From Barber to Midnight

I went the other night to see the broadcast of The Barber of Seville from The Metropolotin Opera in NYC straight to my local movie theater in HD!

I would consider myself a fan of classical performances and operas like this, although I wouldn't want to see operas every day. I've been to probably ten in my life and enjoyed most of them. Madama Butterfly my sophomore year of high school was a stretch, but the others were really interesting. I'd recommend this particular performance of The Barber of Seville to anyone, though. It was really well-done and very, very fun to take in.

The casting was excellent: the barber was lovable and silly, the hero was lovestruck and sappy, the damsel was beautiful and in distress, the caretaker was strict and smart, and the matchmaker was crafty but bribe-able. I had not seen this opera before and I had only a vague idea of the storyline, so I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. I'd love to go to The Met live in NYC someday, but I'll undoubtedly take in another performance at the local movie theater in the meantime.


On the opposite end of the spectrum musically, the new Linkin Park finally came out this week! Minutes to Midnight is really revolutionary for my favorite band for a few reasons:

• It's their first totally new album since 2003.
  
• They take some opportunities to express some of their political views and frustrations for the first time in a main-release LP album (the ones with Jay-Z don't count in my mind since most of the lyrics on those were his, not theirs). I might not agree with all of their political expressions, but it's still interesting and the music still rocks regardless of the words.
  
• I think this album is much more musical than the past two main releases. They are definitely pulling in some vibes from the newer Coldplay and U2 work, especially on "Leave Out All the Rest" and "Shadow of the Day." But it is still a unique LP sound.
  

Don't get me wrong, they're still freakin' loud and rockin' like always (maybe even better than before in some cases), so they haven't turned soft at all, but their sound is really fresh on this new album and I'm addicted to it. I'm afraid to see how many times I've played the whole album since I got it on Wednesday morning, and I will neither confirm nor deny allegations that I've burned it to CD to listen to quickly in the car on around-town driving. :o)

One word of warning this time around, though -- if you're a pure Linkin Park fan (not a LPJZ fan), you do have two options for Minutes to Midnight -- clean or explicit. Phil pre-ordered it for us from iTunes and when I asked him which version he got he may as well have said, "Explicit! DUH!" Seriously, we don't throw them ourselves, but there's no denying Phil and I are not afraid of a few f-bombs here and there. And LP does throw 'em with joy here.

Bottom line, Minutes to Midnight is an excellent album -- buy it and listen to it like crazy!