Three Susan Boyles!

I apologize for the late posting of my new blog entry, while I have been busy procrastinating...(pause)...I needed time to finish my paper on the Schmalkaldic War's effect on Lutheran music in the Holy Roman Empire.  That's right, I bet you can't wait to hear my presentation.  It's actually very interesting:  war, an assassination of a Cardinal, anti-popes, King Henry VIII, and all sorts of other juicy stuff.  All you Catholics out there must thank the French for hating Germany or else the Catholic Church could have easily followed Luther's teachings.

Anyway, this is the first week of April, which means this is the first of my World Premiere Rankings for 2012!  Last year, I began this controversial effort to pre-review several World Premiere operas, ranking them from bad (2 Susan Boyles) to good (2 Pavarottis).  I promise that in the past year, I have learned from my mistakes and will not be so quick to judge and will give everyone a fair shot.  So get ready for some mediocre and unenthusiastic prejudices!

And to begin, I could not help myself but pre-review I Dreamed a Dream: The Susan Boyle Musical.  I know it is not an opera, but it has the possibility to earn my worst score (4 Susan Boyles).  I know the worst possible score is 2 Susan Boyles, but there is a person playing Susan Boyle and the actual Susan Boyle in this premiere.

However, I have to give this a decent rating.  First, I imagine that the reason a musician made this into a musical, other than to make a profit, was that they knew thousands of better singers than Susan Boyle and knew that even the writer herself could play the leading role and sing better than the real Susan Boyle!  Also, it is like a real-life Bialystock and Bloom production in the film "The Producers", only I thought "Springtime for Hitler" was very creative and hilarious (I laughed to the point of pain the first time I saw it) - I doubt I would leave this musical in glorious laughter-induced hiccups, but there's a chance!



Since I cannot quit laughing, I will give it only one Susan Boyle!

One Susan Boyle

But that means this received the lowest possible score of 3 Susan Boyles because two Susan Boyles are in the show itself - this is not likely ever to be achieved again!!  So here are two more:

Flirty Susan Boyle

Mad Susan Boyle

I cannot help but comment on the atrocious National Anthem at the NCAA National Championship Game...I hope that the NAIA National Championship Game National Anthem was slightly better (I sang that a couple weeks ago!)




And on that topic, I will be singing the National Anthem on Friday at the US Olympic Volleyball Club Championships here in Kansas City!

Finally, I have the second of the Three Volga German songs that I debuted in February ready for you to enjoy!  Thank you John Mueter for your wonderful songs!