Year of the over-used music

Hi alll - Tenorguy back in time to knash teeth and match wits with the most knowledgeable and interesting group of patinage artistique fans out there!

Can any female skater actually give a performance of Carmen without the idea that she was only a seductress? or a male skater show that the toreoador was not a captain in battle in the wars. Ho hum that's all you are going to get from the figure skaters. Joesitz

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Joesitz - ITA! Bizet's music is NOT the problem - having to sit through surface-level and emotionally lazy interpretations of his great character - that's the problem! Carmen is so much more than a lace-wearing floozy and any choreographer worth their salt would "drill down" much deeper to find something more compelling to do than run the lady skaters around in polka dots and loud colors striking flamenco-lite poses.

Make 'em work harder, right Joesitz?

Tenorguy

Music wise, I LOVE Carmen, Phantom of the Opera and Bolero. I love seeing programs to this music, I really do, but why anyone would use it is beyond me... Far too unoriginal. Although, I've noticed the judges don't always award originality so this could be the reason lol!

And hey, it may be the year of overused music but at least there's no "Gladiators" in the top ranks (or at least none that I know of, but I could have missed something)

What about other overused music? Maleguena, Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Rachmaninoff, Don Quiote, just to name a few. It seems like because it's olympic season, most skaters are playing it very safe and go with overused music. (I have to give props to Emanuel Sandhu for his LP music even if I'm not sold on his program just yet. He could've very easily picked a warhorse just like others.)

Frau Muller said:

Gregory/Petukhov are also guilty with their Romeo & Juliet FD!.

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at least it's a good lookin program... I think it's awesome

and on their behalf it's not a version that has been over used... Vanessa Mae is awesome music

tell you what though, I'd rather see a program to a peice of over used music than to see a skater go to the opposite extreme and use music he had composed himself!!!

Rach is not over used, just the same tired pieces that everyone seems to trundle out at some point in their career. Carmen, great music - tired arrangements and choregraphy, which in my opinion is the problem with many of the opera interpretations.

For music from the movies - John Williams wrote so much more than the Schindlers list music (although I adore this music) and what about Ennio Moricone there are millions of Moricone CD's in my local HMV yet for some reason I was under the impression that he only wrote a couple of pieces

For me the main problem is that for all the over use of all this music - I have yet to see any really stand out performance of any of them. Sure you have Kati Witt and Carmen and for me Alexei Yagudin's Tosca given time had the potential to be a stand out Tosca and Oksana Baiul's Swan Lake was fab but beyond that nothing sticks in my head as being a truly great program.

Reading the posts proves my point. The figure skating music is limited to the warhorses for figure skating except if a new movie has that right background music.

tenorguy - These young figure skaters could never render a Hans Sachs into a program for judging.

Joe

julietvalcouer said:

Delusions of grandeur?

Sorry, but Michelle Kwan couldn't pull it off. Neither can C&S. That music belongs to Torvill and Dean, and frankly, I don't think there's any real way to improve on it.

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What makes you say C&S have any delusions of gradeur?

Personally, I love C&S's version of Bolero.-it is my favorite free dance this year.
More importantly, when I watch it, I don't automatically think of T&D's Bolero. C&S have made this music their own (IMO).
To Platov, Zhulin, Druchinina and of course Galit & Sergei.

Joesitz - I agree! Who's got the cajones to skate to Wagner besides Buttle?

For what its worth - I am also more than a bit tired of costumes that "tell a story" ala anything they design for Joubert. Do we need more get ups that scream narratives like "I'm Columbus - here's my Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria and the galley sink"?

How about "I'm Tosca here I am jumping off the tower with red bugle beads flowing down my leg."

I know this is subjective. I'm sure many posters love Sasha's Odile/Odette dress - I would rather see a skater portray the character than just to dress as one.

Tenorguy

Paganni one of my favorites being used by Shizuka and others. Although I still pray that Michelle uses it.

I LIKE carmen, phatom, tosca, and all the others. I don't see a problem with "overused" music because people (if they try) can make a different interpertation of it. I like C/S' bolero. I think it is different. I like Brian's LOTD too.

I guess i'm not real picky about music choices. lol.
I even kinda like Eman's program. It's very orginal.

diver chick said:

For music from the movies - John Williams wrote so much more than the Schindlers list music (although I adore this music).

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Tonya Harding IIRC skated to Jurassic Park... and many skaters have used Harry Potter in the last few years... so John Williams is well represented


and didnt someone skate to Saving Private Ryan


and Chengjang Li used bits of Star Wars, as did Scott Hamilton back in teh day


sorry I love John Williams and get a little overly giddy whenever anyone skates to his music