I was sitting there today, listening to Phantom of the Opera (Weber)ona a CD, and the lady singing hit a bunch of those high notes that are almost the top of my range of hearing. Then she dropped four notes into the celler. That reminded me of one of the singers on that last cruise. I don't remember her name but she had a Phantom voice. She was a thin, very tall blond, the type you would expect to hit the high notes but she also hit the low ones. Unfortunately she never sang anything from Phantom. I don't know enough about music to say how much range she had, but it was about an octave more than anybody I have heard in years.

There is so much young tallent out there. I guess it's a long shot for most of them to hit the big time.

There is old tallent out there, too. The same ship had a male singer, probably late 50's and getting chubby, who sang Sinatra, Armstrong, Darin, and Bennett stuff. He never missed a note. Have you ever heard of Sonny Rose? He has been on TV and in movies. He said he just sang Sinatra and Bobby Darin and Tony Bennett, but he could actually *sound* like Louie Armstrong. The he jumped into "Mac the Knife" with a good imitation of Armestrong. Sometimes he would use that voice to add an "Oh yeah," at the end of a song. He did three 45 minute shows and brought the house down every time.

If you like music, cruise.
Howard