Idomeneo - The Met Style

2017 Met Production of Mozart's Idomeneo

I feel as though I am in home school but with all of the bonuses of never being tested, and having no other thing like a job or caring for a family on my plate.

So there is a fabulous feeling of learning, taking notes, going back to them, and it never mattering. I didn’t think I would make it all the way through Idoemneo, given it is a little known work and 3 ½ hours of Mozart is a lot of his style.

Still, so that I don’t give up on opera, as I did a few weeks ago, and just not turn it on at all, I have given myself permission to just do the first 15 or 20 minutes of it.

Alright, really. It is not like my friends are seeing me walk out in the middle of a performance.

Or that I have paid $400 for that front seat ticket, which I should have, and am now walking out on it.

A little pre-reading about the opera always traps me with some phrase or other. This time it was Michael Polenzani in the title role and supporting players Alice Coote, Nadiene Sierra and Eliza van den Heever as Elettra. Whenever I hear the name Micael Polenzani there is a small hush that follows his name, so I was looking forward to hearing a few notes from him.

... going mad while singing Mozart -- the role of a century ...

And the part of Elettra? This is the role anyone with a black heart, willing to dig into treachery and revenge would relish. kEliza van den Heever’s last scene where there are (imaginary) scorpions biting her and she is going mad was such a great performance, I heard myself laughing and laughing. The final flinching of her body a number of times after she hit the ground was magical. And how many times had she practised bringing that great flatten-though-the-hips costume with her to the ground. I have only seen dresses like that in London museums.

What else really worked for me was the entr’acte interviews, one of them with two violinist in the orchestra and then we went up to The Dome (the door decorated with dominos was quite the visual effect) where the technicians demonstrated how to use the cameras and how they are told when to come in for a close-up, etc. That is all bonus that a person wouldn’t be getting if they were at the Met in person.

I don’t know who else saw the show. I am just starting to be interested in the names of the producers and directors, in this case Jean Pierre-Ponnelle’s who executed a blend of the grandeur of ancient Greek myth with metaphysical ideas. Both Alice Foote and Nadine Sierra said that Mozart captured this in the music and they can’t help but sing it with emotion because the emotion leaps out at them from the notes on the page.

When Eric Owens began to announce the show, I gave myself one homework task: learn to pronounce Idomeneo. I was reminded of how my children used to use big words that they had only read, and they would get the pronunciation wrong. Now I am in the same boat and trying hard to get it right.

Tonight is Wagner’s Lohengren. I am not going to miss the fun of that.

Arta

Wanting to shout bravo

Anna Netrebko in
Lucia di Lammermoor

Photo Credit: Met Website

I can’t tell who is out watching the metopera series with me.

I know Moiya is.

And some brave families can sit their children down for an act. 

Maybe two.

Rebecca will have watched it unless there is something pressing on her agenda.

So here goes my list of thoughts about the opera.  I thought the opera streaming through metopera.org tonight was Eugene Onegin, so I went out to wiki and read up on it.

Imagine my surprise when Lucia di Lammermoor started playing. I couldn’t remember anything about it and I was wondering if I had ever seen it before. Then I remembered that I saw it for my first time via Wyona’s generosity. She knew that seniors could have discounted seats if they would line up at 5 pm the night of an opera performance at London’s Paladium. We got three seats, two together and one apart. I took the single which was about 6 rows from the front of the stage. When I sat down the woman said, “You are sitting in my husband’s seat.” I pulled out my ticket stub to check and then I showed it to her. She said, “Well, he couldn’t come tonight, so we turned the ticket back in and now the opera gets the extra money for it. Still, it is my husband’s seat.” I didn’t disagree with her and I enjoyed the opera as much as if it had been my own seat. So that is how I saw my first Lucia, the opera with the longest mad scene for a woman.

2. I loved today’s screening. When it was done my eyes felt as though they had been crying for a long time. Dry, with no tears left. And now for the totally mundane which will be more typing than the typing that the glorious music got. I just cried over it.

3. First of all, I loved the guy in the chorus who was dressed up, but had his half-reading glasses on. I don’t know if they had half-reading glasses in that period, but he looked dashing in his.

Lucia di Lammermoor
Act I
... ghostly Spectre walks by to the well ...

4. On Anna Netrebko’s costuming – I have no idea how I can watch the sub-titles, listen to the melody, hear the orchestra, study the staging and look at the costuming at the same time.

Anyway, to go to the mundane, what did you think about the red jewelry of the heroine – hanging ruby earrings, a red broach and then I could see the sparkling red jewels in the back of her hair. I know they were fake but they were so gorgeous. I don’t think even Wyona’s jewelry case could come up with all of that – matching.

5. The introduction by Natalie Dessay pointed out that we were going to see opera’s longest mad scene for a woman. Having seen this show live in London, and then I had seen this HD production back in 2009, I was prepared to take close note of how a woman (in opera) goes mad. The opera gave us everything. That forewarning when red ink spilled out on her brother’s writing table. Then her blood splattered gloves and white dress. The make-up people have put a gash half way around her throat, and when Lucia took the dagger and the curve ran down the left side of her face, it lined up visually with her throat in a curving “s” shape. Blood, so graceful. I guess this is why I think opera does it larger and better than any other art form.

6. I am sure that Wyona didn’t get to watch the opera. She has been busy sewing for a few days. But for those of us who love sewing and beautiful material, when the camera did a close-up for us of the lace in that wedding dress, I wanted to gasp for its exquisite beauty. Just that material in that moment – I will never have material like that, a dress like that, but I love it that the opera gave it to me visually.

7. I think it is in the mad scene where Lucia has a duet with a flute. First there is a call and response section, and then she sings a two part duet with a flute. That melody just floated on the air.

8. I loved the chorus, all dressed up for the wedding dance after the wedding itself. I looked at the singers – tall women, short women, middle aged women, no young women, old women, some with fragile looking bodies, wrinkly-faced singers, -- their skin looked something like mine and they were outfitted to the nines with jewelry and wigs. Now the opera singers in the chorus are having a good life.  Almost as good as if they were retired. That song went too quickly for me. I am sure on another viewing I could write a whole essay on that scene.

Photo Credit: Met Website

Opera Poster

9. Didn’t Anna Netrebko’s voice just make you love the arpeggios and chromatic scales that you used to hate practising. I found myself wanting to find a keyboard and practise them for a while. Oh, she made those notes float.

10. On the metaphor of the veil – no matter how thin the material, the metaphor remains heavy in this opera. A woman who represents two houses being joined. A woman whose value to her brother is in the value of her marriage contract. We get the Biblical image of the veil being torn asunder. In some cultures a woman's  head is to be covered in church (that comes from the New Testament in my culture). How could the visual of that metaphor be wrapped up and carried along in all of that beautiful music?

11. What do opera singers do with their spare time? Answer: Do push -ups. Talking about singing from a number of positions – on their knees, their sides, their backs, planking on one arm, ….

12. When the end of the show was over, or when a good trio or aria finished, there was thunderous clapping and some whistling. Whenever I hear that shrill whistle that comes from putting two fingers under the tongue and blowing on them (something I have never been able to achieve), I think of my sister, Moiya, and wonder if she is at the opera.

13. Well, one last thing. Rebeca? Do you know when you do some pre-event work with your kids and you have them learn ten famous sayings that they might hear during the course of a Shakespeare play? Well, I have never thought to do that with the opera lyrics. But here are two for you. I could ask the question from what opera do you hear the following lines. Of course, the answer is Lucia di Lammermoor. Here are the quotes, anyway and sometime later I will ask you to identify them.  Of course the prize will be the same.  One dollar per correct answer:

“She will never see the sun set on this day.” 

“Love has robbed her of all reason.”

14. Just when I think I have said all I wanted to say one more thing pops into my head. We see the spectre of a woman who has been cast down a well – a ghostly spectre from a story within the opera story.  On the stage we watch the spectre walk by and descend again into the well.   Later we see Lucia in the same ghostly form while Edgardo is dying – she is in the same form as the other woman– neither of the two women look like heaven is treating them very well. The colour palette of heaven is pretty pale if I can judge by Lucia di Lammermoor.  I am not looking forward to the heavenly space they entered.

Still, all hail Donizetti.

And if a person wants to schedule opera for next week and likes Wagner, here is what they will see see:

"The Wagner Society of New York has revealed that the Met Opera’s next schedule of nightly streams will center on the operas of Wagner. A Wagner Festival, if you will. The schedule is set to kick off on March 23 with “Tristan und Isolde,” followed by the Ring Cycle, “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” and “Tannhäuser.” (1)

Arta

Wozzeck - get thee to the opera

I had watched the date creep up for the opera, Wozzeck, one I knew nothing about.

I am always of two minds. Just get myself there, no matter what the cost – just do it for myself.

And then the other side of me is always saying, stay home, go through files, sort out cupboards, just try to get on top of daily chores.

Rebecca called me saying that she had given her ticket for the opera away, thinking she would be in Gitxsan territory for the weekend. But she had got a second ticket now, excited to get to the show. I think her phone call is what tipped me into getting myself there – 20 below or not.

I just can’t go. I have to study the small precis that the opera posts on the Cineplex page; I have to read what Wikki says, and I have to look for some utube clips of tunes from the opera.

Have done all of that I marched myself off to what I thought would be a short day: 2 hours, and really only 1 ½ hours of opera – the rest filled in with interview with William Kentridge and Yannick Nézet-Séguin hosted by Peter Gelb.

In one word, the opera was amazing.

If I get two words, the second one would be powerful. I felt an intensity that I rarely experience in opera. In the small introduction hosted by the singer who we will next see in Porgy and Bess, he said that the production had singer-actors. The acknowledgement that we have both singers and actors doubled my desire to watch for both of these traits, or at least just sit back and enjoy them.

Without the singing, but with just the music and just watching Kentridge’s background flash by would have been over-whelming. That 90 minutes was so much work for me. I had studied one part of the precis – the sentence that told me to look for a “ramshackle warren of stairs, ramps, discarded furniture and debris”.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/wozzeck-review-on-the-brink-of-madness-11577735180

For me there are two valid ways to approach a new work: just go and enjoy it; knock myself out learning what others have said about the production.

I prefer the latter, but am also willing to just go and do it. I am glad I read the precis which I shall copy for the website and put below, hoping it will peak the interest of some of my friends who have read this far. The encore is March 7th. I have it penciled in on my daytimer. Clearly, once was not enough.

Even the curtain call was intense, looking for all of the characters I had seen in the show. The singers and dancer were no longer in the shadows, so I wanted to see their faces. The Captain, the Drum Major and the Doctor were only on the stage for a small instant in the curtain call.

I wanted to linger on Wozzeck, Maria and the puppeteer who took the place of the child.

And now I haven’t said a thing about what the opera is really about, that universal charge of the arts, “to make people think”. The issues of war, violence against women, violence against the poor, the evils of war – each of those in the opera deserve a tightly woven essay.

As an aside I am always looking at the theatre for “my kind of people”, knowing all the while, if someone is at the opera, that is what they are. But yesterday a woman sat beside me and we exchanged information: she is one year younger than me; has seen all the Kentridge productions (The Nose, Lulu and was now at Wozzeck); sees every opera in fact; is still working (at the Tom Baker); is a widow; loves having a full life. I felt like I was her – alive and still having fun.

So here is that tight paragraph off of the movie webpage, giving enough information that a person might just want to go to this opera.  And here is what operawire says about the show.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts William Kentridge’s new production of Alban Berg’s expressionistic masterpiece Wozzeck, regarded for its intense emotional power and brilliant score as one of the most significant operas of the 20th century. Composed during and in the 5 aftermath of World War I, Berg’s dark exploration of a soldier besieged by the evils of society, is staged by Kentridge in a ramshackle warren of stairs, ramps, discarded furniture, and debris. His own theatrically animated charcoal drawings, along with other projected drawings, maps, and film clips, evoke a nightmarish world of crashed planes, searchlights, ghostly gas masks, and battlefields. Peter Mattei makes his role debut as Wozzeck opposite Elza van den Heever as Marie, the mother of his child. Singing the roles of Wozzeck’s tormentors are Christopher Ventris as the Drum-Major, Gerhard Siegel as the Captain, and Christian Van Horn as the Doctor. Andrew Staples makes his Met debut as Andres. Kentridge, who previously directed Berg’s Lulu and Shostakovich’s The Nose at the Met, unveiled the new production at the 2017 Salzburg Festival, where it received critical acclaim. Kentridge’s production is a co-production of the Met, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Australia, and Salzburg Festival.

Looking forward to Akhnaten

I missed going to Puccini's Butterfly this morning.  It was a conscious choice.  Rebecca and I are going to spend 5 quiet hours on a Saturday in her office instead -- hoping to get ahead with writing, though that never really happens, does it.

Anthony Roth Costanzo in Akhnaten Karen Almond / Met Opera

We already have our tickets for Phillip Glass's Akhnaten to be telecast January 23rd.

She flies out that evening to Australia and I go back to Calgary.

Normal people would be packing that day, but what isn't packed the day before is not going with us.  Opera first, vacation comfort second.

I don't know much about Phillip Glass.

Anthony Roth Costanzo in Akhnaten 
Paola Kudacki / Met Opera

So I will make some notes between now and then.  Here are the places I am going to visit on my notes taking tour:

The review of Akhnaten from The Guardian when the opera played at the Collesium in London and closed February 2019 was my beginning place to learn a  bit more.

And go inside rehearsals is a good link of 28 seconds of juggling in Akhnaten from the Metropolitan site.

Here is a review from Playbill which is where I will go to take most of my notes.

Here is an 8 minute you tube clip of The Window of Appearances for anyone who might not be able to get there, but who has 8 minutes to watch an 2013 production of the opera.

That is about it on how I am going to go about my homework for Akhnaten.

Arta

Comments on Dialogues des Carmélites

Perhaps Dialogues des Carmélites could also be named flood of tears – the music and the themes got to me on many levels.

First of all, that death scene of the prioress, Madame de Croissey (Karita Mattila) is so intense, calling for more meds, calling for the doctor, trying to remain calm but flailing on her bed, her fingers trembling. I come from a tradition where opera singers just stood on the stage or walked stiffly back and forth. Now the acting almost surpasses the singing.

The themes of the opera were swirling in my head: fear, anxiety, whose lives are protected during harrowing events, friendship, mothering, and respect.

The audience clapped at the opening of the curtains, the nuns all laying as though they were crosses on a stage where the cross was the central element painted on the floor. I was glad to have Yannick Nézet-Séguin direct my mind to thinking about columns and about the slowness of the music and that maybe I should think about going even deeper into it. That made for some wonderful moments for me in the second half.

And the crowd gathering at the Place de la Révolution and singing the "Salve Regina"? I was glad I had familiarized myself with the music before-hand. It didn’t matter how many times the swish to the cut of the guillotine was heard, it was chilling.

I had fun thinking about the story line in the context of the Catholic faith and by extension, other faiths -- groups being seen as resisting civil government, or having misunderstood values.

I was interested in the translation of the text. I think for the next opera, I am going to go out and read the translation before I go. I have done that before and I think I am going to do it again. Oh, I always have a long list of “next times”. Next time I am going to memorize the names of the people who sing the lead roles. Next time I am going to read more reviews of the performances. Next time I am going to learn more about the history of this time period, and the history of this opera. Oh, so many next times.

On a more surface note, did you like the fact that Renee Fleming’s necklace looked like the silver intertwined circles that you make, Rebecca? Of course you noticed. But did you notice that the credits mentioned which business supplied her jewelry.

I needed more than one Kleenex to dry my eyes during this performance. I can’t tell if it is the timbre of the voices of the singers, or the role the orchestra plays or the depth of score, or if it is all of these together that can make opera such an emotional experience.

Arta

See the review from OperaWire here.

Dialogues des Carmélites - coming soon

A strong cast of singers and a sparse
but stylish staging for Poulenc's opera about Carmelite nuns

from London Production 2014

I told Lurene our next outing should be on May 11 to see the opera.

When I told her it would be Dialogues des Carmélites she asked me who wrote the opera. 

That question stumped me, even though I have seen it before.

So I have been out on the internet, doing my homework finding out the composer, the story line, the opera singers, the characters in the drama, honing up my skills on saying the name of the conductor, the Canadian and Met Musical Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, harder to spell than to say. This is a “modern masterpiece of faith and martyrdom. Isabel Leonard is the young Blanche de La Force, opposite Met legend Karita Mattila, as the First Prioress. Sung in French with English subtitles.”

Well, that answers many of my questions but I am going to make a few more notes in my journal, notes that I shall return to as the day for the opera draws closer.

Just an FYI. Two other shows are pending, ones I will miss for I will be in BC by then. But for those of you in Calgary, don’t miss

All about Eve – National Theatre Live May 18

Bolshoi Ballet: Carmen Suite / Petrushka May 18

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake May 16

And now off to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogues_of_the_Carmelites for me.

And I have already read this article on the conductor:
http://time.com/5581710/yannick-nezet-seguin-met-opera/

MetOpera has 3 delicious videos that are fun to watch at their link.  I also went out and found a link to "Veni Creaor Spiritius" another old melody that is used in the show.  Well, time to stop having all of this fun.

La Fille du Régmiment - a revival

... at the back of the theatre waiting for
the opera to begin -- the best place
in the theatre for me  -- so high ...
I would probably like the 4th balcony at the met ...

I made it to The Metropolitan Opera HD to hear La Fille du Régmiment. 

Pretty Yende has a voice that soars and Javier Camarena sang his songs with the high C's twice.  Stunning!

The comedic part of the opera is so much fun.  I see it in the costuming and in the choreography and even in the staging -- so funny to see maps of the Pyrannes built up into montains that they stand on, and even slipping over the front of the stage.

Opera.  Who doesn't love it!

Arta

The best part of the opera

Rebecca asked me the best part of the opera, Samson and Dalila (Saint Saens). I had to say taking Rhiannon with us was my favorite part.

 She is 10.

Her mom was probably the person in the theatre closest to her age. The rest of the patrons had canes or walked very slowly. It was easy to beat everyone to the bathroom at the break

When they were going full speed there was still lots of room to pass them.

Photo Credit: Met in HD Live website

This is the first event for Rhiannon where she got paid $1 for every question she could answer after the opera was over. In fact, that was the major reason she came.  "Make a little money."

Some of the questions were hard. For example, say the names of the two protagonists, in French. She was also watching for architectural features of the Met (the lights that came about because ink splashed on the original plans), and we wanted her to hear the maestro called to the pit. Mary and I were just laughing, for she also hear the conductor interviewed. We are not sure if she knows it was the same man.

She got the new pebble ice cream at the first intermission and poutine at the second intermission. 

What’s not to like about the opera?

My second favourite thing about the opera was that Rebecca called us to say that she had seen the show as well – with an older crowd. Some of them went to sleep but were happy that when they woke up and the opera was still on. For some reason I identify with them, though I didn't miss a note today.

I loved that second act. Susan Graham call the love duet the national anthem of opera. That was the best musical joke of the opera.

No one could sleep through the third act which was complete with the God of the Israelites bringing down blinding light upon the God Dagon.

A good day for everyone but the Philistines.

Arta

Met NT Live - Samson and Dalila

(Credit: Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera)

All night I have been listening to Maria Callas sing "Printemps qui commence", probably just because I can.

But that perfect Maria Callas isn't the one who will take the role of Dalila tomorrow.

Not only am I am not familiar with this melody, I don't know the English for the lyrics though I do now:

The first of spring 
bringing hope 
to lovers' hearts 
your sigh rising 
above the earth blots out 
unhappy times. 
our soul afire 
and your sweet flame 
dries our tears. 
the soft mystery of you 
spreads the earth 
with fruit and flowers. 
no point in being pretty. 
my lovesick heart 
mourns for my betrayer 
but pines for his return. 
my desolate heart 
remembers 
lost happiness. 
as night falls 
sadly in love I wander 
to sit by the river 
and wait for him in tears 
driving away my sorrow 
if he come back one day 
I wish him my love 
and sweet intoxication 
may this burning love 
keep until his return.

I hope the translation is better tomorrow on screen.

I have also been refreshing my mind about the review in OperaWire.

I am no where as sophisticated as the readers of this review must be, for everything sounds just wonderful to me.  Not hitting a high B flat isn't earth-shattering, or even something to be mentioned by me.

Mary, Rhiannon and I are the only ones who can clear our schedules to see the show tomorrow.

Lucky us.

Arta

The Exterminating Angel

Thomas May writes an article called Angel in America for the Metropolitan Opera.

Don't be alarmed.

 This is not Angels in America, but an article on The Exterminating Angel, the Met's NT live performance on Saturday.

The live performance is on Saturday.

I have other things to do, so am going to wait to see it at the Encore.  But if anyone does get there, how about an off-the-cuff review for the rest of us.

It looks fascinating.  You might also enjoy this article from TrendFem.

The Guardian calls it the opera with everything.

I love the MetLive.

Arta

A Return to Der Rosenkavalier

Sophie (Erin Morley) trying to escape 
the grasp of Baron Ochs (Günther Groissböck) 
in Robert Carsen’s production of “Der Rosenkavalier” at the Met. 
Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

I can think of more reasons to stay home and work than to go out to the opera when it is piped in live from the Metropolitan in New York.

What keeps me going back is the recurring, though fleeting memory, of living in another century when all that was possible was opera on the radio.

I went alone and arrived early enough to purchase my reserved seat, and to walk over to Chapters and buy a book I am looking forward to reading: Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.

I have been wondering why I am not seeing any of my friends at the opera, since I think that I and they will have like minded interests.

Saturday I hit the jackpot. I saw Ursula Benedict before the show started and we decided to have our chat at one of the intermissions.

I saw Marlys Chevrefils at the first intermission.

I have known Marlys for a long time for we both worked at the University Library.  The first time we met at a big event she came to sit by me, and said to the man sitting next to me, “Do you mind moving over so that I can sit by my friend. He did. As soon as she got settled, I leaned over her, touched the man and said, “Marlys, I would like to introduce you to my husband.” She wanted to exchanged seats back, but he would have none of it.

As I was walking of the theatre on Saturday a childhood friend, Madeline Aldridge, stopped me, and asked me if it really was me. We exchanged email addresses and telephone numbers.

Now how could the opera be more fun that that!

Three friends and 4 ½ hours of pure Mozart bliss.

Arta

Eugene Onegin at the Salmon Arm Classic Theatre

The soprano Anna Netrebko 
and the baritone Mariusz Kwiecien
in the title role in “Eugene Onegin”  
CrIan Douglas for The New York Times

There are two joys this Saturday in Salmon Arm.

One is the opera:  Eugene Onegin.

For us in B.C., it starts at 9:55 am and is 3 hours and 57 minutes.

Here is the review by Tommasini in the New York Times, as of March 31, 2017.

After  you read the review, you will know why I will be watching for the white roses.  I was watching a u-tube advertizement about the New York Met.  They have 1,600 full-time employees and 1,600 part time employees.  No wonder the whole thing is so beautiful.

Then at 5 pm the Shuswap Film Society is presenting a Japanese film called After the Storm.

I am going to make a day of it.

On losing one's voice

Kristine Opolais in the title role of Dvořák’s “Rusalka.” 
Photo by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.

Today is the first showing of the Met's Rusalka, which comes to our theatre via satelite.

I enjoyed reading the Opera Review in My Theatre Guide.

Apparently it is 3 hours, 40 minutes, running time, including 2 intermissions.

I offer you a small paragraph from Jacqiueline Claire's review:

Fairy tales often come to us from old legends and folklore and are drenched with psychological symbols. Many questions arise when watching this “childhood” story through the adult lens. What happens to women who give up their “voices” to be palatable to their men? If you turn away from all your essence or true nature, can you ever return to that oasis again? You could read it as a great feminist piece that warns against the dangers of self-abnegation. I did. Perhaps Ježibaba is not a witch, but a wise crone showing the folly of trading your uniqueness for a mirage.

When I look back over the years and think of all of the operas I have seen since the Met HD Live performances started, I know that I could not have imagined that I would hear so many operas.  Now it is time to get ready and catch my ride.

Arta

Nabucco

Nabucco
First time in HD

The running time on the Verdi's Nabucco 

is 2 hours and 43 minutes.

You can catch it this Saturday (January 7th) or on any three of its Encore dates in Calgary: February 4th, 6th and 8th.

Review: James Livine and Placido Domingo Storm the Met Anew

I am telling Moiya this morning that I think she will recognize this u-tube clip of the Hebrew Slaves Chorus.

Arta

Pre and Post Theatre Events

Rebecca and I had a wonderful Saturday. We met Kelvin at Chapters before the opera began. He had been so cold in the show a couple of nights before, that she went into the bookstore and bought him a fleecy blanket. Never think that Chapters only sells books.

Judy Chicago
The Dinner Party

She also saw a lovely book on Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, but she knew that she could find the same book in Victoria, and there is always the problem of overweight baggage now that the airlines are looking so closely at how many pounds suitcases carry.  She asked me if I wanted her to buy it for me for Christmas.  I asked her if she had seen me read for even five minutes while she has been here this week.

Yes, I want the book.

No.  I will not have time to read it.

We had brought  along a couple of blankets from home besides, so while she tucked him into his good opera seat,  I climbed the stairs iin the theatre to find my single seat. I have to find a seat at just the right height so that I can get a good view of the screen.   With trifocals a person has only a small think line of vision through multi-graded glasses.  That is what I needed to control.  They were worried about warmth.

And safety.

... walkers ...
in
The Producers

Kelvin doesn’t really like to get out of his wheelchair now, in the interests of not falling. A worthy concern.  I noticed that there was a line up of walkers on the same level as he was sitting. The image of that wonderful song in The Producers flashed through my mind. There is nothing like a long line up of walkers involved in a choreographed dance.

Kelvin will tell you that what was notable about the opera when it was finished were the old people hurrying to get their walking aids and to get down the ramp before the rush of theatre go-ers left. One woman lost her footing and fell to the ground. The usher had a panic attack and ran to call for an ambulance instead of staying to say, "buddy, buddy, are you OK". The woman, of course, wanted to get up, but she didn’t have the energy to do so. People of good-will around her offered to help her and were pulling on her arms. Rebecca was worried that this frail soul would have her arms fractured or her collar bone broken and so she was lifting her from behind. The theatre lights were on and beaming down on this corner of live theatre where so much was going on.

I thought to myself – this scenario is not one we practice in our minds that often. I know that I am due to take another St. John’s Ambulance First Aid Course for the work I do with Zoe. I think I will sign up for it with a renewed interest in those who have aged.

Arta

My Cell Phone

I usually embrace new technology, but this has not been true of my cell phone. I like my telephone to ring when I am at home. I don't want to know it is ringing when I am in the public sector. But yesterday, at the extremely long red light on Crowchild and 24th Avenue, I picked up my phone to hear Doral saying he was in Calgary and going to visit Kelvin. I had to tell him that I was on my way to meet Kelvin at the opera and that Doral's only chance to see him, would be to meet us at the opera. 

I was making a joke for Doral. The light at the intersection changed.

I put the phone down.

Serena Zerlina and Simon Keenlyside 
in the title role of Don Giovanni at the Met. 
Photograph: Marty Sohl/ Metropolitan Opera

Doral's meetings were shortened in the first instance of his meetings and moved up in the second instance, and so he got to the opera and joined Kelvin and me.

The performance was sold out. Not even a single empty seat up in the better seats. Only the front two rows were empty and in an IMAX theatre those are not two rows that anyone wants to be sitting in.

I slipped down to one of them so that Doral could sit by Kelvin.

At the intermission Doral told me that he was 20 minutes into the opera before he even knew the name of what he was watching.  That made me laugh.  We talked at length about the beauty of the music, the complicated themes, the exquisite costuming and the superb acting.

Doral had to get on the road back to Edmonton before the opera was over so he saw 2 1/2 of the 3 1/2 hour opera.  Something is better than nothing.

I cannot remember seeing Mozart's Don Giovanni before so the pleasure was double for me: a new opera and family at my side.

Arta 

Opera Questions

The Australian tenor Stuart Skelton as Tristan 
at the Metropolitan Opera.

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

We decided to take a leaf from a method that Rebecca has used with her sons when she takes them to NT Live Performance.

She can ask them a question, or they can ask her a question. If she asks them a question and they give the right answer, she will give them $1. If they ask her a question and she can either give the answer, or is stumped, they still get $1, if they can confirm that they have the answer to the question that stumped her.

We decided to try this out with David. After the 5 ½ hour event, David wasn’t up to answering any questions, no matter what sum he would earn. After a good meal at home, and some discussion time, he was belting out the questions and earning cash. Bonnie joined him in the task of seeing who could ask the hardest questions. I don’t think that either of them understood that in this game, an easy question earns the same amount as a hard question.

1. At the end of the First Act, what are Isolde’s last words before being brought before King Marke?
(Answer: Must I live.)

2. What is a phrase that exemplifies the word love?
(Answer: Tristan und Isolde)

3. When Tristan was being helped back to good health, what did he tell Isolde that his name was?
(Answer: Tantris)

4. How many people fall to their knees in grief as they are singing?
(Answer: Tristan, Isolde, Kerwenal)

5. How many levels of balconies did we see at the Met?
(Answer: four)

6. Is it OK to boo instead of clap after a performance?
(Yes. Booing is a practice that started in Italy.)

7. Where did the myth of Tristan and Isolde come from?
(Answer: the 12th century. It predates Guinevere and Lancelot in the 14th century and Romeo and Juliet which came much later.)

8. How did Isolde know that Tristan had killed her betrothed?
(Answer: In a chip that is missing in Tristan’s sword she finds something she knew belonged to her betrothed.)  And a note to the reader:  David got picky on the answer to this question, for in the production we saw, it was not a sword that killed her beloved, but a gun.  We saw it with our very own eyes at the opera.

9. Whose score did the conductor look at when he was studying the music for this opera?
(Answer: He looked at the notes Gustav Mahler had made when he conducted Tristan and Isolde.)

10. Bonus point:  If you read any of the reviews before you went to the performance, give yourself a point.  And here is a review, if you don't want to go far:  Nina Stemme on a love and loss in Tristan

As I said, David hasn’t caught on that you get the same amount of money for asking and answering easy questions. Maybe he will practice that art at the next opera which is Don Giovanni and coming on October 20th.

See you at the opera.

Arta

The Opera Intermission

This moment at the opera is better old in Bonnie’s voice:

Many people wanted to talk to David at the intermission. The first person to find David said, “Hello. I've been wanting to talk to the most important person in the audience today.” This surprised David. The man asked, “What kind of music do you like?” David said, “I'm not really sure.” The man said do you play any instruments and David said I've tried the guitar a little bit and some kind of wind instrument. The man said he was in the Threepenny Opera when he was 10 years old. Then man went on, “If this is your first opera if you were a climber it's as if you chose your first climb to the top of Mount Everest.”

At the intermission I went out to find David and Bonnie. They were engaged in a conversation with Rolph and Iris Haack and I didn’t join the group. I thought instead I would walk up and down the aisles of the theatre and stretch my body. I knew that there were two full acts yet to come. Two very long acts.

Stuart Skelton, left, as Tristan and 
Nina Stemme as Isolde 
in “Tristan und Isolde” at the Metropolitan Opera. 
Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Another woman stopped me and pointed over to David who was surrounded by many other patrons at the Opera. She pointed at him and said to me, “Poor kid.”  

I said, “David is here at his first opera.”

She said, “I can't hear you. I forgot to change my hearing aids.” I wondered why she hasn't put in her hearing aids if she was coming to the opera but it was only a passing thought for she went on to talk to someone else.

When the show was over, people were still approaching David in the parking lot.

One woman told him she had driven 2 ½ hours from up near Revelstoke and now she was driving 2 ½ hours back so that she could see the opera. I did the math. She would have been on the road by 6:30 am to have made it to the theatre on time.

Another woman just about climbed in the back of the car with David to talk to him.  He was busy closing the door so she couldn't get in.  Ah, I had fun at the opera today.

People are amazing.

Should anyone want to go to the Encore, here is a review from the NY Times.

Arta

Treats at the Opera

Bonnie and I could see that the opera season was starting this month, and rather than go alone, it seemed like the right time to introduce David to the joys and sorrows of opera.

All of them are not in the text.

Some of them are just about getting to the opera. 

And the Met is celebrating 100 years of opera and so presenting one of its masterpieces for the opening – Wagner at his best, if you can measure that just by the length of the opera: 5 hours and 13 minutes all told.

I began preparations to get there by going to the Bulk Barn for candy: poppers, key lime yogurt covered pretzels, cocoanut jelly beans, hot tamales, and oversized butterfly gummies – I couldn’t stop myself in the isles, thinking of the joys of opening bag after bag while listening to the opera.

My next food preparation for the opera was making brownies (sans walnuts for David’s benefit).   I did those so late at night that when they came out of the oven I didn't even want to taste one.  Dropping into bed was the nicest thing I could think of.

I had hot oatmeal raspberry muffins on the counter when he woke up, so as to jump start his appetite.  Not that he took one.  But I did have them ready for him.  As well I made cheese sandwiches which should have been a highlight but they were on focaccia buns and the spice overpowered David on the first bite. I can’t hit 100% with my choices every time.  I can't even do 50 %.

I did not take pictures, but on reflection, here is one selfie that I could have done with Bonnie. I should have caught her outfit on film. She had not picked out her clothes the night before and came to my closet to grab something. I tried to manage her choices but she rejected them and picked an old miss shapen black and white  t-shirt with artistic logos on it and and East-Indian skirt that has a garrish beaded trim around the hem. She finished her outfit off with Wellington boots since it was gently raining outside. Fashionable? Not.

Functional?  Yes.

Arta

Elektra - The Afterward

Elecktra was everything it was built up to be, and more.

I am accustomed to have a couple of intermissions and seeing backstage as sets are being changed.  But this was an opera in one act.  The Met arranged for a short pre-recorded video with the conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Elektra, Nina Stemme.

Kelvin wondered who the man was who came on stage  after the performance and during the applause, for we hadn't seen him during the show.  Kelvin was right.  The conductor joined the singers on stage, but this was the first time we had seen him during the erformance.  No "Maestro to the pit", no cameras following him to the podium, no bowing to the audience from the pit, no cameras focusing on him as he conducted.

We only viewed the stage.  And there was no overture.  I take that back.  There was an overture.  What we saw was women preparing to clean the courtyard of the palace, one of the sweeping the steps on her knees.  What we heard was the scratching of the broom.  Scratch.  Scratch.  Scratch.

I began to wonder about the artistic merit of the sound which seem interminable.

Scratch.  Scratch.  Scratch.  No sound from the orchestra.  Many women entered the room, all throwing sand onto the cobble stones to be swept or mopped, though we couldn't yet tell which.

I was familiar with the characters, having done so much pre-viewing reading, and then watching a u-tube version of the opera last night helped as well.  In fact, I liked comparing that first madness scene in the courtyard with what I had seen the night before.  There was less physical violence in today's production.  And the costuming was more abstract.

Nina Stemme as Elektra

Kelvin said he wished that he had been more "up" on his Greek mythology.  I don't know if that would have helped.  The synopsis that was handed out at the door was about all a person would need.  However, getting that in hand as you turn in your ticket, doesn't give much time for reading, and then the theatre is darkened by the time Kelvin is settled in and ready to read.

What did I like about today's performance?

1. I always love the close up's on the singer's faces as they are forming the vowels that they will linger on, or watch them put the last consonant on a word.  I do not tired of that.

2. I want to clap at the end of a show.  I always want to, but that seems a little ridiculous, sitting in a theatre with the performers on the other side of the continent.  I did love the standing ovation from the crowd who was at the Met today. I imagined that some of that applause for them was mine.

3. There was a green necklace on Klytamnestra's neck that was to die for.  You would have to have been there to know what I mean. Where does the Met come up with a piece of jewellery like that?

See that necklace on Waltraud Meier, the middle figure?
... green gems, stunning ...
I thought only Wyona could find pieces like that in foreign markets.

4. The curtain call -- what would that have stood out?  Perhaps it was that the women involved in that first scene all had a chance to take their bow and the audience was loving them.  But it was more than that.  Each of the five singers took their own bow, with different gestures and were equally loved by the audience.

5. The producer of this version of Elektra does not have her die at the end.  After her triumphal dance she sit stone-like as the orchestra finishes the music.  That was nice. Better to see someone live than someone die.

6. There was a lot going on in in the orchestra.  The pit was packed with 20 more musicians than it normally holds.  Some of the instrumental runs just put shivers up my spine.  We only had one shot of the orchestra.  That was when the camera panned out and we could see them, applauding as though the performers on stage, as though they had been part of the audience.  Rehearsals must have been a joy.  Do you know it is legendary, that during the intermissions, the Met orchestra go out and have a game of poker?  No poker today.  Just one act.  One critique said he had no catharsis.  You be the judge.

7.  Eric Owens (Orest) had been interviewed last week during the intermission of Robert Devereaux  He had asked where he gets his energy to enter later in the opera.  He said something like it is easy for he just has to feed off of the energy of the singers who are already on stage in intense action.  I was thinking about that when he made his entrance.  Such power!

Well, that is it for April!

May is full of theatre and dance.

May 7 - Stratford Festival HD - The Adventures of Pericles
May 19 - In the Gallery - Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse
May 21 - Hangmen which got the Olivier Award for the Best New Play 2016
May 23 - BBC's Shakespeare Live, though I may have the date wrong there.
May 22 - Royal Ballet - Frankenstein

May is my birthday month.  I am going to try to do it all.

Arta