The biggest mystery in the Tintin movie

I got curious after watching the Tintin movie: is the song that Castafiore sings the famous "Jewel Song" from Faust that she continually sings in the comic books? So I looked up "The Jewel Song" on youtube and, while the two songs sound similar, the song Castafiore sings in the movie is NOT "The Jewel Song" from Faust.

Fast forward a year or two and I start singing "The Jewel Song" in voice lessons. The very next song after "The Jewel Song" in my book is the song that Castafiore sings in the movie.

Both songs are from operas by Charles Gounod. "The Jewel Song" is, obviously, from Faust, and the song that Castafiore sings in the Tintin movie is from Romeo et Juliette.

Why did the people in charge of picking music choose "Juliet's Waltz" over "The Jewel Song," especially since both songs are by Gounod, and both songs sound so similar (featuring lots of "ah" runs)?

In the movie, Castafiore sings her highest note and it shatters a bulletproof glass case which homes the third Unicorn ship model, which is important to the plot. Did the song-choosers pick "Juliet's Waltz" because it goes one note higher than "The Jewel Song," and a higher pitch is needed to break the glass? And is that why they made Castafiore go a whole fourth HIGHER* than the actual highest note in the song?

According to my (minimal) research, you can shatter glass at any pitch, you just have to be loud enough and keep a steady pitch. (I guess the reason opera singers don't shatter glass with those high, high notes is because their vibrato.)
So did the song-choosers in the Tintin movie make a sloppy error with their musical research, or did they have some other reason for choosing "Juliet's Waltz" over "The Jewel Song"?

This question will haunt me for the rest of my life. If anyone can think of a plausible answer, please let me know.

Live long and prosper.

If you want to see someone shatter glass with his voice, check out this video:

*Going up the additional fourth bugs me. A lot. And not just because it's not in the original music. It bugs me because, listening to the song, it sounds like the sound editors electronically moved the pitch from the C (the red note in the picture) to the F (the orange note in the picture). While an F6 (which is the sixth F note on the keyboard) is difficult to hit (my highest note is an E6, which I can only hit on warmups), it is not impossible. Most coloratura sopranos can sing a G6 (the white note to the immediate right of the orange note in the picture) or even a G#6 (Diana Damrau, for instance). If the movie people wanted to change the music and go up to the F, they should have hired a soprano able to do it.

Day 13: Sights to remember

Finally, here are days 13 and 14!

Day 13 was mostly meandering around the country. We had to make it back to Boskoop, which is a town near Amsterdam, where we were staying until our flight the next day. Before we got there, however, we had several stops to make...
First: the city of Kampen, where my great-grandma was baptized in the church many, many years ago. We got to see the actual baptismal that was used!

De Kerk.

The baptismal. 

The church was absolutely beautiful on the inside. It had two big pipe organs! The bigger of the two has 3200 pipes, some from the 1600's!

In 1580, there was a revolt against Catholicism in Holland and all of the beautiful paintings on the church ceilings were painted over. They got rid of the "graven images" as well ("Iconoclast!"). One statue was melted down and made into cannons. In recent years, they have been restoring the paintings on the ceiling. Slowly uncovering them and repainting them to the best of their ability (based on old pictures and descriptions).

My great-uncle says that the big organ was dismantled during World War II and hidden, so that the pipes wouldn't be used as supplies. It was only fully remantled in the 80's or 90's, when the final pipes were found in someone's basement.

Here are some graves on the floor. I wonder who is buried under there?

That's me in the background staring up at the ceiling. I had good reason.

(See the restored painting on the left?)

I don't know if I could go to church here - I'd spend the whole service looking up!

If we had come two weeks later we could have gone to an organ concert at this church... Bach's organ music. Man, I bet that concert was absolutely stunningly gorgeous. I can't even imagine how glorious it sounded.

We walked around Kampen after that. Tintin had a good time.

...sort of...

Hup Holland, hup!

Tintin found another Captain to be his friend.

Some interesting things we saw...

Not sure what this restaurant place is all about... but I hope they don't have oliphant on the menu!

Cheese. =D

 

Alright, there was this store and the windows were FULL of these mannequins! All I could think was...

That's the original gate to the city.

After Kampen, we drove to Zee, to see some sights that you wouldn't expect to see in Holland.

The ocean! You can't go to the ocean and not wade...

Don't tell the authorities, but I may have smuggled some shells into the United States without declaring them... and I'm not even sure if it was legal to pick them up in the first place.

That just about wraps up day 13!

Live long and prosper.

Funny Tintin translations.

So I started reading The Calculas Affair in Dutch the other night and found some funny translations and thought I'd share!

Firstly, the title.

In English, it is simply The Calculus Affair. In Dutch, however, Professor is no longer Professor Calculus, but Professor Sunflower. The Dutch version is called "The Sunflower Case."

In English, Nestor, frustrated with a lady who keeps mistaking Marlinspike Hall for the butchery, says "Fiddle-de-dee Madam!" In Dutch, however, he says, "Madam, walk to the moon!"

Captain Haddock's most famous exclamation is "Blistering barnacles and a thundering typhoon!" Kapitein Haddock's most used phrase is "A thousand bombs and grenades!"

I'll let that one speak for itself... Waf! Waf!

Live long and prosper!

Day 10: In which Tintin meets TomTom.

On day 10, we went to the Openluchtmuseum. The Openluchtmuseum is an Open Air Museum filled with old farm implements and buildings. It shows what life was like on the farm. There was this incredible display of several houses throughout the centuries. It showed what life was like in the 1700's through the 1970's. It was really cool. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.

Here is the inside of a barn, and a structure to keep hay under:

 

It's a good thing my dad didn't live in the olden days...

...Though if Dutch men back then were known for their height, I supposed my dad would have fit in. Why were the doors so short?

They had a fun area where you could ride two wheeled bicycles (the cool kind - like the one Captain Kirk rides when he goes to break in on Cat Woman/Fantine's wedding to that English guy in the second Princess Diaries movie).

 

Mmmmmmmmm... poffertjes... (little pancakes)

Tintin had great fun at the Openluchtmuseum.

 (Bed in the wall!)

 

(What are you looking at?)

And Tintin made some... er... new friends...

Mmhmm. Okay, time to leave.

The rest of the day was mostly spend traveling from one great-aunt's house to another's. 

Live long and prosper!