The Opera House

Advantages: Wasn't expensive
Disadvantages: Hour tour wasn't long enough

...SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE Sydney Opera house is located on the eastern headland of Circular Quay just a few minutes from the train station. It is made up of 1,056,000 Swedish tiles on the roof, which are off white and are self-cleaning. Construction began in 1959 after a Danish architect Jorn Utzon won an international design competition for the $7 million building. In 1966 Utzon quit after political interference leaving Australian architects to design the interior costing $102million. He has never seen the building completed. Utzon who is now in his eighties has announced to refurbish the interior and he has high hopes that it will be full of colour rather than a black hole. His son comes to Australia to oversee any developments. It was finally was completed against all odds and after several disagreements in 1973. It now is one...

DeniseKelly40 24.09.2007 (23.04.2008) · Read review
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Review of Sydney Opera House

Welsh Male Voice Choirs.

Advantages: Sublime
Disadvantages: None

...give their renditions of The Silver Birch, Nant Mynydd and Hava Nagila. You can see from the above playlist that the Male Voice Choirs of Wales are far from insular. As well as hymns that are firmly rooted in the chapel culture of Wales, there are some great pieces from some of the great classical operas and even in the case of the Gwalia Male Choir in Hava Nagila, a lively Israeli folk song that is a song of celebration. There is also the song Memory, from the musical Cats, further proof, if proof were needed, of the superb versatility of Welsh Male Voice Choirs. I do not propose to describe each song on the CD, as some of them are in Welsh and my understanding of the language of my ancestors is shamefully virtually non-existent. But when I listen to the music on this CD (and on others like it!) it does stir my heart and my soul...

Martinscholes 19.11.2005 · Read review
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Review of Welsh Male Voice Choirs - Various Artists

FREE DVDs

Advantages: Free trial, large choice, post included,new realeases
Disadvantages: see review

...I like movies and I like freebies, so when you get offered both in one swoop you?re bound to accept! I used my two week free trial with this company and remained with them for a couple of monthsbefore moving on to try many other companies free trials (and winning a new DVD player on Tesco DVD rental site on their free trial offer). I then had an email from DVDs 365 asking me to go back, and offering me a free DVD if I did so. I had just left Tesco (with my new DVD player) so I chose to go back with them. ∆◊◊ THE SERVICE THEY OFFER ∆◊◊ Basically it?s like going to a video shop and hiring films on DVD, except you don?t pay for each film you chose ? rather a monthly fee for which you can watch as many movies as you can fit in, for us this is usually around 8 a month (2 a week usually weekends...

dabmim 15.11.2004 · Read review
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Review of dvds365.com

Top Quality Opera for All

Advantages: Beautifully produced, top quality singing
Disadvantages: None

...biographies online afterwards! There is also a shop where you can buy opera CDs, DVDs and books but again, you will probably find these cheaper elsewhere! The theatre itself is horseshoe shaped , fully air conditioned and has 2156 seats - but don't worry, there are lots of very helpful staff around to help you find yours! There are 4 levels - Stalls, Grand Tier, Balcony and Amphitheatre. Seats are pretty comfy with a generous amount of leg room - having been to some theatres where you're knees can be crammed into the seat in front! There are surtitles for operas not in English so that you can follow what's going on and if you're seating in a position where you're not able to see the surtitles then you will have a little screen in front of your seat displaying them there - a lovely touch. The sound itself is wonderful - I believe a lot...

bubblegum_princess 04.11.2008 · Read review
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Review of Royal Opera House London

Dial O for Opera

Advantages: Speed dial makes navigating oh so easy!
Disadvantages: Initial load up is very slow.

...As a family of six there is much logging in, off and out on our computer. Many a day goes by when I find myself on my son's profile on MySpace or in my wife's eBay account without even realising how I got there. It was therefore, with a heavy heart that I decided to find myself a web browser of my own. My wife and kids are now left to the wondrous firefox as I scour the web for a viable alternative. Naturally, Internet Explorer is straight off the menu as its massive security flaws and general style make it repulsive to me. Safari looked promising on first download only for me to find that it just was not compatible with several of my favourite sites. This left me with but one alternative...Opera. I have never really fancied the idea of the Opera Web Browser. For some reason it always came across as a very serious product to me...

Shortsharpshock 18.11.2007 · Read review
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Review of Opera 9

Voices of the Valley, Fron Male Voice Choir

Advantages: Excellent Choice of Songs
Disadvantages: None

...This CD is excellent. I have always been a fan of Male Voice choirs (not just because I'm welsh) because the overall harmony is gorgeous!! I saw this CD advertised recently on the TV and my parents bought it for me. I was not disappointed. There is an excellent selection on traditional welsh ballads with past pop hits etc. People often mistake Male Voice Choirs as just a 'Welsh Thing' that they won't nessarily enjoy, I think they would be pleasently suprised if they bought it. Being the age of 20, not many of the younger generation appreciate music different to hip-pop, punk-rock or rap but as I was brought up surrounded by jazz, classical, brass etc, I have a much wider taste, thankfully. This is a CD that I play quite often and enjoy every time. The Tracks on this CD: 1) Sailing 2) Abide With Me 3) Jerusalem 4) Land...

red-head 16.02.2007 · Read review
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Review of Voices Of The Valley - Fron Male Voice Choir

Surprising Picture Quality - Panasonic DVD-S54

Advantages: Incredible picture quality when compared to my old non-upscaling player with a scart lead
Disadvantages: Sometimes disc drive can be really noisy when DVD's initially load.

...At first I wasn't convinced by up-scaling DVD player technology but was persuaded after reading an article in "What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision" magazine. Unable to afford a Blu-Ray player my sister and I bought the Panasonic DVD-S54 to match our parents brand new Panasonic TX-32LZD80 LCD television as their Christmas 2008 present. Admittedly it was a slightly selfish purchase as we both live at home and wanted to watch DVDs on the big new TV ourselves! We bought the player from the electrical retailer Comet for about £100 just before Christmas so there were no discounts applied. On Christmas day when opened we found a relatively small box tightly packed with the player in polystyrene packaging. All the components such as cables, remote and manuals were well presented in their own protective plastic bags, to keep them protected. The player...

bobbacon985 12.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Panasonic DVD-S54

English National Opera - A National Treasure

Advantages: Accessible staging, good balance in programming, great education programmes
Disadvantages: Singing is not always consistently amazing

...As an aspiring opera singer (currently working in admin - oh, the glamour! - but hoping to go back to college in the near future), I try to attend as much live opera as I can. Living in London is great for this - we are spoilt with 2 international level opera houses, as well as numerous touring companies and high standard amateur productions. English National Opera is generally seen as the Royal Opera House's more accessible sibling - slightly cooler, slightly more modern. All productions are staged in English and the singing is generally of a very high standard. English National Opera's home is the Coliseum on St Martin's Lane, just off Trafalgar Square, so easily accessible from Charing Cross Station (Mainline or underground) or bus routes 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 23, 24, 29, 53, 77a, 88, 91, 139, 159, 176, or if you're travelling by...

bubblegum_princess 02.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of English National Opera

Elysees Opera/America Opera Hotel - Paris, France.

Advantages: Location, Room Size
Disadvantages: Facilities offered were minimal.

...I stayed in this hotel in August 2007 and the following is my view and opinion. I would also like to state that on Ciao, this hotel is listed as a 1 star hotel, whereas in fact the Elysees Opera is a 3 star hotel. The hotel is named America Opera and Elysees Opera, i stayed in the Elysees Opera. I'm not sure as to why there are 2 names? Location The road of Rue de Turin was very easy to find. We got the Metro to the nearest stop, Rome, and we were provided with a small map illustrating the location. So we found the road and walked down it, only passing one hotel on the way down. This hotel was named The America Opera. However we had booked in to The Elysees Opera Hotel. So we kept walking until we got to the end of the road. We decided that we would go to the hotel and ask for directions to our one. As we approached we...

lustba 17.04.2008 (21.04.2008) · Read review
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Review of America Opera Hotel, Paris

A BAD Night At The Opera

Advantages: One of the best in the Charlie Chan series, Boris Karloff, great characters, fun
Disadvantages: None

..., daughter, were always played by Oriental actors. 'Charlie Chan at the Opera' starts with the magnificent classic horror legend Boris Karloff as an inmate of an insane asylum. He has amnesia and no one knows who he is, but he does a mean line in opera singing - as the film opens, he is sitting accompanying himself on a grand piano as he belts out an Italian song in full basso profundo. A male nurse enters the room and flicks today's paper across to Boris, and there is a front-page article about a Madame Lilli Rochelle, whom Boris recognises. He becomes agitated, declaring 'I have to get out of here right away!', conks the nurse out and steals his uniform. We're then immediately shown new newspaper headlines: 'MANIAC OVERPOWERS GUARD, ESCAPES', so we know we're in for a spot of trouble ahead. At the local police station, in comes Charlie Chan...

thereddragon 13.08.2006 · Read review
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Review of Charlie Chan - At The Opera (DVD)