Opening Night Gala at the Conroe Symphony Orchestra

Spot the Black Bat and Win!

Conroe is a small town. You'd probably never guess that the city had a Symphony Orchestra. A rather decent one, at that. Last night was their openining gala. I dragged DH and DD kicking and screaming.

Here is a shot of DD and I before we left. Notice how happy she looks. Not.

The musical line up included Camille Saint-Saens Carnival of Animals. This was my first exposure to the work of Saint-Saens. I was disturbed that the movement entitled "The Tortoise" was just a slowed down version of Offenbach's "Can-Can." During the movement called "The Aquarium" I leaned over to DD and remarked, "Sounds like 'The Little Mermaid.'" To which she replied, "It's 'Sleeping Beauty.'" I stood corrected.

Before each movement, a narrator read verses from the Ogden Nash poem inspired by the Saint-Saens work. I've included my favorite verse here:

Fossils
from Carnival of the Animals by Ogden Nash

At midnight in the museum hall,
The fossils gathered for a ball,
There were no drums or saxophones,
But just the clatter of their bones,
Rolling, rattling, carefree circus,
Of mammoth polkas and mazurkas,
Pterodactyls and brontosauruses
Sang ghostly prehistorice choruses,
Amid the mastodonic wassail
I caught the eye of one small fossil,
"Cheer up sad world," he said and winked,
"It's kind of fun to be extinct."

DH's favorite peice of the evening was Hector Berlioz's "March to the Scaffold." I always knew he was morbid. DD and I both enjoyed the encore performance, "The Storm of the Century." Conductor Dr. Don Hutson, explained he selected this particular peice in response to Hurricane Ike. The storm was just a few weeks ago! Since the encore was not in the program notes, I do not know the composer. I'm going to have to do a little research.