Using Beamer, condensed outertheme with proper colors

Question

I am condensing a few of my talks in Beamer. The theme I like creates an enormous header when I have many sections

 \usetheme{Malmoe}
 \usecolortheme[named=Brown]{structure} 

I like the CambridgeUS theme, but I can't get the Brown color scheme when I try something like this

\usetheme{CambridgeUS}
\usecolortheme[named=Brown]{structure} 

the red colors from Cambridge override my selection. Is there an easy way to have this color theme with a header that looks like this?

[ section ]      [ subsection ]
(white on black) (white on brown)

Answer 1

Instead of loading the CambridgeUS theme, load the themes that are used in the definition of CambridgeUS, but replace the beaver complete color theme with the whale outer color theme plus your definition of the structure color theme.

\documentclass[xcolor={dvipsnames,usennames}]{beamer}

\useinnertheme[shadow=true]{rounded}
\useoutertheme{infolines}
% \usecolortheme{beaver}
\setbeamerfont{block title}{size={}}
\setbeamercolor{titlelike}{parent=structure,bg=white}

\usecolortheme{whale}
\usecolortheme[named=Brown]{structure} 

\begin{document}

\section{foo}

\section{bar}

\subsection{subbar}

\begin{frame}
\begin{block}{A block}
(Block content)
\end{block}
\end{frame}

\end{document}