Phantom of the Opera

Dorothy Hamill skated a beautiful competitive program to "Music of the Night" from "Phantom of the Opera" at the World Professional Skating Championships in the 1980s. She wore a stunning dark blue dress and performed a great program.

For Drama - No one can top Tollers "Il Pagliacci" program. It's a classic.


On the topic of Judges Toller says:

"The trouble with judges is that they are human beings. If they were machines they might be a little more accurate." :agree:

SingAlto said:

And his artistry sucks, and he only skates to opera, and all his does is jump, and he telegraphs his Lutz jump, and he can't really dance, and he has cheesy shows with the same cheesy skaters, and he's a 41-year-old bachelor living in San Francisco and we all know what that means, and he isn't college educated and Orser should've beaten him in Calgary because his artistic skills were far superior...

Ladies & Gentlemen, I present to you: The many failings of Brian Boitano. :sheesh:

Click to expand...

As we remember, Boitano's skating was purely technical - great jumps but little artistry or musical expression - until he teamed with Sandra Bezic, who choregraphed his 1988 Olympic short and long programs. Frankly, without Bezic, Brian probably would have gone down in skating history as just another great technical skater but not a complete skater.

As for Calgary, Orser was the defending World champion, and he certainly had the advantage of competing on his home ice. He skated after Boitano in the long program, so the judges weren't holding back marks. Had Orser landed his triple flip and his second triple axel, he probably would have won the title. However, he did not, and he looked noticeably tired towards the end of his program, and that made the difference. Remember that the technical mark was the tiebreaker
in those days, and Boitano definitely had the edge.

The judges, IMHO, held back Boitano's marks (giving him a couple of 5.7s) to give Orser room to win. Again, had Orser skated his best program, he probably
would have, but he didn't, and the rest is history.