Monday, October 27, 2014

be very afeard

Random thoughts on Alcina at Carnegie Hall, as scribbled on the fly in a notebook in the  wayback:

Di', cor mio -- OMG, as the young people say.

Ruggiero, dude, don't cut yourself on that dress. 

killer cello obbligato!

Tornami a vagheggiar -- effect on foetus in utero? Recheck 20 years.

Mi lusinga -- hearing Alice Coote sing this is like falling backwards into a goosefeather barcalounger.

Verdi prati -- strings go all mingey when the beauty vanishes. Ew.

Ombre pallide -- yeah yeah, guess how that was LOL
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Overheard at Intermission:

"She's a villain, you know."
"And if we didn't know, the dress would tell us!"

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more killer cello obbligato!!

The dress erodes as the power does

Rage! Look out how she handles that score!

"Bring your Gorgon shield!" Really this opera is all about accessorizing.

Sta nell'ircana -- Horns! and vehement page-turning!

Man these scores get a workout, hope they didn't rent them.

Barbara! -- Wakey!
                   let me introduce you to my fully-armed and operational cadenza.

If you want to know how spectacular this performance was, I really have nothing to add to Earworm's assessment.










5 comments:

  1. you were there too!! everyone has heard this! but me! :-). it's quite fun to hear how news traverse london-paris-newyork.. could have been boston too you know, they chopped it off the schedule.. -td

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    1. As I was saying to DtO over on twitter, I was surprised they would do five dates in Europe and then only one in the US. I thought the visa paperwork for that one gig must be nightmarish, let alone the expense. One of my box mates reminded me that the English Concert does a Carnegie Hall gig every year, so they must have one of those multi-year deals.

      And I guess things work differently for classical ensembles with fat track records. On the folk music side of things you don't see European bands touring over here as much anymore, because it costs more than they'll make from the gigs and our government has made getting the visas more trouble than they're worth.

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    2. that twitter stuff is buried real deep! lost my steam by the time i dug them up ;-) . i haven't thought of that.. but do they really need visa? can they just come as tourists and have the US haus pay them via bank transfer directly to europe? :-). what a pain..
      are you also coming for boston baroque monteverdi? am determined.. though will be totally jet-lagged.. will see how it goes.. right before is also Barbara Bonney's masterclass! -td

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    3. Ah, no, I understand there are consequences if they get caught doing things that way. Not to say it never happens.

      Gonna miss the Vespers, unfortunately. Next I'll be in town is for the BEMF Pergolesi one-acts. But Agrippina in April -- that's tempting :)

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    4. i know, i saw that just yesterday.. it's on my calendar now! (it = agrippina). i'll have to find out about the bemf thingy.. -td

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