Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Phantom of the Opera, Washington, DC 2007

I bought my ticket for Sunday night’s performance of Phantom the night I went to see it in June. The ticket counter man said I had a really good seat. He must have know that it was in the front row. I was thinking wow row E that means I be really close. I didn't realize how close I would be. Front row almost dead center.

Being that close I missed a couple of things that went on during the show. I could not see the auctioneer at all in the opening scene. The chandelier was in front of me. Also there were several points where characters were literally on the stage floor and I could not see them. The reason for this is the orchestra pit extends out into the first four rows of seats. It comes out slightly higher than that level of the stage. That’s done, I assume, so that the conductor has a place to conduct and also not to block the music. It was cool to hear parts of the orchestration that would normally have been lost from not being that close.

Also the couple of times the Phantom is above the stage in the last part of the first act, I had to look straight up to see him which actually added to the experience of the show. However, those were the only draw backs if you could eve call them that. Like I said if I’d stood up I could have touched the chandelier when it was rising to the ceiling. And when the Phantom launched the chandelier at the end of act one, I had to look back to see it come down. Again it was really close to me. It was very cool. Many times I felt like the cast was singing directly to me. It was just truly amazing.

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