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Listening. Jacob Lucas photo c/o Seattle Opera
Last week I listened to Seattle Opera’s Beatrice and Benedict broadcast on the radio. I’ve mentioned before that, despite my love for opera, I rarely listen to it outside of performances. I am invariably disappointed in the recording quality, I miss the theater experience, and I miss the supertitles telling me what’s going on. But when the title character tells you to check out a broadcast, you do it. Read More
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Jacob Lucas photo c/o Seattle Opera
I almost didn’t get to see Beatrice and Benedict at Seattle Opera, but my mom saved the day and bought tickets to opening night. I’m so glad we got to go, because there was so much to love about Seattle Opera’s Beatrice and Benedict. Besides being wonderful in all the usual Seattle Opera ways, it introduced me to a new composer and took a balletic, Shakespearean approach to opera. I probably need to explain that last comment.
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John Moore and Matthew Gills in Barber of Seville Photo by Philip Newton c/o Seattle Opera
Today I am sad. Berlioz’ opera Beatrice & Benedict opens at Seattle Opera tomorrow, and I don’t have tickets. I could not go on the day press tickets were offered, and I haven’t figured out how or if I will buy tickets for this production I really want to see. For today, I am consoling myself by looking at the 2018/19 opera season announcement. Read More
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Photo by Philip Newton c/o Seattle Opera
My daughter was scandalized when she saw the Seattle Opera poster for “Cosí fan Tutte – Mozart’s Comedy About Sex.”
She was even more scandalized when she found out I had tickets.
If I’ve been doing my job right as a parent, I think the plot would offend her as much as it did the Victorians, who bowdlerized it. But where the Victorians were appalled by the opera’s depiction of women as subject to sexual desire – and gasp – acting on it, I would hope my 21st century daughter would be at least as offended by the free pass it gives the manipulative and judgmental men in the story as by the women’s weak commitment to monogamy.
But, if I had taken her to see the opera, I think she would have loved it. Read More
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John Moore and Kevin Glavin in Barber of Seville Photo by Jacob Lucas c/o Seattle Opera
When I saw The Barber of Seville at Seattle Opera in October, I declared it my new favorite opera and left McCaw Hall determined to come back with my whole family. That proved easier said than done, but I did it. Here’s how. Read More