No Fat Lady This Time....

"It's all over when the fat lady sings," is a comment that usually refers to the part in an opera when Mrs. Heavyset hops on stage and belts out a high pitch tune that's almost deafening to the ears and yet still enjoyable by many. Until, last friday, I was one of those "musical sure, Opera... No way Jose" kinda girls. Thanks to my two friends Dave and Genie I was introduced to a world of Opera that was for lack of a better word quite awesome! These two are vocal performance majors at the University of Western Ontario and were recently in the UWOpera production of Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow. It was awesome, Dave played a consul to the Baron of Pontevedra, and Genie played Zozo, the head Grisette (grisettes are a bunch of burlesque girls who work at Madame Maxim's). Anyhoo, this was considered an Operetta Im guessing because of its upbeatness. It was in English, and I was totally blown away by the voices here. This here is a picture of the Character Anna or The Merry Widow that all the men swoon over. I would love to tell you her name, but my playbill is at work, and I'm not.

In other news, I also got my theatre fix today (feb 14), when I went to see Einstein's Gift at the Grand Theatre. That was also good. Its about the interaction of science, technology, and politics, especially when it comes to war. The story is focused on the work of Fritz Haber a German Chemist. Haber is a nobel prize winner in chemistry and is also known as the Father of Chemical Warfare. His discoveries helped agriculture but also led to the development of toxic explosives used in WWI. His creation of Zyklon B was also used in concentration camps by the Nazi's during WWII. Haber however like the people who suffered in these camps was Jewish, and despite his work and contributions both to science and to Germany, he was exiled. Excellent play, I think my friend Dave was a little bored, but I enjoyed it. Go see it for yourself. It's called Einsteins gift I supposse because after Einstein took residence in the U.S. he asked FDR to take interest in the development of nuclear fission for military purposes out of fear that the Nazi's would first develop atomic bombs. Since its 2006 we know how it ends "Kaboom"! Yay. Science.

There are many discoveries made in good faith which are then turned and utilized for other purposes. Viagra for example was founded by accident. Like Bill Nye's saying "Science Rules", when does it stop? and how ethical is it to hold our technological advances over the rest of the world?