Last year, I had attended the Distant Worlds concert in Seoul. In August of this year, I found out that they were coming back to South Korea, but they were going to perform at Seongnam Arts Centre Opera House, located in Seongnam about forty minutes away from Seoul. I was eager to attend this concert once more, and I went with my friend Bobby by the subway, where we got off at Imae Station on the Bundang Line. The place was indeed only five minutes away from exit one, so we arrived about an hour early (the concert started at 3), and we looked at the merchandises they were selling. I wanted to get the Kanon CD, but it was 50,000 won ($45) for one CD. Instead, I opted to get this 15,000 won ($12) booklet. Bobby and I both had VIP seats which cost 99,000 won ($95), but we were not sitting next to each other. He ended up in the 2nd row in the middle, and I was six rows back from the stage, and was two rows away from Hamauzu Masashi-sama! I was so near him!

With a perfect seating arrangement, I had a fabulous time! With Prime Philharmonic Orchestra, the Most Voices choir, Kanon as soprano, Ha Man-Taek as tenor, Jeong Geon-chae as baritone, Jeon Ik-Duk as organ soloist, and of course Maestro Arnie Roth as the conductor, it was a beautiful concert. I want to say it was better than last year’s in terms of quality. Unfortunately, the audience wasn’t as fun as last year’s. Last year there was a full house — this year, there were plenty of empty seats. This year’s audience seemed less enthusiastic and receptive.

Regardless, I LOVED IT. Here is what they played. Continue reading this entry »

I finally can cross off one thing on my imaginary bucket list. Tonight marks the day I got to hear Paul Potts perform live. I almost missed the show, but Paul Potts himself told me about the Seoul performance on Twitter, so I paid 133,000 won for a VIP ticket. At Yonsei University Grand Hall, in my awesome seat, DA section F1, I had the perfect view of him, and I melted into a pile of goo for the next two hours.

I ended up taking notes on the performance because there was, strangely enough, no programme O_O. I am not sure what was up with that . . . regardless, here’s the song listing:

1. “Main Theme” from Exodus — Mostly Philharmonic Orchestra with Maestro Lee Kyung-gu
2. “Granada” — Paul Potts
3. “Caruso” — Paul Potts
4. “Gabriel’s Oboe” from The Mission — Oboist Choi Sung-sik
5. “Con te Partiro” — Paul Potts
6. “Il Mio Cuore Va” (My Heart Will Go On) from Titanic — Paul Potts
7. “Lascia ch’io pianga” from Rinaldo — Soprano Cha Seung-hee
8. “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi — Soprano Cha Seung-hee
9. “Libiamo ne’ lieti calici” from La traviata — Paul Potts and Cha Seung-hee

INTERMISSION

1. “Main Theme” from The Pirates of the Caribbean — Mostly Philharmonic Orchestra with Maestro Lee Kyung-gu
2. “Un Giorno Per Noi” — Vocalised version of the “Love Theme” from Romeo and Juliet — Paul Potts
3. “Il Gladiatore” from Gladiator — Paul Potts
4. “E Lucevan Le Stelle” from Tosca — Paul Potts
5. “Se” from Cinema Paradiso — Paul Potts
6. “Love Story” from Love Story — Paul Potts
7. “Parla Piu Piano” from The Godfather — Paul Potts
8. ENCORE — 그리운 금강산 — Paul Potts
9. ENCORE — “Nessun Dorma” from Turandot — Paul Potts

I LOVED IT ALL. Paul really has an amazing voice. And the orchestra — despite their strange name — were great, and Maestro Lee was a wonderful conductor. When Paul came back to sing the final encore, I was so happy! After all, that’s his signature song, and I almost thought he wasn’t going to sing it. But he did.

What a magical night. Thank you so much, Paul Potts.

Back in 2010, I’d gone to this lovely concert.

Today, I woke up to a wall post on my Facebook profile from Tokki-Chan, informing me that another FF Distant Worlds concert is coming to Korea. Somehow I’d missed this titbit, so I am glad she alerted me; otherwise it’d be a major travesty had I remained ignorant.

Five minutes after I discovered this news, I called to buy my VIP ticket for 100,000 won ($96ish dollars), where a very patient lady helped me through the process. I had to give her my passport number, which will be the number I need to give when I go pick up my ticket on the day of the concert.

I have something to look forward to, a very nice treat after putting my nose and sinus through surgery hell last week (I was hospitalised from September 8 to September 11, and my surgery was on September 9.). With my mood 300% happier than yesterday, I hope that affects my healing process!

Oh, happy day! I am going to be squealing all of today!

As an anime and a video game music fan, these Antique Bakery and Distant Worlds ~ Music from Final Fantasy ~ Returning Home DVD boxsets are LOVE.

P.S. — I am not thrilled by the way they packaged the FF concert boxset, though. X_X;; There were three discs, and two of them were placed in a way they overlapped one another, but there’s nothing in the middle of the disc to hold it in place. Plus, the box was smushed because they sent it in a bubble wrap envelope instead of a box! Very bad packaging.

At my workplace, we have one of those crappy Singstar karaoke machine, and a couple of middle school students decided to play with it. Apparently the highest score they were able to obtain was a 76. The following happened after I decided to sing a song.

Me: *flips through the number to find a song*
76 Kid: Just don’t beat my score!
Me: *chooses Skeeter Davis’ “The End of the World”* Gets an 86.
76 Kid: Dang!
Me: *chooses “Edelweiss” and sings and is at a 97*
Kid A: Whoah, she’s beating your score!
Kid B: She already beat that score!
Kid A: Ooooh! SHE PWNED YA.

Now tell me that’s not hilarious? Ah, these are the times when I enjoy working with kids. :)