La Gioconda
Alright, Ginny rightly reminded me that I did indeed throw down the gauntlet in the form of a sweater completing challange - my Salina versus her, um (sorry Ginny, I can't seem to find what your sweater is called...). Now bear in mind that I was confident, even though hers was mostly completed and mine had only one piece done. I was making such good progress! Well, since then I have basically not worked on Salina at all. Nope, not at all. (I worked 40 rows of the front today though!) Part of the reason is all those other WIPs that compete, nay beg, for my attention. Here is one of the other reasons:
Look upon the variety of productions ye operaphiles and dispair.Yup, I am a big fat geek in so many more ways than one! (One of these days I may let you in on some of my other geekly traits.)
Anyway, yes, I love opera, and New York City must be the absolute best place in the entire world in terms of sheer variety (as well as overall talent)! Above you see tickets to seventeen productions at the Metropolitan Opera this year (through May 2007). Seventeen. There are actually 24 total, including old reliable stand-bys like La Boheme and some productions that I saw last year, like Die Zauberflöte, which I chose not to see again quite so soon. The tickets above represent every opera being done at the Met this year that I have never seen. (This does not even include the productions being done at New York City Opera, which is sort of a poor step-sister of the Met and which I generally don't attend.)
Oh the opera joy!
I used to live in San Diego, right before moving to this fair city. San Diego was where I discovered, quite accidentally, that I actually really love opera. The sad thing is that there were maybe four productions a year there, with at least one or two of them every year being standards (like Boheme).
Anyway, last week my roommate and I went to the opening of La Gioconda:
Icarus made her public debut.La Gioconda is a charming (if long) opera by Ponchielli that also contains the famous ballet Dance of the Hours which most people know from Disney's Fantasia. Let me just say that this production was fantastic. Fantastic singing and fantastic dancing (which is quite rare in opera in general).
I urge you, if you live in or near NYC to give the opera a try, if even only once. Don't knock it until you've tried it. If you've never seen opera or don't think you like opera go see La Boheme. It's a classic story and a perennial crowd favorite. (The story is that which Rent was based on.) Or give the abbreviated English language version of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) a try. You may never get a better chance.
And incidentally, you can sit in Family Circle at the Met for $15. That is about, oh, 1/7th the price of a ticket to a broadway show. (But bring your binocs!)
(Edited to fix some typos.)
posted by Carrie @ 8:51 PM
6 Comments:
Dear Carrie,
Thank you for responding on my blog, I appreciate that somebody took the time to read through the latest entry and respond.
And thank you for your opinion which was totally justified. Now that it's been a few hours since I wrote I've had time to think and very soon came to the conclusion that obviously not everybody in america would think that way (I do hope I haven't offended you, by the way) just as not everybody in britain has the same opinions which I wrote of. Anyway it was great to hear another voice. Very rarely do I write or even speak of politics and I know* that I got quite carried away whilst writing that post (I had intended to blog about something completely different) so it wasn't the most rational-minded piece. And nor is this comment, it's spiralling down into a black, black hole.
So to sum up and stop waffling, THANKYOU for your OPINION and your RANT, which was GOOD TO READ!
And I like that lacy thing poking in the corner of one picture, the colour is lovely.
*I just wrote 'and I knit' by mistake, heh
I have been playing piano and been through 8 years of musical education, but never, and I mean never have loved opera! Really don't know why!
Cross-posted here on my own blog as well as on Anushka's. Thanks for hearing me out!
I'm not offended! And I hope I haven't offended you either. :) I just wanted to throw it out there that we aren't all Bush-clones. :) (And now I've probably gone and offended the GW supporters. Sigh. What can you do?)
I get frustrated sometimes at anti-Americanism (which I'm not saying you are exhibiting, I'm just saying it seems to be a fairly common sentiment pretty much everywhere not-US). It is maddening to be lumped into a group whose policies you don't even agree with. I understand how and why it happens - it is the same mechanism by which *some* people label all muslims (for example) as terrorists (for example). I think the underlying cause is lack of understanding and fear of the unknown. At least in the case of the "common" people. Oh yes, and let's not forget greed.
Look at that, it happened again - I started ranting. I'm so sorry, I promise this is the last one. (Unless of course you want to converse further on the subject, in which case, I'm all for it!)
Let the hate-mail commence.
I'm seeing Idomineo tonight at the Met. I'm lucky enough to work in Lincoln Center and get free tickets for many of the shows....
I'm a die-hard opera lover. I love that you are too!
for some reason, blogger wont give me your e-mail so we're playing comment tag.
I saw Idomineo last Saturday for the dress rehearsal. It was so good I'm going back tonight. I can't get enough of Kristine Jepson! She's wonderful in this one
I'm an opera fan too. I just wish I could get to see some of the Met productions for once in my life!
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