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I have always believed that opera is a planet where the muses work together, join hands and celebrate all the arts. |
Sunday, August 10, 1997
Nick, Jayson and I had a planning meeting for Trollsylvanian Heritage Day today at the Virtual Commons. This is an internet cafe, new to me, near Seattle Center. We figured out a tentative order of events, assigned tasks for writing, buying and bringing, and traded ideas and gossip. Fun!
This weekend was an orgy of consumerism for me. Since I was already parked nearby, I decided to go to Tower Records and buy some things. I got the D'Oyly Carte version of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's 1966 Winterreise, and that hot young bass-baritone Bryn Terfel in Meet Bryn Terfel, from the Classical CD department, and two operas on laser disc, La Cenerentola with Cecilia Bartoli and Ingmar Bergman's film of The Magic Flute.
I'll take the CDs to work with me. Playing music and wearing headphones really helps to shut out the distractions in the contractor bay. I already had the Ponelle version of Cenerentola with Fredrica von Stade, which I really love. But Bartoli is very appealing and I like her voice. The story is the story of Cinderella, but without the magic elements. The Ponelle version fascinates me with how it equates the wise old man/non-fairy godfather with Rossini himself.
The Magic Flute is another work I don't tire of, although it isn't my top favorite Mozart opera. Figaro takes the honors there. Bergman does a lot of playing with frontstage/backstage and the emotional truths of the opera.
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I didn't mention this on Friday, but in all my wanderings around Seattle that night, I noticed a strange smell in my car, a little burnt, a little plastic-y. When I noticed the same thing today, I decided to drop my car off at my neighborhood station. I was annoyed when I couldn't find a key-drop slot, and I was too nervous to just tuck the key under the seat or something. So tomorrow I'll have to go downtown for a seven AM follow-up visit with the oral surgeon, then take the bus back home to confer about the car, then take the bus back downtown and transfer for the ride to work. Rats!
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But I was very pleased to get some email from Kate and Glenn, saying that they were getting a group together to go see the meteors tomorrow night, and would I like to go along? The last time I was able to go on this expedition was in 1994! So despite where we are in the product cycle, and despite my car being in the shop, I'll go tomorrow night. They were kind enough to drop by this evening and grab my sleeping bag and knapsack, so I don't have to tote them around tomorrow, and they will pick me up at work. Yay!
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