First of all, I am really late to the party here. There is a wealth of information on the Met website. All I had to do was click on Learn More and then find my way to A Guide to Wagner Week. So much that is fascinating to read.
Other people may not be having as much fun at the opera as I am. Or maybe they are having more fun. I am taking on the project of watching it every night, having been faithful to the metopera.org series so far.
But I must do my homework before I watch tonight.
At least I had the characters straight and a brief outline of the plot of Das Rheingold yesterday. I need to be triaged into Wagner's story line sometimes, even though I made a project of watching the Ring Cycle when the Met performed it a few years ago.
I loved the crazy costuming last night: Loge's gloves that made objects glow, the flashing light behind Erda's broach, Albrecht's dread locks were fabulous, and all hail the shock of hair over Wotan's eye (so that we don't have to look at how his eye was damaged in battle).
A big thumbs up to the costume of the God of Thunder (Donner -- those metallic looking muscles) when placed beside the costume of the God of Spring. I was processing the fact that Wotan is the God of Contracts and thinking a lot about "business". I wondered why Rebecca didn't ever mention him in the Business Associations Class I audited from her. I noticed did notice Rebecca posted pictures as she was watching on her Facebook page so she was thinking along the same lines.
And I had some deeper thoughts when Freia, the Godess of Love and Beauty, was in captivity and so those who had known her began to wither. Plus I had to practise saying her name many times so that I could pronounce it right. This may not be the way other people watch the opera. Just my way.
A person doesn't have to commit to watching the whole opera. If you can stay with it for 15 or 20 minutes you will have visited an art form that has never been so widely accessible before.
I notice that the Met already has next week's schedule up, so I copied and pasted it below. I have never seen Norma. I missed Nixon in China when it was first performed and regretted that, so I am looking forward to it. And I can't see the Pearl Fishers enough times, so I am glad that is coming back.
There is opera next week for everyone. There has to be some comedy in the Barber of Seville. And since so much opera is probably a once in a lifetime event, I am going to keep watching. And the funniest thing to me is that I don't even consider myself an opera fan.
Arta
Week 3
Monday, March 30
Tuesday, March 31
Wednesday, April 1
Friday, April 3
Other people may not be having as much fun at the opera as I am. Or maybe they are having more fun. I am taking on the project of watching it every night, having been faithful to the metopera.org series so far.
But I must do my homework before I watch tonight.
At least I had the characters straight and a brief outline of the plot of Das Rheingold yesterday. I need to be triaged into Wagner's story line sometimes, even though I made a project of watching the Ring Cycle when the Met performed it a few years ago.
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| Front Row: Froh, Donner, Wotan, Erda Photo Credit: Met Website |
A big thumbs up to the costume of the God of Thunder (Donner -- those metallic looking muscles) when placed beside the costume of the God of Spring. I was processing the fact that Wotan is the God of Contracts and thinking a lot about "business". I wondered why Rebecca didn't ever mention him in the Business Associations Class I audited from her. I noticed did notice Rebecca posted pictures as she was watching on her Facebook page so she was thinking along the same lines.
And I had some deeper thoughts when Freia, the Godess of Love and Beauty, was in captivity and so those who had known her began to wither. Plus I had to practise saying her name many times so that I could pronounce it right. This may not be the way other people watch the opera. Just my way.
A person doesn't have to commit to watching the whole opera. If you can stay with it for 15 or 20 minutes you will have visited an art form that has never been so widely accessible before.
I notice that the Met already has next week's schedule up, so I copied and pasted it below. I have never seen Norma. I missed Nixon in China when it was first performed and regretted that, so I am looking forward to it. And I can't see the Pearl Fishers enough times, so I am glad that is coming back.
There is opera next week for everyone. There has to be some comedy in the Barber of Seville. And since so much opera is probably a once in a lifetime event, I am going to keep watching. And the funniest thing to me is that I don't even consider myself an opera fan.
Arta
Week 3
You were the first person to take me to the opera. Who first took you to the opera?
ReplyDeleteI can't remember my first opera in a building. But my mother bought some records and those were played over and over again at our house. That is why many in my family know the music and the words to Porgy and Bess. So I guess that would be my answer. My first opera was heard from the groves of a 78 record.
ReplyDelete"Madam Butterfly" may have been in my mother's collection as well, for some of those themes were familiar to me when I reached adulthood.
Right now I am also thinking of answering the question as well, when did I first hear classical music. I didn't hear it in an organized way until I was in my second year of a music degree and one of the tests of the professor was to play a bit of a record and we were to identify it. That is when I studied Beethoven's Third (the Eroica theme) and his Ninth (the Ode to Joy), and Handel and Bach and Stravinsky and Wagner, etc.
I didn't become friends with all of them until I was well into adulthood.
i am increasingly obsessed with the Robert Lepage stage. what a miracle.
ReplyDeleteDid you read the interview with Robert Lepage that is available on the metopera.org website. Here is the URL:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/articles/the-ring-transformed/
You are right to be obsessed with his artistry. I am astonished that I can be sitting at home and read his interview and feel as though I was there in person when he was explaining his artistic imagination.