Last night we had a great time at the Hollywood Bowl to see the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. The show itself was pretty good, but a bit odd. It was supposed to be the "Great America Concert: Great American Women" so it made total sense to bring out an opera singer and have her kick off with a Wagner song in German followed by two Puccini. Okay, then we realized that all of the composers were men, but the 3 singers were women so perhaps that's what we were celebrating.
Personally I don't like opera, and while she had a good voice, the ululations always annoy me. So it was particularly annoying when she sang "I Could Have Danced all Night," a musical number from the broadway show My Fair Lady. It's difficult to describe, but it sounded just like an opera singer singing a show tune.
The second singer was a jazz singer whom I liked very much. I don't normally like jazz music all that much (like opera, I just don't get it) but the singer really pulled me in. The third singer was a former Broadway star who probably should have ended her career a decade ago.
But music aside, the best part was the company. We went with my parents and their friends Debbie and Martyn, and we met in Torrance to pick up the bus and go. Why go all the way to Torrance (for you non-Southern Californians it's about a 45 minute drive from Anaheim)? There aren't any busses that go to Orange County. And we certainly weren't going to park like we did last time.
Once we hopped on the bus, luckily getting a row of 6 seats, we broke open the coolers for our hors d'ouevres. We whipped out our plastic wine glasses and started with a nice Vigonier, one of Kevin's preffered varietals of white wines. Cheese and sausage were passed around along with stuffed olives and toast with pate'. Upon arrival at the Bowl we had a little picnic with Mom's oven-fried chicken, bruschetta, very spicy green beans from Debbie, and our famous potato salad. Okay, we bought the potato salad from the grocery store, but reports are that it was good anyway.
There was, of course, more wine, followed by some wine. At intermission we passed around the desserts--fresh berries and cream and chocolate cookies--and more wine. The end of the performance was highlighted by a very cool fireworks show. Not as cool as Disneyland's of course, but still very cool. We then boarded the bus which was nothing like getting on the parking bus, and headed home with half of our group falling asleep.
All in all it was a very good time and I hope to do it again next year.
Posted by Shelby at July 31, 2005 01:26 PM