Hey world! So let’s go back one
day and talk about last Tuesday, the 8th of October. Well, my mum
was nagging about wanting to go to 5th Avenue to shop and I said,
“Oh fine, but no taxi!” I hate NYC cabs, I know, I shouldn’t but I don’t like
using cars in the city. I mean, you can do almost anything by foot and if it’s
indeed too far you just take the subway and pay $2,50! Plus most taxi drivers
are RUDE and yell at you. Well anyways, we walked from where we were staying
(between 10th and 9th avenues) ‘till 5th
avenue. That alone was already quite a walk.
We went to the Apple Store
because my mum wanted an Ipad. There are a gazilion types of Ipads in that
store and I had no idea what she wanted, most importantly not even she had a
faint idea of what she wanted. So I called my cousin but he didn’t pick up, all
of the sudden I start receiving audio messages in my whatsapp feed. They were
my cousin’s telling me he was in the shower but he could help me chose one even
though (you could hear the water running as he spoke). He explained the type of
Ipad I had to buy through 10 second audio files he made while showering, what?
Yeah, just, yeah.
We got what we were looking for
and basically spent the rest of the day walking down 5th Avenue and
shopping. We walked ‘till 32nd Street where a friend had recommended
a Japanese food restaurant but it was 3:15 and they closed at 3:00. My mum was
beyond pissed, we were craving to eat this kind of food for so long! Then we
went back, all on foot, so from 32nd Street to 57th
street and then from 5th Avenue to 9th Avenue, it was
quite a walk, not to mention all the shopping bags.
But I didn’t have time to rest, I
took a shower, changed and headed off to the Met. I had a smoked salmon with
cream cheese bagel and it was like heaven! I’m such an ogress!
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| The sunset was gorgeous that day, later I found out that this phenomenon only happens twice a year in the city |
Well, this was the second opera
I’d be watching alone and I bought a rather fine seat on the first row of the
Balcony. I think that was the best seat I had. Because when you sit at the
orchestra you can see the action very well and you can actually see people’s
faces which is fantastic but the sound isn’t really the best. When I sat at the
grand tier the sound wasn’t real good and since I was a little to the back of
the grand tier I couldn’t see the faces either. In the Family Circle the sound
is INSANE, it’s really good, all the point and sound and greatness goes up to
the Family Circle BUT you are so far away you can’t see people’s faces. The
best place was indeed first row balcony. Because you get that amazing Family
Circle sound plus you are much more near the stage and can actually see the
faces, so if you are buying tickets for the opera at the Met, buy stuff on the
Balcony! It’s a bit pricy, it’s $100,00 but it’s really the best seat in the
house, at least for me!
Well now on to the crazy world of
Shostakovich, I was a bit reluctant about watching this opera at first. I mean,
it’s a Russian modern opera by Shostakovich, I really didn’t know what I was
going to get. But apart from the title character being played by the Brazilian
Paulo Szot, Valery Gergiev was also conducting it.
I wanna to first and foremost
talk about the sets. They are amazing, I never saw anything like it in my whole
life! It was partially made with amazing projections and the projections
actually interacted with the singers! Plus you had the translation of what they
were saying in the projections so it was a lot of fun following.
It starts off with our hero going
to the barber’s shop and getting a shave. After he’s left the barber realizes
he cut the man’s nose out! I loved this scene because the barber’s wife comes
after him and the argue and he runs in a brave move, because they are in a two
story set and there’s a rope with a bucket that goes downstairs and he hops on
it descends and runs, it’s amazing! So brave, I would never do that! The opera
is fun and it is funny!
Well waking up the next morning
our hero finds that his nose is in fact missing, no blood no whole, just no
nose. He’s desperate and scared. Paulo Szot has a beautiful voice plus he’s a
real good actor. This guy I’ve admired for years and years and years! A few
years back he braved into a world very few opera singers brave into, the world
of musical theater and he was an absolute sensation! He even won a Tony Award
for his work in the revival of South Pacific. He was the very first Brazilian
to win a Tony Award, quite huge! Plus he was playing Lescaut in that production
of Manon that made me fall in love with opera.
He goes on about town asking for
help and about a thousand characters with each two or three lines appear but
nobody really helps him. He sees the nose and even talks to him, the nose
actually acquired a personality and has a higher social position that his
owner, imagine that! I particularly liked the scene in the church where he
actually talks to the nose and the nose says that he could never be his since
they are so different. He goes to the police and to the news papers but no
help, just a lot of bullying because he is now deformed with really no nose.
The opera is rather dynamic and although it is atonal you don’t really feel
disturbed by it. It must be a bitch to learn and it’s definitely something I
would not do since I’m such a lyrical kind of person, but the story was light
and fun which made perfect counterpoint with the complicated music.
By the end of the first part his
nose is stomped by a mob of people and shrinks back into his normal size. There
was no intermission in this opera since the whole thing is about 90 minutes,
there was just a brief pause of about 3 minutes and then we were back.
A police officer has found the
nose but in order for our hero to actually get his nose back he has to pay a
lot of money to the policeman. Our hero is now trying to stick his nose back
onto his face, but no avail! The nose won’t stick! I don’t know how I’m making
this sound, but this is quite hilarious! He tells his servant to call the
doctor, but the doctor also doesn’t help at all, he even says that it’s better
to leave things as they are, if he tried to sew the nose back I’d be way worst.
But the doctor also asks for money, a lot of it. I’m sure this piece has a
double meaning, with a man who has suddenly lost something vital and everybody
who usually always helped either laughed at him or took advantage of his
situation.
Defeated our hero goes to sleep
and miraculously during the night the nose decides that he wants to come back
and our hero wakes up the next day thrilled to have his nose right back on his
face! So it’s a happy ending for our crazy opera about a runaway nose! Then
comes a part I loved, some actors start questioning why on earth would someone
make up a story like that? It’s so cool! I had a wonderful laugh and actually
left the Met auditorium with a huge smile on my face. I really liked this
opera! And it’s odd because as I was exiting the auditorium an old lady of
about 70 years old asked me what I had thought of it and I said “It’s the
craziest thing I’ve ever seen, but I really liked it!” and the old lady said “I
was just saying the same thing to my daughter, it’s definitely the craziest
thing I’ve ever seen but it’s wonderful!”.
Well, I went to the stage door because
I really wanted to meet/talk to Paulo Szot. The creepers were ALL there, it’s
so disturbing, seriously, those people are sick. When Paulo came out I let them
have a go at him, I really didn’t want to fight for Paulo’s attention with
those lunatics, so I waited my turn. Eventually they eased up on Paulo because
Maestro Gergiev had just come out so I went to talk to him. I must say it was
so much fun to actually be able to speak in my own language at the stage door
with a singer who had just sung. Because you’d have a lot of times loads of
Russians speaking their mother tongue to the performers and I’m like “I don’t
even know what they are saying!”. But Paulo is such a sweetheart! My singing
teacher is actually really good friends with him so she send him a rather
strange message through me, probably one of those inner jokes. He did laugh and
thanked me so much. We talked for a while about The Nose and about South
Pacific. He was so sweet, ah, I’m so happy I’m getting to meet these people and
actually talk to them for a while. And most importantly see that they actually
listen to what I have to say!
Well guys, that’s it for today,
now I gotta run to class because I’m late.
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