Muse, the UK band which not long time ago was mostly reffered to as the new Radiohead, just released their fourth album – Black Holes and Revelations.

Having the opportunity to listen to it, it provides a great feeling starting with the first track – Take a Bow – a powerful song with a space-like feeling made with a complex orchestration in the beginning which leaves space to a more powerful drums sound to the end of the track.

This feeling carries on to the next tracks, all having a complex sound with powerful orchestrations until the 5th track – Soldier’s Poem, where the listener can take a brake and enjoy mostly the lyrics of the short, 2:01 minutes, ballad.

The seventh song, Assassin, starts with high pressure and follows up the same, being one of the best pieces of rock on this album. Still, I think the lyrics could be more outspoken in this track to deliver more power.

One of the last songs, Hoodoo, gives a strange feeling of both a poem with some instruments in the background until it strikes with some powerful drums riffs towards the end of it.

Overall, I found it a consistent album, it is clear that the guys from Muse worked a lot for it to bring it to this shape. If you are a fan of the genre, it is very likely you will find it a great piece of work.

Only for sample purposes – not to be distributed – you can listen to the first track here: Muse - Take A Bow.

 

Who would have thought that the first Romanian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” would be staged by a group of students from professor Florin Zamfirescu’s class at the National University of Drama and Cinematography “I. L. Caragiale” (UNATC) in Bucharest, lead by professor Adrian Pintea? Well, it’s true ;)

I guess most of you have already seen one of the movies with the same title from 1973 or 2000, or have at least listened to a recording of it. This modern opera is a masterpiece – the more you listen to it, the more you begin to understand and love it. But anyway, this is not my main point here ;).

The first time I went to see the show at the Arcub Theater (because I have to admit I already went three times and, who knows, maybe I’ll go again ;) ) I was completely blown away. I imagined the show would be ok – but nothing more. Yes, I had the preconception that it can’t be exceptional, because I knew the actors were only students, still preparing for their big acting careers. But I was so wrong: nothing can beat a year of hard work, the professionalism of all the people involved, these students’ optimism and great attitude, their talent and – most of all – their unspoiled enthusiasm. Combine all of that with a modern opera as brilliant and as powerful as Webber’s “Jesus Christ Superstar” and I guess it’s obvious that they can’t go wrong.

Most of all, I would have never guessed that young people preparing at UNATC can have such great voices – I would have thought that their acting skills are their biggest asset, but it’s obvious that they have a lot more to show. From this point of view I would totally mention the two leading actors who play the roles of Jesus (Daniel Dobre) and Judas (Dan Rădulescu) – some of their songs gave me serious goose bumps ;). Mihai Niţă (in the roles of Peter and Herod), Darius Daradici (Caiaphas) and Marius Miron (Pilate) are also very good.

However, I think that the greatest merit of the show lies most of all in the excellent interaction between the actors – you will most likely find several of them very gifted but you will probably be the most impressed by the way their group songs turn out, so uplifting and powerful.

Oh, and they dance really cool, the orchestra (Conservatory students) sounds very professional and the costumes and scenery are also very appropriate. Need I say more? ;)

Big “congrats” to them all – for their hard work and accomplishment of a difficult project – but most of all for the great feeling that they manage to translate to the audience.

 

If you haven’t seen it yet, there are four more shows left, on the 13^th, 15^th, 17^th and 19^th of july, at 19.00. The address of the Arcub Theater is Batistei str., nr. 14.

Enjoy ;) I know I definitely have.

You can find some of mtx’s pics of the show on his blog, on my blog or on the official website of the project.