece during my first concert in the group. The performed it a capella, and I've since fallen in love with the sound of the King's Singers. We've used their music several times in Vintage, including the arrangement for You Are the New Day, which was my favorite piece last Spring Quarter. I enjoyed it because it was a challenge: I'm what we lovingly referred to as a "Sopralto," which meant, thanks to the fact that I have about a 3 to 3-and-a-half octave range, (depending on the day) I can sing just about anywhere in Alto and Soprano. This usually meant I got to sing the Soprano II splits, which I loved. With this song, I had to switch between first Tenor and Soprano I range multiple times. I loved it. I always loved the sound of clear, high male voices, be they counter-tenor or tenor, and being able to sing the tenor part was just so great. This was our performance of You Are the New Day: (I'm the really short one sandwiched between two really tall people... Lol!)



Anyway, so back to Lullabye. I remember absolutely loving the song from the very first time I heard it in Vintage. I didn't realize until afterwards, when I started looking up videos of the song, that I actually had heard it before then, only a short time beforehand, sung by Joshua Madine in Libera.



I realized today that I haven't talked about Libera on my blog yet. Which is practically... sacrilege! Lol. Just kidding. But honestly, I really love the sound of treble voices. (To those who don't know, a treble singer is a boy soprano.) My favorite has got to be Libera, a boy's choir from South London. They do contemporary arrangements of both choir songs and popular music. They've even done the occasional classical music piece. Here's a showcase of some of my favorite work from them:

Sanctus: Set to Pachelbel's Canon in D. This is one of my favorite versions from them, with Tom Cully on the high note solos, and I prefer this ending to some of the other ones.



Salva Me: Ohmigod, Joe Snelling! It's such a shame he didn't stay with the group longer, but at least we have these: a testament to his gorgeous, clear high soprano!



How Can I Keep from Singing: Liam O'Kane, one of the original soloists, back when Libera was known as Angel Voices. Another soft, high tone that is so pure and clear. It's just beautiful. This video doesn't embed, so you can watch it here: Click!

You Were There: Tom Cully's beautiful voice, just a little lower than usual, since this was at the end of his time with Libera. Still, it's so beautiful. This is the song that I ended up singing over and over to comfort myself after my Grandpa passed away last January.



And finally, the song that started it all. This was the very first I ever saw of Libera, on a PBS broadcast - one of those specials where they ask you to donate. I think I was only like... 15 or so at the time, so obviously I couldn't buy it, but the style and the sound stuck with me all those years until I found them again.

Stay With Me: Ed Day's gorgeous soft high tone, and Liam O'Connery's incredible soprano riffs!