In this sexy number from the Proms, she wows the audience and orchestra, who enthusiastically play up to her teasing, pretending to fight over the roses she throws out as she dances and ... migosh! sings! If you can tear your attention away from the gorgeous voice and sexy sashaying hips, look out for the gentleman in a white coat who dramatically snatches the tossed roses away from his neighbour in nautical uniform.
The Proms are short for Promenade Concerts. It was a fashionable thing from the eighteenth century onwards to walk around your local pleasure gardens, listening to jolly music being played as you gossiped with people you met. Nowadays, Proms usually means a concert where some of the tickets are sold cheaply to people willing to sit or stand on the floor near the orchestra to hear the music. It's become sort of shorthand for 'this will be more of a larf, and we will not take ourselves too seriously'. In this relaxed atmosphere you sometimes get music that really does its thing, especially at the famous Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. On the 'Last Night' of the Royal Albert Hall Proms people come dressed up and they wave flags and have a great night out. Netrebko's wonderful performance here, which shows so well how the magic of music is produced between the performers and the audience, is from a Last Night of the Proms in the 2007 season.
When I was a London babe, I used to go to the Proms sometimes. My housemates and I (we were all lovely lesbians, BTW, lol), used to catch a routemaster bus down to Kensington and queue in the sunny afternoons for the cheap tickets. We would sit on the pavement round the big round building of the Royal Albert Hall, reading and chatting and fetching coffees for each other, before getting to go and hear wonderful music at a price we could afford. One time, a piece by one of the few women classical composers was being played and one of the few women conductors was conducting it - and she came on in a tailcoat with a cummerband and we were so excited to see her dressed up butch! LOL.
3 comments:
Wow!++
yesterdays...
Back in the 1960s I was a regular at the Proms. I used to stand in the pit, not too close because I was tall enough to see over most people, and I didn't want to block others' view. Much of the weekday repertoire is serious music, with standard works interspersed with new compositions or revivals of long-forgotten pieces. Saturdays have more popular music, as do the First and Last Nights.
The serious Promenaders are possibly the most musically erudite audience in the world and are a daunting prospect for an orchestra and conductor. But they are also generous in applauding experimentation and technical ability. They are generous in other ways too, raising money for charity.
At the time that I was enjoying being a standing Promenader, my future wife was sitting more sedately in the gallery, watching the antics below.
oggbashan
Ogg, how romantic! That's a lovely story in itself.
Ogg is quite right to point out that Promenaders are full on appreciators of music. They are often people who can't afford to go to gala nights and rustle chocolate papers during the most affecting moments, however they really know their stuff. During the week in the Proms there are usually opportunities to hear new experimental music which the serious music crowd very much appreciate. Like a lot of people with deep understanding, they know how to have fun too.
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