SandyMcKean

"Laura Tisserand", eh? I like the sound of that! (Good thing it is not the 14th or 15th century ........a poor and obscure joke.)

Wonderful analysis Helene. If Lang is as solid as he seems to be, it will be exciting to experience the changes in tone, programming, style, rep, and all the other dimensions of opera that ultimately have their roots in the personal taste of the Director. It's going to be weird not having Speight there -- kind of like San Francisco without the Golden Gate Bridge. What I will miss most is his quirky but informative post performance Q&A sessions. He is humorous, knowledgable, forthright, insighful and a bit contankerous in thoise sessions. For me, in those sessions, he was a window into the inner workings of an opera company -- a window I could rely on since Speight wouldn't know how to "spin" something if he wanted to (at least IMHO). P.S. The link you provided for the NZ business article didn't work for me, but I did find it here: http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/nz-opera-loses-talented-leader-aiden-lang-141818

I must admit I hadn't noticed that......I'm a typical male I suppose .

"Fuck Buttons"????.............. I will have to do some leaping over tall bldgs to get there on 6/14.....but get there, I will!! How can I miss it?? A few things strike me immediately: 1. What will Ezra Thomson's (BTW, no "P") choreography be like? Mahler!!.....good for you, Ezra. I'm a big fan of Ezra's. I'm not surprised he is trying his hand at choreography. I have a feeling this young man is willing to try anything. He has such confidence. I'm going to predict some street moves in this work . 2. Andrew Bartee......so much talent in a long, thin package! 3. I find Kyle Davis to be an unbelievably satisfying lyrical dancer with an innate sense of musicality. I want to see the "flow" in his choreography 4. Porretta and Bach.....I like the sound of that!

I just noticed on the Met's website the following operas are planned for HD broadcast this summer: Carmen US: June 19, 7 pm (local time) Il Trovatore US: June 26, 2013, 7 pm (local time) Armida US: July 10, 2013, 7 pm (local time) La Traviata US: July 17, 2013, 7 pm (local time) Il Barbiere di Siviglia Check Local Listings Turandot Check Local Listings

Here's the one I like. I feel this way too and thought myself weird. I'm glad I have company . ---------------------------------------------- Q: Handel or Mozart? Why? Joyce: This is a Sophie's choice question. But at the end of the day, Handel. I'm sorry Wolfgang - that's an evil question!

Korbes/Grant That's interesting!......and as you say Helene, not predictable.

I posited a question a few posts up thread as to whether or not Natalie Dessay had any background in dance. I don't have any details, but I did find the following in Wikipedia (this statement was repeated in the NY Times review): "As a young woman, the petite Ms. Dessay studied to be a dancer and actress."

I saw the encore performance last night. WOW....I loved it (but I'm easy ). I like baroque generally, and am finding that I am liking baroque opera more and more. Unlike most here, I love countertenors because I so rarely get to hear them, and I love the fact that their voices are so different (I will leave the judgements of what's better or worse to others). A countertenor's texture is so different than a mezzo's -- vive la différence, I say. I really enjoyed the campy, gooky quality of the direction....and more importantly, it seemed to me that the singers did too. They surely threw themselves into it whole-heartedly. I was thunderstruck by not only Dessay's dancing, but generally the fluidity and grace with which she moved at all times in this heavily choreographed production. Does anyone know.....does she have a background in dancing? I think she must!

sandik, you are right about that!! Sometimes I can't believe the coughing. Somehow coughing is excusable in many folk's sense of ethics. I guess because it is sickness and presumably one can't help it, but I don't buy that thinking. I note that even when coughing levels are high, when the program hits a powerful moment, nearly all the coughing stops. Coughing, it seems, is not quite as involuntary as most folks seem to think. One advantage we seem to have in Seattle (altho perhaps many other cities have this practice too) is that coming late is not allowed. In most houses in this city, the doors are closed 30 or 60 seconds before the lights are fully down. If you come later than that, you sit outside until an intermission. Our main performance hall, McCall Hall, has outside seating with a TV monitor where late comers can sit and watch the performance on the monitor. I can't think of a single time that I've had to stand during a performance to let a late comer squeeze by me on the way to their seat.

I'd say we are pretty lucky here in Seattle. I go to lots of ballet, opera, play, and occasionally symphony performances, and only occasionally do I observe this sort of thing beyond very minor, short lived infractions (certainly not anything like cubanmiamiboy describes in Miami). All the things mentioned above do happen in Seattle, but not all that often. There is talking during overtures, but normally only at the start and almost always in hushed voices. Candy wrappers happen, but it is practically non-existent (OTOH, woman -- usually elderly -- going thru purses is pretty common anytime). Cell phone light is very hit and miss -- I only notice it if I sit high in the house (except during the first 30 seconds after the lights go down when you see the phone lights blinking off here, there and everywhere). Phones ringing is rare...and treated by nearly everyone as a sacrilege. I must admit (with some embarrassment for doing some profiling) that when I hear voices above a whisper during a performance, it is often Russian that I hear (I've been assuming that the culture in Russian speaking countries is OK with this.....after all in Shakespeare's day people considered The Globe to be a place to eat, visit, and talk incessantly). I'll say one thing, if I observe any of this behavior near me that lasts beyond a quick indiscretion, I don't hesitate to say something, tap someone on the arm, glare with a disapproving face, or whatever it takes......sometimes quite pointedly. I can tell you it works.....and I feel no guilt for doing this.

That would have been a great time for you to have spoken up and support the waiter by saying: "You may think the waiter doesn't have the right to tell you to be quiet, but I as another customer surely do; so tone it down".......adding the word "please" at the end is optional .

I snuck (sneaked?) under the wire.....by chance, I just got my tickets this morning. Got exactly the seats I wanted. WOW....what a great program!

I don't quite fit the most common "pattern" here (seeing one's 1st ballet early in life). My first was when I was 19, and the memory of it is indelibly etched in my memory (altho that's been 49 years ago now!). I was going to school at UC Berkeley studying physics -- which is a pretty far place from the world of ballet . Indeed, I'm not sure I even knew ballet existed.....altho I presume I must have. My parents were not the type to go to performing arts, so I had no experience with such things. However, thanks to exposure by some high school friends, I had developed a love for classical music and jazz. One day at Berkeley, a friend told me that if you went to the student union, you could get a "usher pass" that allowed a college student to usher at the San Francisco Opera House which then allowed you to stay and see the performance. I had very little money, so this sounded pretty good to me. Soon I was on my motorcycle heading over the bay bridge to see what I thought was my 1st live symphony orchestra performance. Little did I know that the scheduled performance was to be a ballet. I remember as distinctly as if it had happened yesterday, standing in the back of the orchestra level, behind a short wall where ushers were parked after their duties were discharged, when the curtain rose. Wham, and wham again. What I saw in that moment changed my life. The gods were with me that day because the program started with Balanchine's Serenade! Can you imagine the effect of that opening tableau on a young, impressionable 19 year old?? It was quite simply the most beautiful thing I had ever seen (the opening curtain on Serenade still brings tears to my eyes to this day). In 5 minutes I was forever hooked. As soon as I got a job, I became a SF Ballet subscriber and went to every ABT, Joffery, or whatever company came to town (normally every night they performed). Once I moved to Seattle, I transferred my allegiance to PNB. My love for ballet has never wavered in these nearly 50 years since that first curtain went up.

I keep being amazed at the talents Andrew Bartee displays. He seems everywhere and he seems to be doing everything. He's as good at fully classical as he is at totally contemporary......not to mention his choreography. All this and at the same time, if you watch him carefully while on stage, he seems to be having a great deal of fun. Some folks were just born to dance!

A very good idea, indeed!

Amazing image. I've never thought of such a thing. Thanks.

I just returned from PNB's McCall Hall. While standing in the "senior ticket" line about 11:00am, waiting for the box office to open, I got word that Carrie Imler would not dance this afternoon. Marie Chapman and Jerome Tisserand would replace Carrie and the injured Casey Herd. My presumption is that Bold could not dance with Carrie (as he had mid-performance last Friday when Herd got hurt) since Bold had danced Saturday night with Leslie Rausch a little more than12 hours before (think of those jumps in Act III). To say I'm disappointed is a huge understatement. Not that Chapman/Tisserand won't be terrific because they will be, and then there's the best band of swans in the country (IMHO), but I just couldn't take seeing Swan Lake for the 4th time in 10 days without Her Magnificence dancing......so I went home. I can't imagine how disappointed Carrie must be. At least she knows she has countless fans.....the packed house on Friday night gave her cheer after cheer in all 3 acts; her performance was so special that the entire house lit up.....I don't think I've sever seen such continuous excitement from a ballet audience ever before (at least not at a full length).

Carrie is dancing Sunday afternoon, and unfortunately few good tickets exist.......but I will hang from the rafters if I have to.

The most in depth behind the scenes look you will ever get about a ballet company. You love it as long as you have really, really always wanted to know.

Carrie Imler is a national treasure.....and did she ever shine and sparkle last night. It may have been the most fantastic performance I have ever seen of anything. And to think she is ours, all ours. I worship at her feet. There are dancers, and then there are artists who dance. Last night Carrie was all art. I had the feeling I was seeing something that is simply not possible on this earth. Brava to this extraordinary artist!

I have a hard time watching Agon to that music!!

Now that we are so close, I think I'll post this video (perhaps someone has posted it before?). It is a very cleverly edited 3 minute video showing 4 different PNB Odile/ Siegfried pairs from years past (including the incomparable Carrie Imler). Don't miss it:

Fascinating analysis Helene....as always. Something happened after one of the performances I can't stop thinking about. I'm wondering what you might think. When the opera was over I mentioned to my wife, Kathy, that I have never found it believable that Mimi actually leaves R to stay with the rich guy simply because she needs his money to get proper care. Mimi strikes me as someone who would always put her new found love before her own well being. Kathy made a comment that has stuck with me. She theorized that perhaps Mimi never went to the rich guy's house, but instead stayed in her garret being careful not to allow R to see her (R lives one flight down after all and would not pass Mimi's door in his comings and goings). She does this after she hears in Act III what R's motives are for driving her away. She knows he will be happier if he thinks she is being taken care of properly; she knows she is dying anyway. IOW, she sacrifices herself for his happiness.....very Mimi it seems to me. I find Kathy's surmise intriguing since I have always found it difficult to swallow that Mimi would not only leave R, but languish in luxury though the last days of her life, away from R, until the very last day of her life when she comes back for little more than a good-bye.

Birdsall, I don't think so for a minute! I think this discussion, and your insights in particular, are fascinating. Frankly, I don't have too many folks in my life with whom I could have such a discussion. Please, go on long again....or even longer!! I can understand that easily. I am much like you (except I haven't gone cold on opera). Ballet is numero uno with me too. I would walk on broken glass to see ballet, but I need a sidewalk to get me to see an opera. I am totally addicted to ballet.....it seems I have no choice but to go to every production 3, 4, or 5 times (and see every possible cast). In fact, I will be seeing PNB's current program (Concerto Barocco, On the Front Porch of Heaven, In the Upper Room, and a world premiere by PNB's own Paul Gibson who I think is a masterful, but little known, choreographer) 3 times in 24 hours starting tonight. Operas I usually see once, sometimes twice, and very occasionally more than that. I skip operas; I never skip ballet. I was thunder struck by his performance. I'll be there for the encore next Wednesday too. You mentioned "a night to remember for the rest of our lives".....well, in that last Act, Kaufmann gave me a night (day actually) I will never forget. He was born to do that scene (talk about drama!!). There's where the "balance" comes in. Can you achieve perfection? Maybe once in a great while.....maybe never; but can you strive every time to get as close as possible while making the trade offs that nearly always have to be made.....you bet! Not only that, but every audience member has the right to react differently to the balance presented. Clearly, you would prefer that the better voice was used, I might settle for less voice if I got a better actor. Kaufmann, you and I can agree, got it all right in Parsifal. I've heard that too; not only that but I was one of those people just 10 years ago (maybe even less). But when I said that, I was not putting down opera, or being resigned that my experiences with jazz and rock had spoiled me; rather I knew there was something there that I just didn't yet have the experience or knowledge to understand. Well, I worked hard at it, and went to dozens of operas. Now, I hear the difference all right, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. How glorious it all sounds (and feels) to me now. I don't think I'm alone. If I had to guess, I'd say more folks appreciate great operatic voices than ever (Met HD is helping with that I think......my wife and I even took a 15 year old friend who was into rock music big time to see Met HD's Die Valkerie a couple of years ago, and he got it....all 5 hours of it!) I disagree with you strongly here. I don't know how typical I am, but I am in the process of moving to a new area and a new home, and I can't wait to install a biggish flat screen near the hi-fi in order to purchase only DVDs of opera (no more CDs). Why? Gesamtkunstwerk again. Now that I "get" the drama that opera is, simply listening to the music is not enough for me. I want to see character. I want to read the super titles because I've learned that nearly every word is reflected somehow in the orchestra, and that it is the emotion and "human-ness" that the singer puts into the words that counts with me. A pretty voice is just a piece of what I'm looking for now. (OK....for those who know an opera cold, you know what is being said at each moment with your eyes closed, but I ain't there yet.) WOW.....I think that is so cool. Perhaps you are just an obsessive collector of things (I am the opposite), but I'd bet that you did it out of love of opera. Anyway, opera is wonderful (it was Kaufmann that got me going this time ), but ballet is nirvana. In about 6 hours I will be seeing my spiritual guru, Mr B, work his magic once again. Can't wait!!