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"flash" opera strikes philadelphia

updated tue 1 jun 10

 

Frank Gaydos on mon 31 may 10


Mildred,=3D20

That was fun.=3D20

Thanks for sharing.=3D20

A local restaurant (Victors) waitstaff are all budding opera singers and wi=
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ll burst out in song at a moments notice.=3D20

Here is the flash mob that happened during NCECA at the train station.=3D20

Called a flash freeze mob.=3D20

http://www.philly.com/philly/video/89744532.html=3D20

Can this be called 'ART'? A happening?=3D20



I suspect with all the new social networking sites we will see much more of=
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this.=3D20

There is a group on Facebook that will ask stores to become more green. The=
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y ask the stores "who will invest in more...." , more efficient lighting, f=
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or example. The winner is promised everyone in the flash mob=3DC2=3DA0will =
purc=3D
hase items only from them for a weekend, thus not only recouping the cost o=
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f improvements but a profit also. Everyone is a winner. This started in Fri=
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sco I believe and moved east.=3D20



Frank=3D20


----- Original Message -----=3D20
From: "Mildred" =3D20
To: Clayart@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG=3D20
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2010 2:08:27 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern=3D20
Subject: Fw: "Flash" opera strikes Philadelphia=3D20

Since many of you were just in Phila. thought you might get a kick out of t=
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his one. MIldred Herot=3D20
Flash Opera Strikes Center City=3D20
You're buying your weekly sopresetta and organic eggs Saturday afternoon at=
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the Reading Railroad Terminal Market, and the guy next to you starts belti=
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ng out Verdi. A woman nearby joins in. And another. They're pretty good, an=
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d you sense they're being accompanied by the sound of a full orchestra. And=
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then you realize the joke is on you.=3D20
Only it's not a joke. Saturday at Philadelphia's great kitchen pantry, the =
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Opera Company of Philadelphia ambushed shoppers by planting a little La Tra=
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viata among the green grocers, bakery stalls and fish mongers. OCP called i=
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t "Flash Opera," and to my mind, it was much more than a publicity stunt fo=
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r the troupe's upcoming run of La Traviata.=3D20
Watch the video, produced and smartly edited by Beholder Productions. One o=
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f OCP's thirty choristers who showed up for the event - they were dressed l=
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ike any other shoppers - starts to sing. Two young women listen and chuckle=
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. An older woman looks completely enraptured. Listeners start snapping pict=
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ures. One of the female singers puts her arm around an older man while she =
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sings, as his wife cracks up. Verdi's "Brindisi" picks up steam, and the ch=
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orus finishes with a flourish. The Saturday afternoon crowd of unsuspecting=
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listeners breaks into applause and cheers of "bravo."=3D20
I have to say, this might be the first staged promotional event that's made=
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me break into tears. Some of it is the editing, of course. But the whole i=
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dea of this kind of intimate, surprise contact with the public is so charmi=
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ng, and shows so vividly the power of classical music, that it soars with v=
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indication.=3D20
Vindication of what?=3D20
For me, it's the idea that classical music is for everyone. The Reading Ter=
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minal Market might be the most eclectic meeting place in a city that tends =
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to still sort itself out according to class, wealth and race. Everyone shop=
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s there. And here was a group of listeners who were not self-selecting as c=
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lassical lovers. You aren't surprised when you see someone loving opera in =
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the Academy of Music, after all; they loved it enough to pay a lot of money=
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to take several hours out of the daily routine to be there.=3D20
But in this case classical music was thrown into the atmosphere with a tota=
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l lack of expectation that anyone would love it. Some shoppers went about t=
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heir business, not interested enough in the piped-in orchestral sound and l=
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ive singing to stop and listen. But to plenty of others - if their faces ar=
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e to be believed - it apparently meant a great deal.=3D20
Flash Opera means it turns out the woman standing next to you, purse slung =
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over her shoulder and coffee cup in hand, has a great voice. And it means y=
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ou don't have to look as far as you might think to uncover a latent opera l=
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over.=3D20

VIDEO LINK TO YOUTUBE =3DC2=3DA0: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D3D_zmwRi=
tYO3w=3D
=3D20




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