DARnet

I don’t think it’s tedious. I like the bit near the end where the movement of people down the two staircases reminds me of water flowing. In fact the whole thing reminds me quite a lot of the first videos you posted of cars or boats going under bridges. (nice to see Liverpool St station on a Friday night lol!)

There was a programme on BBC3 TV tonight about a ( sort of ) Flash Mob who performed an Opera at Paddington Station. They used the escalators for filming and everything.

Ah yeah, I had half an idea to go along to that (you had to register and then they sent you a txt message with location details), but I had something else to do.

Flashmob - The Opera

A flashmob is a spontaneous gathering, organised secretively by email or text message and subject to meticulous timing.

For the first time ever, opera comes live to BBC THREE with the aid of a flashmob.

Flashmob - The Opera has all the ingredients to cause a stir: football fans, a broken engagement and a potential love-triangle - taking place amongst commuters in one of Britain’s busiest railway stations.

Adding their voices to the excitement, members of the public will be sent a text message on the day of the live broadcast, asking them to form a flashmob.

They will be directed to arrive at a particular station (that will remain secret until the day) at a certain time and to be prepared to sing alongside the professional singers.

Flashmob - The Opera is a contemporary take on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in which engaged couple Mike and Sally come unstuck over Mike’s obsession with football.

The train station forms the backdrop to the action as Sally decides whether or not to run away with the traditional handsome stranger, or stay with old flame Mike.

The opera is a new take on well known music from popular operas such as Madam Butterfly, Don Giovanni and La Traviata, set to a new story by Stephen Powell and with newly written English lyrics.

The music will be arranged by Robert Ziegler who will conduct the BBC Concert Orchestra live at the event.

BBC Classical Music TV and Comedy Entertainment will combine their expertise to produce the opera, a first for BBC Television.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2004/08_august/24/3autumn_arts.shtml

The still is excellent, I could spend ages pouring over it wondering about all the people. Anything is better than this literature review:-)

It is quite interesting looking at that still shot! Did anyone notice you taking the photo? I wonder what all those people were thinking, and how many of them had ipods/cd players to get them through their mornings….

Hi Drew, they may have noticed but took no notice. I reckon most of them are thinking “I wish the bloody train would hurry up” but in a very resigned, patient sort of way. The reason they are all looking up is to watch the big departures board waiting to see which platform it will be. iPods are not uncommon on the commuter trains and increasingly PDAs are replacing mobile phones for many of the City workers.