Sunday, December 25, 2005

Radio Free AmTrag

No massive insights to report from the AT broadcast, which I was able to listen to almost all of amidst various shopping excursions Saturday afternoon. Chicago's WFMT got hit with the signal trouble as well, which was a serious bummer since the Clyde murder aria ("Huh...Maybe I should hit her with an oar?") got axed. I tried to tape the second act, but the $(%)#* tape didn't switch over for some reason and it cut off right after the sheriff asks to talk to Clyde alone, thus ruining my masterplan to save the Zajicksplosive scenes at the end for posterity.

I did really enjoy hearing it though, and found many new things to enjoy. The Act II chorus/ensemble scene where the family gangs up on Sondra while the townspeople read Roberta's letters seemed especially intricate and beautiful this time. My affection for the big Act I party/impregnation trio grew even further, and the Sondra/Clyde meeting duet ("Shazaar! Shazaar!") came off much better in stereo than it did onstage.

Gunn probably benefits the most from the broadcast experience, since you don't notice he's a notch quieter than the others on the radio as much, but the rest were first-rate, as before. Susan Graham: I like you very, very much, and don't really see how I'm going to avoid your Octavian here (Chicago) in March. Time to start rationing those cocktails.

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