opera! squee!
Feb. 8th, 2006 09:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyTeh intarwebs are being excruciatingly slow this morning -- worse than dial-up. Evil!
I'm also excruciatingly slow this morning, having witnessed all five and a half hours of Götterdämmerung last night. That's actually less painful than it sounds. Everyone dies and the world ends (spoilerz!!!one!) so it's kinda my thing.
Anyway, I'm not sure if I approved of the interpretation; they were trying to be very clever and minimalist, so they had very bare setpieces and modern costumes. It worked at times (Hager as a scheming corporate suit, the Norns as homeless women sleeping on a highway, the Rhinemaidens as sex workers) and didn't work at others (they had a dramatic explosion in the Prologue when the Norns' cord is severed, which set up an expectation of something equally incendiary at the end. No such luck, though.). My main problem is that opera tends to be, well, a bit over-the-top, and Wagner doubly so, so if you're going to bother putting it on, you should respect that tradition. It was, as R. commented, the sort of production that we'd have found edgy and avant-garde in high school but now, not so much.
The music was fabulous, though, which was even more impressive given that the fellow singing Siegfried had bronchitis and I have all sorts of unpleasant associations with Wagner. And the best thing? We poached second-row seats. R. is the best; not only does he come up with $18 tickets, but he is also wise in all sorts of opera deviousness and landed us right by the orchestra pit. Heh.
Operas are strange events, especially these days. The audience tends to be about 3/4 rich decadent types who see it as some sort of cultural signifier (and then leave early or never show, lending us their $200 seats) and 1/4 jean-clad students who actually know something about the music and got nosebleed seats for $20. We sat behind a couple that R. noticed first with a measure of disgust: an attractive young Asian woman who barely spoke, and a portly, mustachioed older guy who remarked that the new opera house looked like a toilet bowl but had he known he could get box seats, he would have. Ewww.
It figures that the one time I remember to bring my opera glasses is the time that I don't have a need for them.
On a more low-brow note, I spotted in a washroom:
YOUR ALL MORONS
followed by
LEARN 2 GRAMMAR
KTHNXBYE.
I'm also excruciatingly slow this morning, having witnessed all five and a half hours of Götterdämmerung last night. That's actually less painful than it sounds. Everyone dies and the world ends (spoilerz!!!one!) so it's kinda my thing.
Anyway, I'm not sure if I approved of the interpretation; they were trying to be very clever and minimalist, so they had very bare setpieces and modern costumes. It worked at times (Hager as a scheming corporate suit, the Norns as homeless women sleeping on a highway, the Rhinemaidens as sex workers) and didn't work at others (they had a dramatic explosion in the Prologue when the Norns' cord is severed, which set up an expectation of something equally incendiary at the end. No such luck, though.). My main problem is that opera tends to be, well, a bit over-the-top, and Wagner doubly so, so if you're going to bother putting it on, you should respect that tradition. It was, as R. commented, the sort of production that we'd have found edgy and avant-garde in high school but now, not so much.
The music was fabulous, though, which was even more impressive given that the fellow singing Siegfried had bronchitis and I have all sorts of unpleasant associations with Wagner. And the best thing? We poached second-row seats. R. is the best; not only does he come up with $18 tickets, but he is also wise in all sorts of opera deviousness and landed us right by the orchestra pit. Heh.
Operas are strange events, especially these days. The audience tends to be about 3/4 rich decadent types who see it as some sort of cultural signifier (and then leave early or never show, lending us their $200 seats) and 1/4 jean-clad students who actually know something about the music and got nosebleed seats for $20. We sat behind a couple that R. noticed first with a measure of disgust: an attractive young Asian woman who barely spoke, and a portly, mustachioed older guy who remarked that the new opera house looked like a toilet bowl but had he known he could get box seats, he would have. Ewww.
It figures that the one time I remember to bring my opera glasses is the time that I don't have a need for them.
On a more low-brow note, I spotted in a washroom:
YOUR ALL MORONS
followed by
LEARN 2 GRAMMAR
KTHNXBYE.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 03:38 pm (UTC)Yay Gotterdammerung!
no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 03:50 pm (UTC)You keep mentioning an opera blog; is it on LJ?
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Date: 2006-02-08 04:29 pm (UTC)One thing I know COC is doing soon is Elektra with a favorite singer of mine. I'm plotting a way to show up for that.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 04:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 04:35 pm (UTC)The address in my profile is AIM (which I never use anyway); my actual e-mail is littlemissnegativity at yahoo dot com.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 03:46 pm (UTC)I've never been able to get into opera, though I admit I haven't tried that hard. I'm sort of picky about music generally and classical music in particular, mostly preferring modernism (the Rimsky-Korsakov to Schönberg stretch) with only a few exceptions. I hate most 19th century romantic music, which explains why I have trouble with opera.
Now that I've made it sound like I'm impossible to please, do you have any suggestions? :)
I should just go ask
LEARN 2 GRAMMAR
KTHNXBYE.
Hahaha! Learn 2 grammar. That's good, I'll have to remember that.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 04:03 pm (UTC)I should just go ask mistersmearcase. Are you friends with him? He's teh opera intarwebs man.
See above.
I may need to make LEARN 2 GRAMMAR into an icon.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 05:50 pm (UTC)Oh, please DO!
Please include the "KTHXBYE!" in there too!
no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 01:18 am (UTC)* Intentional; for the purpose of humour.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 02:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 07:06 pm (UTC)If we are going to verb the word 'grammar', then the spelling should be 'grammer', surely? LOL
And why the extra 'a' in LEARN?
"LERN 2 GRAMMER" wins.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 04:00 pm (UTC)I have a lot of strong opinions regarding the music generally classified as "classical" :-) altho I'm far more familiar with symphonic/instrumental than I am with opera.
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Date: 2006-02-08 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 05:29 pm (UTC)That's interestingly apocalyptic. Too bad I'm trying to be more positive or I'd jump on this.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 11:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 01:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 01:48 am (UTC)