greg3d

A night at the opera

There was much discussion last night about the Marx Brothers movie.

Aside from that, it was nice to catch up with Barbara. It's been over two years since I had seen her. Nice to know she's moving nearby.

I don't know what it is about modern opera. There are few I have seen that I think will stand the test of time. Most of them I think will seem dated pretty quickly. Florencia in the Amazon was one that seems to me to be timeless and could be appreciated a century from now.

Amelia I'm still thinking about.. The music was powerful, but with no melodies you would remember after it was over. It had a cast of good singing actors. I liked the nonlinear first act. That had, to me, a timeless quality. The second act seemed firmly planted in the present, but that could just have been the staging and the set. The hospital scenes were too chaotic with too many people running around. I think if it had been more stylized it would have worked better. I could have done without the defibrillator. one thing that struck me was that it seemed very well put together. The last premier I saw was Dr. Atomic, and it's first run could have used some cuts. Some scenes were overlong. This one had no extraneous material. It flowed very well. It was quite moving.

This weekend went by too fast with not enough time at home. I had to leave fairly early for dinner and opera yesterday and today I spent all day in a workshop that I think could have been shorter. I think they should do one for new sponsors and a shorter refresher for those of us that have been doing this a while.

I would probably not be so cranky if this had been one of my three day weekends with a bit more down time.

Ballet weekend for a change

We are heading off tomorrow for Vancouver B.C.. We have tickets to see the Nutcracker performed by a troupe from Russia. We have seen this group before and they are extremely good. Its going to be a really rainy weekend, but oh well.

We'll be back sunday afternoon.

symphony night

Just got home from a concert by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. That's Russia, not Florida, by the way. We see them any time we are in their vicinity. We've seen them on their home turf. Twice. We saw them in NYC. Actually that might have just been Tamirkanov conducting the NY Philharmonic. Can't quite remember.

Anyway, they were magnificent as usual. The first half of the program was dull, for us anyway. Schubert and Schumann are too light Romantic for our taste. It was pretty and well done and all that but I nodded off. The second half though was Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suite #2 and that was right up our alley. I have never heard it done better.

And to tie things up nicely, we listened to a good chunck of Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand on the radio on the way home. I think we are pretty well musically saturated.

Flying Dutchman

At Seattle Opera.

Disappointing. Singing good, conducting stodgy. Jane Eaglen sang well but was too large for the part. Greer Grimsley was terrific. Arthur, still sick, put a damper on things. He's had the flu for a few days, was in really bad shape. Couldn't exchange the tickets so we had to go. Evening was pretty much a bust.

Off to speak in Camaino Island tomorrow.

Renee Fleming

Lovely concert. Here is a bit of it.

Rent

I saw Rent on stage this evening with ZB and KG. I had seen the movie, but never the play. The cast didn't have the greatest voices in the world, but they were energetic and gave excellent performances. I had a good time.

Seattle pt. 2

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Seattle pt.1

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fun stuff

Arthur and I went to a concert last night, which for a change was here in Tacoma. We get culture here sometimes. The ensemble was the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and they performed among other things, our favorites Prokofiev and Shostakovich. We were in the lobby before the performance when Ron, who has not made nearly enough appearances in this blog of late, came running up saying, "No wonder you weren't answering your phone!" About 45 minutes before the concert was to start, a friend stopped by his house and gave him two tickets to teh concert. Ron, not being one to turn down anything free, called me to see if I wanted to go, but of course I was already there. He said he was looking for a cheap date. He ended up donating the other ticket. It was nice to visit with him. He is a good friend and I really need to set aside time for him. He has been a great source of support for many years.

a change of pace

We went to see a dance company perform this evening. It was modern dance with the first half set to music by Rufus Wainwright and the second half set to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring among other things. Not quite sure why it caught our eye, but I'm glad it did, because I really enjoyed it.