My first Music Appreciation Concert Review

Earlier tonight, I went to the first of my four concerts for Music Appreciation. Since I don’t have a car, and I don’t know anyone in the class, I ended up getting my entire family, with the exception of my elder brother, to go as well. My younger brother initially wanted to go, however upon the revelation that it was Opera music, he was immediately put off as if I’d asked him to attend a gymnastic event populated by communists-lepers or something equally off-putting and politically insane. Finally, after much un-needed drama over who was going and who was staying, we left at quarter to seven, confident we would not be late.

We were late. We arrived at Spivey Hall just a few minutes after the performance started, so we ended up sitting in the lobby area until the first set of songs were over so we could enter, undisturbed and the musicians would be none the wiser since they go backstage for about a minute between each set in the program. Quite convenient, actually since it gave me a chance to check my e-mail and take extra notes.

The singer, Jeffery Ray, was a baritone Opera singer in a Bruce Wayne-esque tuxedo and the most mis-leading appearance to voice combination I’d ever seen or heard besides the Chocolate Rain guy. The Pianist, Susan Tusing was a rather unassuming woman in a glittery top that seemed to make every small movement of her arms significant. They were accompanied by a young lad who turned the pages who, upon further review may have been an indentured servant, but a very self-important indentured servant who tired to increase his worth by making rather dramatic movements each time he had to turn a page for Ms. Tusing.

First of all, I’d like to discuss the tone of the music. Either I’m missing something very vital in Opera-appreciation, or there was something just…wrong with the music. It was like it was gray or colorless. It just seemed to exist. The mood was basically the same. I had always thought that I would enjoy Opera since I really like classical instrumental music, but I have to say, I was not impressed. The musical era was basically all over. According to the program, the music was created between the 1600s and the modern, some might even say ‘heroic’ age. According to the program, only one of the composers is still alive, however when surrounded by the names of dead musicians, the program almost seemed…wanting, uncertain about this person’s life and work. Anyway, most of the songs were in German or Russian and made me feel like I was at some sort of evil rally in the 40s. However, the last two sets of songs were in English and a few of them made me feel like the former singer of the Smiths, Morrissey should be singing them. The experience was not helped by the fact that the combination of my poor eye sight, far back seat, and odd facial expressions made the singer look almost exactly like Bob Saget.

At the end of each set, Mr. Ray and Ms. Tusing would stand, bow, bask greedily in their applause and exit the stage only to come out again after a moment, probably for Mr. Ray to inhale large amounts of pure oxygen to keep from passing out. They would then come back to the stage to more applause and play a few more songs before repeating the process and undoubtedly upping the amount of oxygen each time.

One song in particular “And Her Mother Came Too!” originally composed by Ivor Novello did make me question not only my own sanity, but the sanity of the singer, the pianist, and the composer as a whole. Almost as if we were all drawn together in an infinite time loop of Lovecraftian madness while the audience clapped politely, no doubt sensing the malice in his voice. But I digress. The song was about how the singer couldn’t get any time alone with his sweetie, since her family members, most prominently her mother would always show up and ruin the moment. I sort of feel like the singer specifically chose this song because he thinks of his real-life mother-in-law as some sort of otherworldly nether-beast from the dark corners of the universe. The entire song was sung with a knowing smile that seemed to be masking a venomous dark underbelly of his mind.

The next few songs were much more cheerful and one of them, “The Man of La Mancha” sounded straight out of a Spaghetti Western which was appropriate because Mr. Ray would probably like to be a gunslinger when his mother-in-law is around. After the last song, “The Impossible Dream”, the two did their usual ritual, however, this was followed by a hand-holding bow and I thought that it was finally over, that I could get home and start writing my subtly scathing review. Alas, they came out again for an encore. I don’t remember the name, but “The Impossible Dream” was much better as a Swan Song than the encore.

Overall, I didn’t really enjoy the concert and the constant feeling of hollowness caused by the music, combined with the disbelief in my mind that such a deep voice could come from someone that looked like Bob Saget, was entirely frustrating and made me hate the balding man in front of me for not finding fault with it. However, unlike my rage, the man did not exist, so I was left alone with the feelings of a madman, constantly worrying that a recording device would break and Mr. Ray would be left with his own real person voice that probably sounded, based on his Bob Sagat-like appearance, more like Kermit the Frog than Tay Zonday. As mentioned above, I do enjoy classical music as long as it is instrumental, but maybe it was the fact that this was just piano and Opera singing instead of an entire orchestra. For my next concert review I shall have to investigate this further.

WHAT HAS BEEN SEEN CANNOT BE UNSEEN

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