[Note: This post has been updated (1) as of 3:47 PM Eastern on 15 Mar. See below.]
Here is Guardian classical music critic Tom Service extolling the music for the new superhero flick, Watchmen:
The music? Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries". It's an association of image, story, and score nicked straight from Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, when Robert "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" Duvall as Colonel Kilgore (geddit?) leads his flight of death-giving helicopters to destroy a Viet Cong village, blaring the Wagner from on-board speakers.For once — or rather, for twice, now that it's happened again in Watchmen — this is an intelligent and accurate fusion of movie and music. Wagner's Valkyries are angels of death in their original operatic context (the opening of act three of Die Walküre)[!], scouring the world for warriors to kill[!]. What Wagner's music captures so brilliantly is the Valkyrie's [sic] bloodlust and love of killing[!]....
Did we mention that Tom Service is the classical music critic for the Guardian?
Oh. So we did.
Incredible.
Update (3:47 PM Eastern on 15 Mar): If anyone was wondering why we didn't respond to the nonsensical defense of Mr. Service and his above linked article posted in the article's comments section by one Andrew Dickson, Mr. Service's editor at the Guardian, it's because Mr. Dickson has seen fit to put us on the Guardian's "moderated" list which means any comments we make must first be approved by the editorial staff before being published. Consequently, we, for reasons which should be obvious, have refused to waste our time commenting further in the comments section of that article under that condition, and have so informed Mr. Dickson in just those words in our last submitted comment to the comments section which comment was, of course, never published.
So much for free and open discussion.
Acting In Opera
Hillary
