Chess

"Life's too short for chess."
- Henry J. Byron

Our subscription series took us to The Princess Of Wales last night to see Chess. Billed as a musical, Chess is really an opera made no more palatable because it is in a language I understand. Certainly the staging of it was cleverly done. The chess pieces are the musicians/singers/actors that comprise the majority of the cast. I was impressed that they played their instruments from a prone position when at one point they had been swept from the chessboard. The performances were strong. I could certainly appreciate the power of the voices. But in spite of those things, I found the show tedious. And long. So very long.

Contrary to my assessment, Merv loved it. He apparently has been listening to the CD of the show for years and could sing most of opera word for word. If I didn't think it would have ticked him off, I would have joined much of the rest of the audience and left at the intermission but I'm reasonably sure it would have annoyed him to no end if I had. It did improve somewhat in the second act. The music changed up a bit and there was more colour in the costuming and lighting to break up the relentless black and white. And it was shorter than the first act. Still, all in all, I would rather have been home, tucked into my bed.