Last night I went to my first ever opera, Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata, at Lincoln Center. Apparently this is a fairly standard "first" opera to see. Very enjoyable. Lincoln Center is beautiful. We ate before hand, and then during the first intermission you go back and sit down at your table for dessert. Nice touch. Not sure if I'm converted to a big fan or anything, but it was a great evening. I'm hoping to give the symphony a shot next (although I've been to that once in the past.)
Here's a horrible phonecam shot I felt like a total dork taking. You can see the screens in front of every seat that translate. They are *highly* directional, so you can only see the LEDs if you are looking directly straight at it - no peripheral vision distraction at all. Pretty cool. I guess these were something of an issue for the real buffs when they first put them in, but it's very helpful if you can't speak Italian.
Second opera last night. This time at BAM for Mozart's Magic Flute, staged by South African artist William Kentridge. Fun for a novice like me because the singers and the entire stage were covered in video projection of Kentridge's animated line drawings. Lots to look at. And although this is a pretty famous piece I wasn't familiar with the story, which has a lot of interesting-to-me secret society mystery initiation themes. Made me want to go back and reread Goethe's Wilhelm Meister.
The Times has a write up (with a nice picture,) while Newsday has a slightly less generous take.
Another horrible camera phone shot:
that Kentridge set looks awesome!
Excellent pics!
Yeah, great pics. I love the blown out lights in the top photo.
The stage set reminds me of a George Melies movie set
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Here's a horrible phonecam shot I felt like a total dork taking. You can see the screens in front of every seat that translate. They are *highly* directional, so you can only see the LEDs if you are looking directly straight at it - no peripheral vision distraction at all. Pretty cool. I guess these were something of an issue for the real buffs when they first put them in, but it's very helpful if you can't speak Italian.
- jim 3-08-2007 5:55 pm
Second opera last night. This time at BAM for Mozart's Magic Flute, staged by South African artist William Kentridge. Fun for a novice like me because the singers and the entire stage were covered in video projection of Kentridge's animated line drawings. Lots to look at. And although this is a pretty famous piece I wasn't familiar with the story, which has a lot of interesting-to-me secret society mystery initiation themes. Made me want to go back and reread Goethe's Wilhelm Meister.
The Times has a write up (with a nice picture,) while Newsday has a slightly less generous take.
Another horrible camera phone shot:
- jim 4-12-2007 5:32 pm
that Kentridge set looks awesome!
- sally mckay 4-12-2007 6:52 pm
Excellent pics!
- tom moody 4-12-2007 7:08 pm
Yeah, great pics. I love the blown out lights in the top photo. The stage set reminds me of a George Melies movie set
- steve 4-13-2007 6:44 pm