She is brilliant! It was so special to see her so close from our first-row seats, to see how the CSO musicians looked at her during her amazing solos, and to see David Chen nodding approvingly. And she enjoys what she is doing so much!
Category: events
Cirque du Soliel: OVO
Today, I took Nadia and Kira to a Cirque du Soleil performance (my Christmas gift for them). This year, Cirque do Soliel performs at NowArena, which is very far from my house with no public transportation access.
It was a lot of Ubering, and I was very tired, but the performance was excellent! I got the seats, which I hoped would be good but I was unsure of, and they were perfect: the artists were right there, and we could see their makeup and facial expressions! Posting a couple of pictures just to show how close we were and how awesome it was to be able to see all the details!
Two more comments. First, as much as I admired the show, most of the acrobatics was very traditional, all classic tricks, just performed in the new environment.
And second, the venue policies were horrible. No outside food and beverage allowed, no water fountains inside, a bottle of water costs $5.5, and a bag of popcorn $8.
Also, I lost the belt of my new Estonian coat, and we had to go back and ask the personnel, Fortunately, they looked, and found, and returned it to me!
Orchid Show 2025
A new Orchid Show at Chicago Botanic Garden just opened, and my friend Lena and I do it every year, no matter how busy we are. Since things will become hectic in just a week, we decided to go on the very first day of the show, which was yesterday (not counting the opening night).
As always, we took my mom there, and as always, Lena invited one of her closest friends from Palatine, so we were all together as our usual group. We liked the show, although Lena and I both felt there was a little bit “less of everything” than the previous year. Fewer plants and less variety. Still, there was plenty to admire, and too many photos taken:)
The First Nutcracker
On Sunday, I took Nadia for her first Nutcracker, and the experience was exactly as I hoped it would be! Anna read the story to the girls, and they listened to the whole ballet while driving to Chicago, so Nadia was ready and excited. We had tickets in the second row and were exceptionally lucky because nobody was sitting in front of Nadia! It had to be a last-minute cancellation because the whole first row was taken when I purchased these tickets.
Everything was pure magic! Nadia was entirely mesmerized by the performance, and for a good reason! I can’t even describe how much I love Chicago’s Nutcracker, where the story unfolds in the barracks of the immigrant workers summoned to construct the World Columbia Exposition!
I saw this Nutcracker at least six times, probably more, and I can’t stop admiring it!
Classic Encounter At The CSO
Still filling in the blanks for last week :). On Thursday, my neighbor and I went to the CSO. The program featured four pieces related to the sea: Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, Tchaikovsky’s The Tempest, and Korngold’s Suite from The Sea Hawk. A real gift, each piece is a gem.
That was also the only time this season when we had tickets for a pre-concert Classic Encounter with Terry Hemmert.
As usual, it was a great discussion, this time with Clarinet John Yen, and they played the sciences from the Sea Hawk on the screen. A side note – as a part of the cost cuts, I guess, they stopped serving food and only served wine and cookies (and they gave you a drink token at the entrance). Just to know for the future to eat before going there 🙂
& Juliet
I saw this musical yesterday, and somehow, it left me non-engaged. Everything was perfect on the surface: great dialogs, cultural references; the audience laughed where expected (sometimes too loud). Still, it didn’t click, and I do not think it was because I was tired. Just something didn’t work.
Official photos below:
Continue reading “& Juliet”Riding In A Holiday Train (Not The “Real” Holiday Train)
“Blue” at Lyric
I thought that “Blue” was a very recent opera – it sounded like it emerged from the Black Lives matter movement, but when I looked it up, it turned out that it was written almost ten years ago. That means that nothing changed in these last ten years – nothing!
What you hear from the stage is extremely painful and way closer to reality than any opera should be. The Father focused on keeping his black son alive, not knowing how to protect him:
run/do not run/look at their faces/do not look straight at their faces/keep your hands out of your pockets/take off this hoody/pull up your pants…
Each word is a pain. Each word strikes home.
And it’s just opera. People will clap and go home. And will look suspiciously at the black teen on the train.
Thanksgiving
I never know what to write about Thanksgiving. We made it :). Actually, the cooking time was the least effort I remember. It took me more time cleaning up, doing the dishes, and packing the food to go, but I am done with that, or with most of that. Boris helped me a lot (probably more than ever), and I am also very thankful for that. I am tired, but also, since Boris and I were chatting all the time while I was cooking and he was helping, I got a lot of new Postgres ideas that I want to try 🙂
I know I am hopeless:)
My son-in-law said I have a secret extra day of the week – I wish!!!
One thing we always have for Thanksgiving are pies from Vanille:)
Pictured From The ‘Secret Garden”
I knew, Theo would publish more pictures of the show 🙂
Hettie's Reflections 