Sunday

 

I went to bed late last night even for me*, having closed all the windows and curtains, hung a blanket over the back door (well, hey, it's January) and closed the bathroom door since its window tends to funnel sound through into my bedroom.

            The bells still woke me up.  Siiigh.  And then of course I couldn't get back to sleep.  This is going to take some getting used to. . . . **

            HOWEVER.  I wrote to Nadia saying, I still can't sing, but could we maybe have a NON-SINGING SINGING LESSON?  You can tell me about singing Micaela in a field full of sheep in Ghent in the rain and the Escamillo was old and fat and one of the smugglers had a terrible head and kept sneezing.***  Just so I could feel I was reattaching.†  She wrote back saying, erm, maybe some language/pronunciation practise?  FINE.  WHATEVER.  So I'm going to my voice lesson tomorrow for the first time in what may be a month . . . and never mind I still can't sing a scale—only about every other note is even present—as I said to her, the larynx is about as flexible as cement.  But the sore throat is GONE and the rest will come. † 

Diane in MN

The EnchantedIsland

. . . is fabulous. FABULOUS.

YES YES YES!!!

I loved the production, thought the singing was fabulous, and generally had a splendid afternoon. I had never heard Danielle De Niese 

She had a big push for what may have been her first album?, over here, called Beauty of the Baroque, which I bought because it has Dido's Lament on it which is one of those arias I sort of collect.  It's nearly all very, very standard repertoire—Dido herself of course, Come again sweet love, Ombra Mai fu, Let the bright Seraphim and so on and I thought I was probably being a fool, but in fact I like her voice and her interpretations a lot.††  She's got a new album out.  Hmmm. 

and was seriously impressed. (Ariel? Androgynous, but of course s/he's a spirit, so gender may be irrelevant.)

I've seen the Shakespearean Ariel played both as male and as androgynous.  Female would be fine.  I don't care, just make up your mind, which I felt they didn't do in ISLAND. 

I thought Costanzo's voice worked for Ferdinand because Ferdinand is very young, and they wouldn't have wanted another countertenor who sounds like David Daniels.

 

I might have bought his voice, despite my dubiousness about the salon-and-harpsichord type of countertenor—which I like fine, in a salon with a harpsichord—on the operatic stage, but the way they handled him, with the peach-satin-lined cape and the uniform emphasizing how slender he is, I thought in that context just made him a nebbish.  He and Miranda are going to rule?  I.  Don't.  Think.  So.  But I've seen at least two reviews praising him particularly, so . . . I'm a cow.  This is not news.††† 

And I love David Daniels, but I don't quite get why they cast a countertenor as Prospero, who's an old guy.

Er—what does old have to do with being a countertenor?   James Bowman is semi-retired at 70, but he's still giving concerts.  I thought this was a stroke of genius, myself, to cast a Baroque Prospero as a countertenor—and then get David Daniels, who actually has a voice strong enough to cope with operatic demands and the personal authority to go with it, to sing the role.  Of course there's not a lot he can do with the repulsiveness of the character, but that's how it's written. 

He's not a particularly nice monster, but he still has his feelings and his dreams, and he's the only principal at the end who hasn't got what he wanted.

Agreed. They should have conjured up a Papagena for this Papageno. I was kind of hoping that's what Ariel stepped offstage to do.

Yes.  Maybe they can do that in a later edition.    Maybe we should write letters. . . .

. . . The singers–part of the Met's young artist development program–who sang the Dream lovers were very good, and I especially liked the young mezzo who sang Hermia. She sounds like someone to pay attention to.

Agreed!  She was the stand-out to me too.  I was thinking, hey, this chickie could grow up to be a contralto.  Mmmmmmm.

This was altogether a great show. I'd see it again, too, any time. 

Let's hope there are enough of us to make it so.

blondviolinist
 
I'VE BEEN KNITTING FOR A YEAR AND I HAVEN'T FINISHED ANYTHING YET.

Heh. Definitely a process knitter, then, as opposed to a product knitter.

Oh, absolutely.‡  I knit at traffic lights, remember?  And waiting for stuff to happen.  (Like very long lights to change.)  Some people meditate.  I knit.  It's soothing. It's also a Positive Time Out From the World thing, which is why it's so perfect for opera intermissions, which are too long for those of us who think we should be doing something.  That there might conceivably be a PRODUCT at the end of one of these long yarny tunnels would be awesome.  Slightly in my defense, you know, I bit off way more than I could chew with my Three Secret Projects.  I eventually decided I couldn't inflict them on anyone, and kind of collapsed in a damp little heap on the floor.‡‡  And I started with the idea of leg warmers, as some of you may (unfortunately) recall, and when I had an instant nervous breakdown about the ribbing, Fiona had the brilliant idea about the hellhound blanket.  And now, a year later, I'm maybe ready to try again.

If you can knit for an entire year without a single finished object to your name and still enjoy knitting, then you are definitely a Knitter with a capital "K."

 Snork.  But it's process Zen knitting, you know?

 

RIBBING! IT'S RIBBING! It's not very even ribbing, but it's RIBBING!!!!

* * *

* Made easy by reading BEFORE I FALL by Lauren Oliver.  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Before-I-Fall-Lauren-Oliver/dp/0340980907/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327273485&sr=1-1

Yowzah.  This is another of those books—like WINTERGIRLS, say—that I had zero interest in—I might almost say violent, bigoted zero interest in—get away from me with that thing.  It's a Sensitive Teen Age Novel About Learning The Important Stuff.  Oh, And The Heroine Dies.  Since this is the most famous part of the set up, I don't consider that a spoiler.  Anyway, I frelling hate sensitive teenage novels, and one of the sub-categories I particularly hate is when the main character dies (sensitively), but FALL is another book that reached over my prejudices, grabbed me immediately and doesn't let go.  It's just a very, very good book.  I had about a million people tell me to shut up and read it.  ALL RIGHT.  I'LL READ IT.  FEH.   You could argue that I'm too old to have a clue about the spot-on-ness of Oliver's take on the spectacular horribleness of the high school popular crowd—but I'm not too old to say that she's deadly accurate about people and the misuse of power.^  And while a lot of the reviews emphasise how horrible Sam and her crowd are—because the point is that as Sam relives her last day over and over, she becomes less horrible—one of the things that struck me was how easy they were to find sort of (horribly) likeable.  Far more human than you might have thought if they were laughing at your shoes/knapsack/hair or not inviting you to their parties.  But then Oliver has bags and bags of style, and I'm a sucker for style.  I sometimes think it's the rarest writing gift of all.  

^ And the antics of the popular crowd have not, in fact, changed all that much in the last half century.  The big local high school, which is pretty much first choice for anyone in this catchment area, is about four blocks from here.  I see a lot of teenage group activity and it all looks pretty familiar.  A bit more personal tech is all. 

** I want to get this mostly off the front page, however.  Anyone riveted by my private soap opera, the conversation continues in the forum. 

*** Opera singers—and Nadia isn't chiefly an opera singer, but she's done some—always have amazing stories. 

† The president/secretary/oddsbods man/assistant director of the Muddlehamptons has kindly kept me on the mailing list.  They've got a wedding in late April, singing three old war horses of the standard choir repertoire and I so want to be there. 

 †† One of the idiot reviews of ISLAND that I saw said that de Niese couldn't sing Baroque music.  What?  

††† I also acknowledge that being a major character who only comes on at the very very end and has to give a kind of And All Will Be Well From This Day Forward Because I Am Here aria out of nowhere is a rough one, and he did it with poise and charm. 

‡ I think we've had this conversation before.  I feel a little^ . . . embarrassed.  Surely knitting ought to be about product? 

^ NO NO.  NOT SHEEPISH. 

‡‡ It's not all bad.  It's significantly slowed my rampant stash acquisition.