The Rest of the Previous Post

Just reread the last post and realized that I sort of stopped in the middle of describing Alex's Tour of Opera on the DVR. We didn't simply watch JDF drink in the applause. (I just almost wrote applesauce by mistake.) Alex likes two parts: When Figaro's cart comes on stage during All'idea, and the thunderstorm scene near the end. He asks to hear the thunderstorm on recordings too, when there's no video. He'd gladly listen 10 times in a row, or more.

Anyway, then it was time for him to get ready for bed so he only heard it once that evening.

From Wine to Lucia to La Fille to Barbiere

What did we all do before the days of DVRs? I have mine set to automatically record Great Performances at the Met, and then I can protect them so the DVR doesn't record over them when it runs out of space.

So today after running my finger around the rim of my wine glass to make that tone, I naturally suddenly felt like hearing a bit of Lucia. First I put on the Greatest Moments countdown which has Joan Sutherland doing the mad scene. That link is not the the performance we have recorded, but it looks pretty much the same. I have to say, the shape of her head in that totally freaks me out. So then we switched to the recent HD transmission, with Anna Netrebko. It was set at Alex's favorite part. Well, one of his favorite parts. No, now that I think of it, this is the first thing he asks to see - the scene where Lucia sings about the ghost in the fountain. In the Met's version, a dancer plays the ghost and exits by slowly spinning down in the fountain.



So we watched that. Then he said he wanted the dogs, which is the very opening scene, but quickly changed his mind and asked for "when she's all bloody." Fast forward to the Mad Scene. Meanwhile, Husband and I are talking about other Lucias. I mention Diana Damrau, he mentions Natalie Dessay and asks, "Wasn't she the one in Fille with Juan Diego Florez?" Well of course then Alex wanted to see a scene from that. He pretty much only ever wants to see the Rataplan scene.
Ha well I can't find the video clip at the moment however I did find a Dutch cartoon about a dog named Rataplan. Now I understand how Alex can watch Woody Woodpecker in Russian. Who needs to understand the words? But as usual I digress. So we watch that, which as we all know leads into this.



And I just want to point out, as I point out to Alex every time we watch La Fille, that I was THERE that very day. I tell him that I was in the same room - but it's a Very Big Room. So after the famous 9 high ones, as JDF is standing there basking in the audience's admiration, we switch over the Barbiere. And wouldn't you know... there he is, it's the end of Cessa, and he's in the exact same position, exact same look on his face, pretty much the same adoring crowd. It was funny. I swear it was. Ok, I guess you had to be there.

ps I survived Torchwood, but barely. It wasn't quite as intense as Rape of Lucretia, but it was 5 days of intense tension in a row, culminating with the final episode. I bawled like a baby and even hid behind a pillow at once point. But I survived.

Singers v Lovers

Lucia was on Great Performances last night. The post-show Facebook status updates were veeeery interesting. The opera singer friends on my list were not all that impressed. Their opera singer friends commented on their status updates with various things that were wrong with it, including some Anna bashing. Now, while I prefer Diana Damrau in the role, Anna is no slouch! Her mad scene was great. Her voice… I think I mentioned this before – she caresses the notes. Anyway, I’m not an Opera Singer so my opinion falls into the other category – that of Lover. Live at the Met was best, of course. Live in the movies was great for the big screen, surround sound and behind-the-scenes stuff. So to me, the only "issue" was that my tv isn’t very large and it was rather quiet. Oh and then there was Husband. He graciously "allowed" me to turn off the baseball game and put on Great Performances - very cool. But then during the third act when things were getting intense he remembered that his doctor had suggested he use that wax-dissolving stuff in his ears. Sorry if that's TMI... but anyway... so he used the drops and stuck a tissue into each ear. He looked ridiculous and of course he knew it. Lucia was stumbling around in her bloodied wedding dress while Husband was wiggling his head back and forth the make the tissues wave. Welcome to my life. So overall, I enjoyed the production on TV. The other Opera Lover fans on my friends list seem to agree. We all have our own insider and outsider perspectives. Interesting stuff.

Voice lesson tonight. I was going to call this post, "Back into the Sing of Things" but I do like when the title refers to the majority of the content. Instead I'm mentioning it here because I thought it was clever.