That was one of the most anticipated operas of the season for me, and I didn’t like it. My neighbor with whom we share this subscription just returned from a two-week trip to Egypt, and even before we went, she told me that she read “horrible reviews” about this production.
I do not mind the modernization of the classic (I enjoyed Penelopiad at Goodman!), but in this production, everything except for the music and voices, was indeed horrible.
I copied several images from the Lyric website to illustrate. I do not understand why they had to invent their own hieroglyphs instead of Egyptian, and why they had to cover the whole stage set with these images. I do not understand why they had to dress the male cast in these turn-of-the-previous-century uniforms.
The voices were beautiful. The music was great. But by the middle of it I chose to enjoy it with my eyes closed 🙂 .
February is coming packed with cultural activities, to compensate for a very “dry” January, indeed! I saw two operas in one week: the first was The Champion, and the second was Rossini’s Cinderella, which I saw on Saturday. I never saw this opera performance, and never heard the music, and it was so different from the story of the glass slippers – and I loved it! Both the prince and Cinderella are real characters, with the sense of self-wort and determined to be in control of their lives; you know that it’s not the magic that brought them together, but their actions. The opera is very long, more than three hours, but I didn’t even notice it! When the intermission started and I looked at my watch, I was so surprised to see that almost two hours had passed! Beautiful in all possible ways :).
That’s the opera I wanted to write about. I went to see it the next day after I arrived. I didn’t know the opera, and I thought it could be interesting, but not more than that. And it so exceeded expectations!!!
It’s the real person’s story, but the opera synopsis does not exactly follow Emile Griffin’s life events. It was very difficult to watch for many reasons, but for me, the most heartbreaking were the scenes of older Emile living with dementia. I went on the Lyric Opera website to look for the videos, and I noticed that pretty much all advertising materials showed the young Emile, although think that the old Emile was the most moving.
I don’t know what else to say. I almost cried when I was in the Opera house, and I want to cry now, when I recall all the scenes. it’s a heartbreaking story.
Another opera I never heard about – Janacek’s “Jenufa.”
It’s not that common that you come to the opera and are captivated by the twists of the plot, trying to catch each and every single word said on stage, and that was the case with Jenufa. It’s anything but simplistic: no heroes and no villains, clashes of the characters, horrible decisions, and life-long regrets…
Did you ever hear about Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment opera? If you did’ good for you, but I only learned about this opera when I saw it in the Lyric Opera calendar. I have to admit that my knowledge of the operas was naturally limited to Russian operas and a relatively small number of “all others,” while I was growing up. That’s not an excuse for not exploring what else is out there, but it is what it is.
I had so much fun! I am thinking about last night and smiling. I copied all the video clips I found on the Lyric Opera website because if I just post the links, they will be gone by the end of the season. Just play the clips, and you’ll see for yourself how awesome it was! The only other thing I wish they would have would be a picture of the last scene with a tank breaking into the Marquise’s castle:).
I love both leads: Lisette Oropesa as Marie and Lawrence Brownlee as Tonio. Both have unimaginably beautiful voices and brilliant acting. I almost want to go one more time :).
I have a lot of subscriptions this season; most of them are together with my neighbor, and this week is the first week when things really started.
After the Symphony ball last Saturday, there was the first of our regular subscription concerts, with Ricardo Muti conducting Stravinsky, Liadov, and Brams. There are several new young musicians in the orchestra, and my and my friend could not take our eyes away from a very young violinist who was visibly ecstatic being on the CSO stage and was eagerly following the maestro’s directions, beaming.
Since we both agreed that we prefer the close to the stage seating even if the view is a little bit obscured, we have no problem finding the tickets to our satisfaction. Today was our first Opera, Wagner’s Flying Dutchman. If was the first time that I discovered that the Opera House has the same pricing strategy, and the side seats close to the stage cost the same as the rear main floor. We sat unbelievably close like I never was that close to the stage at any opera. We could see the singers’ facial expressions (as clear as in the videos below), and we could read English captioning with no problem.
The 2 hours and 20 minutes opera ran without intermission, so I was a little bit unsure whether we would survive, but the music was so captivating, and the performers were so engaging that I didn’t even notice where the time went! I never heard this opera before, not even in the recording, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Since I promised one of my followers that I would tell all about the opera set and costumes, here is my report. The set was innovative but not extravagant (in fact, the video about the lighting provides good shots of the set). The way they represented both ships with one was very clever. The costumes were “historically neutral,” probably close to the end of the nineteenth century, so they were not distracting the audience from the music. We loved it!
I went there with my neighbor on Wednesday – it was an opening night, and I had main floor tickets and I also pre-ordered desserts for the intermission. The pictures are mostly from the Lyric website.
I liked it, although I think many people were misled about child appropriateness. It is quite creepy, except for the finale, which is beautiful, joyful, and optimistic. I know that it was intended for children when it was written, but I guess we have different standards now:)
For some reason, I thought we’d been to the Lyric Opera with Boris. He says it was his first time, but I still think it’s not true. Maybe I will recall it later :).
Anyway – I asked whether he would like to go to the Opera on Friday or Saturday, and he said he wanted to go to Don Carlos. Since we won’t see each other for Christmas, I decided to make a big night out of it, and it went perfectly!
I got seats in the front section of the main floor – I had never been so close to the stage at Lyric. I ordered pre-concert dinner at Florian and dessert during the intermission. The opera is almost four hours long, so I scheduled an Uber ride. But then I realized that it would be faster to take Metra and canceled it.
Everything went perfectly. The singers were extraordinary. I can’t recall any other show at Lyric when I won’t be comparing singers and deciding on “the best one.” Everybody was “the best” in that show.
And the food and the desserts – just what you need to keep yourself awake for four hours 🙂
Out of all shows in Lyric Opera which were included into my subscription, The Fiddler was my most anticipated! I read the reviews, and the interviews with the artists saying that “it’s not your mother’s Fiddler.” Since I really like the musical, and since I really-really love the book, I was sure it will be the best experience ever.
And it turned to be not exactly that. The musical is already a step away from the book, with reduced number of daughter, Golda not dying, and some parts of the plot omitted. But it still has a spirit of the book, and a very intimate touch.
The Lyric performance feels like further away. Way more of a “show,” way louder. The traditional Jewish melodies are modified beyond recognition.
“If I Were a Rich Man,” in my opinion, is something very different than this clip: it is a very sad song, and Tevye is no Samson. The orchestra is great, the voices are amazing, but it is not the story I expected to hear…
Yesterday, we went to see Tosca in the Lyric Opera. We – meaning, myself, mom, and my neighbor. My neighbor dreamed about this night since the day I got these tickets. And yes, the performance was outstanding, especially the soloists who sang the leading parts. Everybody was invited to see how the stage crew changed the set during the first intermission. The stage manager explained to us that the set is fifty years old and told us a lot of details about its construction, and then about costumes and wigs – most of the costumes came from the Convent Garden 2005 production.
After the performance, my neighbor told me that she could not help but think about Ukraine and all the historical parallels. I feel that no matter what show we watch these days, we see the parallels with the war, and each injustice we see on stage resonates with what we see on our screens in the reports from Ukraine.
Hettie's Reflections 