ByGD
Seattle Opera announced their new season really early this year. Coincidentally, I happened to be on their website that day and saw the new line-up before the press release even hit my inbox. I didn’t get around to writing about it until now, but not for lack of enthusiasm. It’s going to be an interesting season.
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Once again, I almost didn’t go to the opera. I was on a deadline and hadn’t been feeling well all weekend. A finished draft and a nap sounded better than getting dressed and leaving the house. But I had never seen a Russian opera before, and I knew I liked Tchaikovsky’s music, and Sunday was the only day I could possibly go. So I dragged myself to McCaw Hall and thoroughly enjoyed every one of the 190-some minutes of the matinee performance; then couldn’t fall asleep that night for thinking about Eugene Onegin.
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Few opera composers are as well-loved (especially at my house) as Rossini, and everyone loves a fairy tale. Rossini’s opera is actually named La Cenerentola, which is a mouthful. If it’s easier, he also called it Goodness Triumphant. But it’s a good idea to use one of these names rather than the more familiar one, because Rossini’s Cinderella is not Disney’s Cinderella. And the “long ago in a land far away” of Seattle Opera’s Cenerentola is Dickensian London.
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This week has been all about Carmen for me. I am reviewing Seattle Opera’s new production elsewhere, but in preparation I’ve been listening to the music nonstop.
Carmen was the first opera I ever saw. In high school, my music teacher assigned the traveling production of Carmen (at the time my city didn’t have its own opera company) for extra credit. My only clear memory of the show was being startled awake by sound of a gunshot (which I now realize was the ending of Micaela’s aria when Don Jose catches Escamillo outside the bandits’ lair).
After this weekend, Carmen is one of my favorite operas, on par with Rigoletto. I have had Carmen’s “Habanera” stuck in my head since I heard since I heard it at Opera on Tap two weeks ago. And I will have the rest of the opera stuck in my head for a long time to come.
ByGD
This is turning into my winter of opera. First I was surprised to find The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs is not only a good opera, but also an enjoyable one and ended up buying tickets to see it again. Then I discovered the same thing about Seattle Opera’s youth performance Ulysses.