How Much Did You Pay for Yours?

I never understood why airline prices were so wacky. All these people on the same exact flight, and chances are some paid a lot more than others.

Today, HGO's Twitter update:

HouGrandOperaHGO loves twitter! All open seats for Sat night BRIEF ENCOUNTER for $11.25! http://tinyurl.com/pzy34d promo code NEXUS hit go&choose seats

Yeah. Can you imagine... you paid $200 for your orchestra seat. The dude two rows behind you paid... $11.25. That's less than the cheapest glass of champagne at the Balcony bar at the Met.

Speaking of the Met, why doesn't the Met ever do that? Although their $25 pool thingee isn't bad... if you get picked... and I never do...

Cenerentola in HD tomorrow!!

Helloooooo Houston - Brief view of Briefs and More!

Not sure if these links will work. Give it a try - videos of Brief Encounter.

Brief view of Briefs No joke.

I wonder how many briefs jokes were made during the course of this production... anyway, moving right along...

View from a Bridge Not of briefs...

Coffee!!! Sorry, I got excited by the sight of coffee cups.

If the links don't work, go to Facebook. Register if you don't have an account. If you do, search "Houston Grand Opera" and become a fan. The videos are on their Facebook Fan page. And while you're there, search for "Alex, Future Opera Singer and Star," for he too has his own facebook fan page. Then go to "Earrings for Sale" and buy earrings from me so I can afford to go to more Gunnoperas and report back to you. Who knows, maybe I'll even have another embarrassing conversation with him. Ha as if. But I know how fun it is to read about the humiliation of others, and I don't want to let you down.

Talk of humiliation leads me to, naturally, Lucretia. June 12. To wait at the stage door, or not to wait? Any opinions? Especially from those of you with Exclusive Background Information? (sorry to the rest of you, I promised not to tell!)

Two Reviews - Near and Far

Two reviews - one for something I saw, one for something I didn't see.

The "near" review is of a performance I saw.

Last night I dragged Husband out to see Westminster Conservatory's Opera Gala. It was in a very pretty and very small theater on Princeton Campus. Westminster's Community Chorus and orchestra performed, and the soloists were all voice teachers - including mine! She told me about it last week and said something about it being the first time she's performing for about 15 or 20 years. I was really so excited and thrilled to see her perform - and she was great! It was all concert staging of course. They did duets and ensembles from a variety of operas, including the opening of Magic Flute, a duet from Cosi, a chorus piece from Aida, that famous Flower Duet from Lakme (is that in a light bulb commercial? Or maybe it's for a car???) and the finale from Die Fledermaus. My voice teacher sang the part of Adele in the Fledermaus scene. She was so cute there on stage! So charming and charismatic! It was such a treat to see her perform. It was a really nice evening.

The "far," as in, far away, review, is this one. Yes, Twitter comes through again. I'll paste the relevant part here, because it hasn't (yet) shown up on this site.

Nathan Gunn confirms his “matinee idol” status as Alec. From his smooth, easeful baritone to his manner and presence, every detail projects the genteel gallantry that draws Laura to Alec. Gunn’s effortlessness and utter sincerity are what make the performance so right. His aria revealing his ambitions as a doctor enhances his heroic aura in Laura’s eyes, but the peak of Gunn’s artistry is his hushed delicacy in the boathouse scene, as he insists that he and Laura have fallen in love and they both know it.

But go to the article to read the most concise synopsis I've seen yet about the opera. There's also a nice photo.

Twitter: The Gift that Keeps on Giving

HGO posted a couple Brief Encounter pics at their Twitter account. Click the pic to go there and make it bigger... you know the drill.




Hey, are those supers I see in this photo??? Excellent. We loooove a director who uses supers:



Ok, this should keep the "Where's the Gunnstuff" people happy for now. 2 Gunnposts in one day.

Waiting for Twitter to turn from Gift to Annoyance. Wow that's cynical of me. Funny, I'm suddenly in a cynical mood. Go figure. Hopefully tonight's voice lesson will knock it out of me.

A Brief Glimpse

Houston Grand Opera is presenting a world premiere next month of a new opera called A Brief Encounter, based on a film adaptation of a Noel Coward play. Buccaneer that he is, Nathan Gunn is of course portraying the male lead. And lucky us, HGO has posted a rehearsal pic for his loyal fans (and anyone else who comes across it) to see. Go ahead, follow that link and then click full size for the larger than life, grainy, I-can-see-all-your-pores version. Or just look here, for I borrowed their photo.



No briefs there. Or boxers either, in case you were wondering, and I know you were.

Mr. Gunn's costar is soprano Elizabeth Futral. Yeah, I've never heard of her either but that means nothing. I'm sure she's fab or she wouldn't be singing the part.

And while I was poking around on HGO's Twitter site, I bit the bullet and made my own Twitter account. Look for me there. Of course I've already forgotten the password I came up with so don't hold your breath for updates.