November 12, 2009 was the celebration for the 500th performance of the ZAIA show by Cirque Du Soleil in Macau, China. Cirque founder Guy Laliberte flew in for the performance and toasted the artists and crew. Family and friends were also invited for the occasion.
Conrad Askland (ZAIA keyboards and assistant bandleader) and Guy Laliberte.
Banana Shpeel, the new Cirque Du Soleil show with vaudeville roots, opens Nov. 19. 2009 -Jan. 3, 2010 at the Chicago Theater (Chicago, USA). February 4, 2010 it will premiere in New York at the Beacon Theater. The production blends pseudo-vaudevillian-style comedy with tap, hip-hop and slapstick.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2BmzGzCHJA
I recently updated DNS on websites that are not active to point here to my personal site. Thank you to the person who emailed me about that. Over the years I had many websites on different servers and I didn’t update DNS on websites I wasn’t using. When those old IP’s were reallocated, new owners would load their websites onto them. In plain english that means that when people would go to an old website of mine I wasn’t using any more they would end up on a different random site like “Norm’s Bait and Tackle Shop”.
Continue reading “DNS Updates or How Did I Get To This Website?”
Did you know that the latin root of “to entertain” means “to hold between”? (Official dictionary definition at the end of this blog post). When an audience is no longer held, they are no longer being entertained. The mighty brass ring for any theatrical production is to keep the audience engaged so they are not looking at their watches and counting the minutes until intermission.
Viva Elvis is the name of the new Cirque resident show. It will open December 2009 at the Aria Resort&Casino at MGM Mirage’s CityCenter complex. Here’s a press release:
Continue reading “Viva Elvis – New Cirque Show in Las Vegas”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlMSnj6OEGY
Singers:
Francois-Nicolas Geslot (ten)
Arnaud Marzorati (bar)
Claire Lefilliâtre (sop)
Conductor: Vincent Dumestre
Ensemble: Le Poème Harmonique
Director: Benjamin Lazar
“Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme”, comédie-ballet in five acts, text by Molière, music by Jean-Baptiste Lully, first performed at the château of Chambord on October 14, 1670, before the court of Louis XIV. Molière played Monsieur Jourdain, and Lully was the mufti.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze_SKWrHrjY
This video on “How to Write an Opera” is not extremely useful, but it DID lead me to Aristotle and the Rules of Greek Tragedy. These “rules” might now be considered common sense by the avid theater goer or content creator. I never studied theater formally at the university so this historical background was new and interesting to me.
Before the essay below on Aristotle and an overview of Greek drama (essay written in 1927), I’d like to highlight my favorite portions of Aristotle’s view of drama and theater that I consider still very relevant today:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM
From the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music”, comes the first of many “songs around the world” being released independently. Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe.
I would like to recommend a pro audio store in Hong Kong: Tsang Fook Piano Co. Ltd. The name is a little misleading because in addition to pianos and keyboards they carry a lot of pro audio software. I was in HEAVEN to see rows and rows of boxes with sound libraries, recording and notation software.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS7NHktfyEw
Happened to see this interview with Daniel Lamarre of Cirque Du Soleil and noticed the interview takes place in the Green Room of our ZAIA theater in Macau, China. It looks like they were still doing construction so I’m guessing this interview is from mid-2008 before the show opened.
Here is another interview with Daniel Lamarre which I would guess is at the beginning of the 2008 recession where he talks about Cirque’s visions to navigate through that time.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iinPELvQHm0