Tag Archive Seattle Opera

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Get Your Papers Together to See Seattle Opera’s The Consul

consul bookletA modern, English-language opera about a woman fighting bureaucracy sounded like a painfully tedious proposition – too much like my real life. But I attended The Consul at Seattle Opera because I have season tickets.

A bleeding man bursts into a decaying apartment, forgetting to shut the door. Knocking over furniture, he falls to the floor, calling his wife. She rushes into the kitchen, trailed by his mother. The secret police discovered their meeting place; one of their friends is dead. He has been followed. John Sorel drags himself up the fire escape while his wife washes his bloody hand print from the door frame seconds before men in trench coats enter without knocking. Read More

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Rigoletto at Seattle Opera

Rigoletto Booklet CoverLa Bohéme has a special place in my heart, but Rigoletto is a better opera. Which explains why, at the end of the holidays when all I wanted was a regularly scheduled week, 2014 started out so packed with culture and art that one might call it glamorous. The week started with high concept cocktails and a loft show and culminated in opening night of Seattle Opera’s Rigoletto. Read More

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La fille du régiment at Seattle Opera

LaFilleSeattle Opera kicked off its 50th season with Donizetti’s La fille du régiment. It seemed like a strange choice to me, because, well, it is not the best opera. In fact, it almost doesn’t seem like opera. It reminded me more of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance than a comedic bel canto like Così fan tutte. Read More

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I Cried My Eyes Out at Seattle Opera’s La Bohéme

Verna Shultz Halpain

Verna Shultz Halpain

Seattle Opera’s production of La Boheme made me cry. I love this opera about bohemian artists in Paris for several reasons. One is that it reminds me a real-life bohemian close to my heart. Read More

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Opera for Kids: Heron and the Salmon Girl

Set of Heron and Salmon Girl

A picture of the set, taken from Seattle Opera’s FB page because of technical difficulties related to my cell phone.

At the end of my rant about holding on to my own aesthetic standards in the face of a sanitized kid-friendly worldview, I gave opera as an example of music that really didn’t work for kids. I ate my words at Seattle Opera’s performance of La Cenerentola, a Cinderella story that both of my daughters would have enjoyed completely. About the same time, I won a Twitter contest for tickets to see Heron and the Salmon Girl. Read More