Heh, oops. Missed that.

And it's not that the music was entirely unfamiliar. We just didn't know the name or where in pop-culture we might have heard it.

:blush: Yeah, missed the beginning of the video...

Bolero was used in cartoons?

For me, Bolero evokes "10" first, Allergro Non Troppo second, Torvill and Dean third and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown last. The piece is up there with Beethoven's 9th symphony, the Blue Danube, William Tell Overture, Ride of the Valkeries, and Carmina Burana in the "classical music most oft used as accompaniment" category.

All of which should be experienced played by a live orchestra at least once in your life. I saw Bolero performed by the Long Beach Symphony accompanied by flamenco dancers once. I've seen LBSO perform Beethoven's 9th and the William Tell Overture as well. But the ultimate for me was Carmina Burana - the scariest music ever (well, parts of it anyway). I have CD's of most of this stuff but it's just not the same as a live orchestra.

Last spring I got to sit in on a rehearsal of Carmina Burana. There was a full orchestra, soloists, a 250-voice choir and maybe 30 of us watching it all. They played through the whole piece in order but the conductor stopped and had them do some parts over until it was the way he wanted it. That meant I got to hear some of the best parts multiple times. It was a great experience.

I do adore Carmina Burana, the whole thing. I've never found it scary, though. It actually makes me pretty happy. The sometimes fatalistic, sometimes humorous, occasionally blasphemous lyrics are worth looking up as well. I'd love to attend a live performance someday.

One of my most memorable experiences onstage was an evening pairing Pagliacci with Carmina Burana. The curtain fell on Pagliacci[/i][/i]with the townspeople gathered around the bodies of Silvio and Nedda, staring in horror at the knife in Canio's hand.

After intermission, the curtain found us all in the same position. As the chorus started "O Fortuna" Canio was taken off, and the two lovers came to life to become the solists for Carmina[/i][/i]The piece was fully staged and danced by Body Vox, an amazing modern dance group based in Portland.

It would take me hours to fully describe this production (in fact , it has in the past). Suffice it to say that after over ten years, I still talk about it.