Sunday, November 23, 2008

Saw UNC Opera Poulenc's The Breasts of Tiresias. What a strange piece! And short and with funny and lovely bits. It was well-performed by the UNC students, with a particularly unexpectedly funny fortune teller.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Went to the NC Master Chorale's performance of Stravinsky's Les Noces, and a chamber chorus and ballet that preceded it Menotti's The Unicorn, the Gorgorn and the Manticore.

The chorus and ballet piece was charming, though a little odd to me, both because of the extremely wordy narrative and conversational text sung by the chorus, but also because of the fairy-tale surreal story of an eccentric who kept pets like a unicorn.

The performance of Les Noces was clearly diligently prepared (they got through it briskly and with gusto), though the performance struck me most of all as frenetic. And because I've studied and sung Russian folk music, the diction and style of singing kept distracting me. I admire them for giving it a good go.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Went to Art During the Reign of Philip III -- El Greco to Velazquez at the Nasher at Duke. Actually, I went twice -- once on my own and once with a friend of mine. It was a pretty impressive little show, and nicely curated. The paintings and sculptures were grouped thematically (Mary, saints, still life, et al.) to make it easy to compare different treatments of the same subjects. And there were a couple of cool things to see side-by-side -- similar subjects by the same artist and similar compositions by different artists, and similar themes by different artists. I was particularly impressed by an adoration of the magi by Maino. TV program here.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

I went to Sweeney Todd at Duke. It was an interesting production. A few of the actors' or directors' choices were interesting, but it wasn't particularly inspiring and I wasn't really in the mood to be there, so I left at intermission. I'm glad I went, though.