From Short Term to Long Term

Now that a few days have passed, I'm starting to remember the silly little things about Sonnambula and Firebrand, all unrelated to the performances themselves.

There's a fun website out there called Opera Tattler. The Tattler gives reviews of performances and then tattles on the audience's bad behavior. So in the spirit of OT, here's what I noticed.

La Sonnambula:

• When Juan Diego Florez made his appearance, people applauded and then other people shushed them.
• Every time the action was incomprehensible you could hear people muttering.
• During intermission and afterward the talk was all about how stupid the production was.
• I did hear one cellophane candy wrapper being opened and folded during act 2.
• For the first sleepwalking scene, Natalie Dessay entered the stage from the audience. Up in the Balcony, we couldn't see her but we could hear rustling as everyone who could get a view turned in their seats. It was quite a sound.
• I could swear I smelled something burning for much of the performance. Got me wondering where the emergency exits were.

That's all I can think of for now. I'll post more if I remember more.

Firebrand of Florence:

• Each seat had a plaque glued on the back with the name of whoever donated enough money for them to, I suppose, afford the plaque. Before the performance began, two rows in front of me, someone sat in his seat and then there was this loud crashing sound. The entire seat back dedication plaque had fallen off. He picked it up and you could see him thinking, "Ok, now what do I do?"
  
• The man next to me on my left kept dozing off.
• The man next to me on my right hogged the armrest. I finally acknowledged that if I wanted to rest my arm, I'd have to come into contact with him.
• One of those men smelled like he got dressed from a pile of clothes. You know the smell I mean. I think it was the armrest guy, which made it even more unpleasant for me to actually come into contact with him when cramps I got from holding my arms in finally forced me to spread out and inch or two.
  
• Someone nearby must have had lots of beans and broccoli for dinner the night before. I hope I don't need to go into further detail about how I know that.
• People applauded when Victoria Clark entered.
• My Backstage Visit was much more intense than I let on in the post I wrote about it.

That's all I can think of right now. As more junk seeps from my short term to my long term memory I'll add to the list.

Update on the Update

Yeah, I guess I should've checked the mail before my update on the previous post. But we had friends over, and there was wine, and somehow an entire v. large bottle of bubble liquid was poured onto the porch, because when he's not singing opera, or even while he is, Alex does tend to behave like a 4 year old. So... without further ado:





Hahahaha! And that gives me an idea.
Anyway, he finally earns himself a listing in the tags. Good work, Mr. V.H.

Parallel History - A Friend and A Person

The internet is a wonderful, fascinating place in that it brings people together who otherwise would never have the opportunity. I have become friendly and made friends with people I got to know online via YouTube, MySpace, a Lord of the Rings RPG group (rpg= role playing game), the NG Yahoo message board and here in the blogosphere. It's great how sometimes you just click with people for whatever reason. You could say it's chemistry but does that apply when you've never met in person? I am friends with people from Washington state, Oregon, California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, France, and I'm friendly with many others from all over the world.

So that said, one of my newest friends, someone who thinks about life the same way I do, with whom I could say I instantly clicked, is going to Chicago to see Pearl Fishers. In fact, this friend is flying in and out the same day. Crazy, right? Hmm that could explain why we instantly clicked.

Ok. So. Remember the person who gave me permission to use that PF rehearsal picture? He has a very entertaining blog (in which he recently said "hi" to his newest readers) (and which he updated moments ago as I was writing about it... oooh spooky ha ha) and there he promotes himself with these silly postcards he doctors up to add his picture and url. He says that he'll send you a postcard if you find him on one of the social networking sites. He just so happens to be in Pearl Fishers at the Lyric.

Ok. So. My friend who is flying to Chicago to see Pearl Fishers joined one of the social networking sites and wrote this person a message, telling him that she found his blog through mine, and that she's coming to see the opera, etc. Oh did I mention that my friend has a tiny crush on a certain other opera singer who is also appearing in Pearl Fishers? Anyway... I think the person is aware of that because of a message I sent him during our initial correspondence, in which I told him about this friend and where she'll be aiming her binoculars, without naming names of course.

Ok. So. This person wrote back to my friend and told her... wait for it... that he'd put her on the list so she could go backstage after the performance if she'd like. Ha! Sound familiar? I actually did the Happy Dance in my kitchen when I saw her email about it, I was so excited for her. I mean, I know exactly how she feels. So now my friend has to figure out how to not pee in her pants or whatever her personal reaction may be as she goes backstage, and also how to see the crush when she's invited back there by this other person. Maybe after she reads this she'll post a comment identifying herself, but that's up to her. I will, of course, hound her for a "guest" blog entry about her experience and she dang well better pick up a cell phone between now and then so she can call me during intermission.

And for me, I'll post a picture of the promised postcard if/when it gets here.

A Lusty Month of May? (photo added)

Just saw Camelot on Live from Lincoln Center. Will do a full review tomorrow, however, just wanted to post some initial impressions.


Like, I like shiny things. For example, shiny shirts paired with leather pants. And people who wear things like that are A-Ok in my book. And no you may not borrow my book. It's mine and I'm not sharing. But as usual, I digress... where was I?

Yes... initial impressions...

What's-her-name, Fran the whiner, should stick to The Nanny and stay off live stage. She looks good in the dress but could she please just keep her mouth shut?

And... if we play 6 degrees of separation... Nathan Gunn has now worked with Christopher Lloyd who worked with Danny Devito and also Michael J. Fox. Danny Devito has worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger (sp?) and also Bette Middler, who has worked with Barry Manilow... Nathan Gunn is that close to Barry Manilow in this game? Ok I'm stopping now before this truly gets out of hand.

A vaguely more serious post about the performance will follow tomorrow or Saturday. And by serious, of course, I mean, mostly silly.