Mar. 21st, 2009 10:16 pm
I hear the secrets that you keep
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muckefuckI'd love to write a proper review of the Met's Sonambula, but I'm not sure I'm up to it. It's got a really lame plot and very pretty music, so their solution was to go for an innovative staging that would distract you from the first so you could concentrate on the latter. At first, I thought they were going to attempt to graft a second storyline onto the first, but that soon proved too daunting so the production shifted from a meta-performance to a mere performance--disappointing only because of the hopes that had been raised. Take for it what it was, it left little room for complaint. Dessay was his charming gamine self and Flórez showed us again and again that he could hit all the high notes and do it with authority. Never heard of Michele Pertusi before, but having heard him sing once, I'd gladly do so again.
What makes the plot lame is that it's your typical jealous-suitor-misjudges-innocent-virgin foofaraw. But Bellini knows his bel canto better than almost anyone and we had singers that know their craft in their sleep. And the modern-dress staging allowed the director to work in wonderful bits of business like callous Lisa squirting on the hand-sanitiser after being touched by her boring would-be boyfriend. But unfortunately, it also makes Flórez' jealous rages seems stereotypically and unsympathetically macho. Seems to me they could've toned down the hair-pulling and such and still left the plot intelligible (any regular operagoer should be able to work out this one deaf, dumb, and heavily-medicated anyway), but it's easy to say that with the privileged view of the stage I had.
Lyric norms seem to be in abeyance for the most part; I only had to shush one gabby pair of ladies. And no technical glitches this time, which only cements our resolve to buy well in advance next year so we can enjoy all our viewings at River East. They announced the broadcasts during the intermission and it's a good selection. Nuphy's game for everything but Tosca (which all of us would rather hurl ourselves off a building than have to hear again); I'd say about half the productions look interesting enough to hook me in with Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Armida, and Simon Bocanegra with Domingo leading the pack.
We all ended up powerful hungry after a mere three hours of opera and kicked around various suggestions for a mid-afternoon snack until Nuphy came up with Sayat-Nova. I'd say the place doesn't seem to have changed a bit except that might imply the kind of unchanging rundown dinge one finds in certain used bookstores or dive bars. They've kept the place up over the years, but only avoided doing anything crazy. Michigan Avenue was aswarm with tourists taking advantage of a beautiful Saturday, but it was calm and cozy inside. I could quietly sip arak while we talked of quinces and teas and generally let the afternoon slip away from us. Then I rode back home to share supper with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monshu and toss back a Negroni on the back porch while poor little Boobers observed us from the open kitchen window.
What makes the plot lame is that it's your typical jealous-suitor-misjudges-innocent-virgin foofaraw. But Bellini knows his bel canto better than almost anyone and we had singers that know their craft in their sleep. And the modern-dress staging allowed the director to work in wonderful bits of business like callous Lisa squirting on the hand-sanitiser after being touched by her boring would-be boyfriend. But unfortunately, it also makes Flórez' jealous rages seems stereotypically and unsympathetically macho. Seems to me they could've toned down the hair-pulling and such and still left the plot intelligible (any regular operagoer should be able to work out this one deaf, dumb, and heavily-medicated anyway), but it's easy to say that with the privileged view of the stage I had.
Lyric norms seem to be in abeyance for the most part; I only had to shush one gabby pair of ladies. And no technical glitches this time, which only cements our resolve to buy well in advance next year so we can enjoy all our viewings at River East. They announced the broadcasts during the intermission and it's a good selection. Nuphy's game for everything but Tosca (which all of us would rather hurl ourselves off a building than have to hear again); I'd say about half the productions look interesting enough to hook me in with Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Armida, and Simon Bocanegra with Domingo leading the pack.
We all ended up powerful hungry after a mere three hours of opera and kicked around various suggestions for a mid-afternoon snack until Nuphy came up with Sayat-Nova. I'd say the place doesn't seem to have changed a bit except that might imply the kind of unchanging rundown dinge one finds in certain used bookstores or dive bars. They've kept the place up over the years, but only avoided doing anything crazy. Michigan Avenue was aswarm with tourists taking advantage of a beautiful Saturday, but it was calm and cozy inside. I could quietly sip arak while we talked of quinces and teas and generally let the afternoon slip away from us. Then I rode back home to share supper with
monshu and toss back a Negroni on the back porch while poor little Boobers observed us from the open kitchen window.![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
SPEAKING OF SAYAT NOVA....
I just did a search and could only come up with a Casbah on Broadway near Belmont. Varoujan's restaurant served some of the best Armenian Cooking I have ever eaten outside of an Armenian Home.
Speaking of Sayt Nova... continued
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3993659.html
The Clark street location was the one I helped open..... The Diversey location came after the site of the original restaurant was sold. Too bad.