Hey guys!
Wow that last post was liberating! But it was also posted almost 2, 3 weeks ago!
I can’t believe I haven’t posted in such a long time! Shame on me!
I came to a
very odd realization today, I didn’t go to any of the Live in HD this season!
Shame on me indeed! But in my defense I did go to the actual Met more than 12
times this season. And it’s so odd that most of the things I saw were in the HD
program so I didn’t miss much. Plus there isn’t a movie theater in my town that
shows the HD broadcasts, I have to make a rather long, boring and expensive
trip to get to one. I might go to La Cenerentola though, it’s Joyce after all,
and I do almost anything for Joyce.
But I’m
sure you all are curious to know about my days in NYC, still have about 2 days
to cover so let’s go!
So Friday
the 21st of February. We set aside this day to go to New Jersey. I
know what you might be thinking; why on earth would you leave NYC to go to New
Jersey? One simple word my friends: shopping. You see in New Jersey they have
this great outlet mall called Jersey Gardens where stuff is just real cheap.
Plus taxes are way smaller in Jersey, plus if you are foreign you get a special
discount book or you don’t even have to pay the taxes at all. Bottom line, I
might love NYC and opera and everything, but I also LOVE to shop. It’s a
refined art and if you are very experienced and good in it, you’ll never look
bad.
It was a
pretty chilly day, it even snowed a little bit and thank God we were basically
indoors all day. Well during our stay in New Jersey we shopped and shopped some
more and ended up having to carry quite a lot of bags. I got this REALLY cute
sweater at Forever 21 for like $7 that I liked so much that I changed into it.
Around 4 we
picked up some salads and lattes at Starbucks and headed off to get into the
bus to go back to the city. We already knew there’d be loads of traffic to get
into the city. Unfortunately we could only get into a bus at 5 and I started to
worry. You see I had planned to watch Prince Igor and I hadn’t gotten a ticket
yet and I just couldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t get to watch it. I was
hopeful that I would make it to Lincoln Center in time until like 10 minutes to
7 and we were still inside the tunnel. We got to Port Authority at about 7:05,
we grabbed something to eat and headed out to grab a taxi. Lucky for us that
there was a taxi right outside and I didn’t even think, I gave a positive sign
to the driver, he gave me the thumbs up and I got in. My mom followed in and as
soon as we were moving she turned to me and said “You do realize that there was a huge line to get a taxi, right?”.
Apparently while I was flying inside the taxi the taxi organizing lady screamed
at my mom “Were you even in line?”
and the BLESSED guy who was the next in line for a cab said “Yes, yes they were!”. What a blessed
human being!
Anyways, I
ended up going to Lincoln Center anyways to try my luck and watch half of the
opera. What happened next I can only call destiny, luck and I don’t even know
what. First it was so interesting to be in the house outside the auditorium
while an opera was going on. I didn’t know that the opera was streamed live
with subtitles in the TVs outside the auditorium and you could hear the voices
and the music vibrating in the place, it was insane. I went to the ticket booth
and asked the lady if I could still get tickets for that performance. She just
looked at me and said “You do realize that the performance has already began,
right?” I told her I did and I didn’t really care, I really wanted to watch
this opera anyways. She warmed up to me, I don’t know, she asked me if I was a
student, I said yes and she proceeded to sell me a student ticket for $37,00,
in the orchestra, center, SIXTH ROW! YES! I looked up the price of this seat
and it costs $370,00! The actual price was 10 times more expensive than what I
paid for. Quite literally, you don’t have to be a math genius to do work that out.
Anyways, I
went in feeling like the luckiest cookie in the jar! Thankfully there was a 20
minute prologue before the first act. So I waited for about 10 minutes outside
the auditorium doors chatting to a very nice usher. It was so insane how you
could hear the singers so well with those heavy doors closed, it was quite
amazing. Clapping happened and that was our cue. The usher rushed inside with
me and I felt like we were in mission impossible or something, we moved swiftly
as I prayed that I would disrupt as people as little as possible.
How can I
describe my seat, I have two words for you, FUCKING AWESOME! Seriously, it’s
one of those seats that you never think you’ll sit in, it was very near to the
stage, center, glorious and all kinds of awesome, THANK YOU STUDENT TICKETNESS!
 |
| view from THE seat |
Anyways, on
to the opera, so when I got there there was a sort of video going on of war and
of Ildar’s gorgeous person being projected in that huge stage the Met has. I
must admit I hadn’t read the story so I was really confused. But the story is
Prince Igor goes to war and he loses. That prologue was him saying farewell to
his city, Putivl, and wife, the projections were the war part and the first act
was his life being a war prisoner of the Cumans. I’m going to write about what
I remember, because reading the plot in Wikipedia made me very confused, so I’m
just gonna tell you guys what I saw and what I made of it.
So after that
entire intro we see that the stage is absolutely and completely covered with
beautiful red flowers, I was so looking forward for that! Blue, blue sky
contrasting with those gorgeous blood red flowers on a raked stage. Some
flowers started to move and we realized that Prince Igor was actually lying on
the floor.
It’s been
almost 2 months and I seriously do not remember the order of events, so forgive
me if I make any mistakes. Anita Rashvelishvili sang the role of Konchakovna who
was the daughter of the Khan Konchak who was the leader who imprisoned Prince
Igor. She had this absolutely gorgeous aria and she looked so absolutely
amazing and sounded like a freaking goddess! Apparently her character and
Igor’s son Vladimir fall for each other and it’s really sweet. It was kind of
odd because as she sang Igor was watching her with almost an earning gaze. Oh
yes friends, I got ALL THE FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, could not be happier really!
Then Ildar
sang his first aria and oh my God the feels! It is one of the most beautiful
arias I’ve ever heard. It’s in his CD of Russian bass arias and it’s just heart
wrenching! For this aria we had his son, the Khan’s daughter and his wife on
stage trying to tend to him. His wife obviously was fruit of his imagination but
the care and devotion she had with him only helped to make the scene more
memorable. And excuse me, but Ildar has an INCREDIBLE voice, really big and
round and everything you would expect from a Russian bass and more!
Then his
son came up and sang another beautiful aria of his own. It’s so odd, I had
never heard or seen this opera before but the music got me completely hooked. It
was just so gorgeous and the singers were SO good! They all had beautiful
voices that seemed to dance in my ears! After Vladimir’s aria the actual Khan
Konchack showed up with his total basso aria telling Igor that he wasn’t a
prisoner, that he could enjoy the place as much as he wanted, he was just a
guest that wasn’t allowed to leave. Stefan Kocan, who played the Khan, was
amazing and I had already seen him do the Sacristan in Aida and Sparafucile in
Rigoletto. He had this dense and long really low note at the end of his aria
that I truly believed he was going to hold forever!
But then
came the moment we were all waiting for. The Polonaise Dances. This was
actually a way the Khan found to try and seduce Igor to stay there coy and just
sit back and relax while the Khan’s army invaded Russia.
First big,
wonderful surprise was the location of the monumental chorus of 108 singers.
They sang from the audience in the side Parterre and Dress Circle seats, boys
on the audience’s right and girls on the left. Since I was sitting in the
orchestra all that gorgeous sound just poured down on me like a miraculous rain
of beauty. I was more to the right so when the man sang it was really loud and
wonderful and I seriously did not know which way to look. On stage dancers
started appearing and dancing to the music while a bewildered Igor
watched.
This was
the only music that I already knew from the opera so to see it performed in such
a monumental way was truly amazing! The music kept building up and the dancers
hopping like gazelles in heat and my heart skipping a beat at all that
awesomeness. I felt so blessed I even thanked God right in the middle of the
dances for this wonderful opportunity. This was truly one of those things that
you take forever in your heart.
Anyways,
after the dances Igor is kind of inclined for a second to give in and just join
the party but instead he manages to run away to his country and that’s where
act 1 leaves us.
Now, I was
in a very delicate situation. You see, I looked like shit. I was wearing a SEVEN
DOLLAR sweater from Forever 21, thick black tights with embroiled white snowflakes,
my tired black snow boots and a hair so dirty I made a side braid that was kind
of falling apart already. And as I looked around and saw all those people impeccably
dressed with their tuxedos, suits, furs and jewels I freaking started to panic.
At first I wasn’t really worried about how I looked because I thought I gonna
get a seat at the Family circle or something and things up there are much more
relaxed. But I was sitting in a very expensive area and everyone around me seemed
to have brought in their ‘A’ game outfits to the opera house.
So I
quickly made my way to the restroom located bellow the orchestra area to see
what I could do about my far from fancy look. I redid my braid and put on a
pretty French bonnet stylishly, then I redid my make up with the stuff I had in
hand in my makeup bag. Put on my statement red lipstick and took off my glasses
and my head looked extremely Met appropriate. Sadly it was attached to a body
who was unfortunately wearing clothes fit for a quick run to the supermarket.
Also all I could think of was running into the person who takes the pictures for
“last night at the Met”, which is this great tumblr page where they post all
the great and stylish looks of the Met patrons, and getting a dirty look or
something.
I know I
sound silly talking like this, after all I was so lucky to get that seat and I
was having such a wonderful time. But I’m proud to say that I'm fashion forward
kind of person and I care about how I look especially at the Met which I one of
my favorite places in the whole entire world! Anyways, I remembered that Kate
Spade had this collection done with the same polka dot pattern as my sweater.
So I just told myself that I had spent $300 on that sweater on Kate Spade and
that was an ironic look for the opera that young people wear nowadays. I got
out of that restroom with a new found confidence and was able to continue my
evening in peace.
Enough
about fashion though. Second act came along and I was pretty excited and happy
that I hadn’t read the synopsis because I wanted the piece to tell me the story.
Anyways, as I’ve said before it’s been a while since that day so forgive me if
I retell things in the wrong order. The first thing I remember in act 2 was
Igor’s wife’s (Yaroslavna) aria. Oksana Dyka was so incredible, I never heard
her before and she stole my heart. She has this luscious and velvety soprano
voice that is absolutely huge and fills that auditorium effortlessly. All the
arias are lengthy in this opera but you don’t even feel it pass you by. Maybe
it’s because I can’t understand a word in Russian and have no idea if they are
repeating always the same thing or not. But I think it’s because the music is
so interesting and it really keeps you on the edge of your seat. Yaroslavna is
singing about how much she misses her husband and how much she wants him back,
having not had news of him in a long time. You totally root for the couple when
you hear her miserable pleas and I’m the kind of romantic person that pictures
that their reunion is gonna be so passionate. Maybe I should slow down with the
fanfiction.
Anyways after
her aria her maid tells her that there are some convent ladies who wanted to talk
to her and on they come to plead for their friend who has been kidnapped. The
thing is, the person who kidnapped the young nun was Yaroslavna’s brother who
was kind of in charge of protecting the city. But she can’t go against her
brother and he’s not the most honorable guy you’ll ever meet. He actually has
this evil plan (stop with the Once Upon a Time references!) to send away his sister
and take over the city as the new fresh prince (of Bel Air, sorry, I will stop)!
He has this
huge feast with all of the guys from the chorus department and it’s a pretty
fun scene. They laugh, they eat, they’re having a swell time really, they get
really drunk and I could spot some hot guys with half their shirts on that
weren’t singing, God bless whoever cast the extras! I really enjoyed this scene
of the party, it was so energetic and they danced, it really was a lot of fun
to watch. And some people might say, “Ah, he’s the bad guy, this scene isn’t
supposed to be endearing” but I seriously don’t give a rat’s ass, it was a
funny scene only made funnier when the stupid nuns broke in.
I’m sorry
if I sound rude, but you gotta be really stupid to crash a party with
approximately 100 men in order to claim your kidnapped friend back. Needless to
say the guys have a huge laugh on their account and quite honestly so did I.
They started threatening to touch the nuns and some of the guys even kissed
them and I’m sorry if that makes me an awful person, but I thought it was
pretty funny. Thank God I didn’t laugh out loud though because I don’t think
that was the general feeling in the audience.
So as Galitsky
I getting ready to rumble they hear the news of Igor’s failure in the battle
field. There is a huge uproar and everyone, from the chorus, soloists and extras
seem to be on stage and suddenly Galitsky is dead. Then they proceed to be
attacked and as the stage shows the indoors of the castle the scenery quite
literally falls apart. It was so incredible, everybody took cover in the sides
of the set and the whole middle crumbled down with incredible explosions! SO
AMAZING! Really incredible effects and I was right in front, I could see that
if someone had remained on that stage they would have been seriously
injured. Just awesome. End of second act!
Anyways
during intermission I decided to roam along that area down the stairs from the
orchestra level seats. That one where there are a million photographs of all
the cool singers. I could spot many of my favorites, if not all of them really.
They have this BEAUTIFUL painting of Renée Fleming as Rusalka that I would like
to have in my living room. And another even cooler of Placido Domingo as Otello
that would look super hanging above a fireplace.
This
intermission was pretty quick and I was actually dying to know what was gonna
happen next. You see the thing about opera plots for me is the following, there’s
only one time that you are gonna see that opera for the first time. The other
times it might be wonderful too but you’ll already know the story. And I always
like for the theater, the actual thing to tell me story, I find it extremely
pointless to read the plot ahead. I remember I was listening to the Met
premiere of Two Boys last year and I had the score with me so I was following
it plus it was sung in a very clear English so I could understand every word
they were saying. There was only one intermission but in it the commentators
from the radio proceeded to spoil the whole story and tell the end in less than
a minute! I was so MAD, the ending is so fucking good. It felt as if I was
reading a REALLY good Agatha Christie book and someone came up to me and told
me who the killer was before I finished it.
I’m sorry
guys, I just finished watching the last Once Upon a Time episode and I’m kind
of emotional, that show does that to me. Anyways, third act comes along and we are
brought back to the palace but now it is all in ruins and everybody is basically
miserable. Igor appears, he has succeeded in running away but is very upset about
the whole ‘his town is in ruins’ thing and is afraid to reveal himself. There’s
a very cool sort of flashback in which the lights change and we see Igor’s son
telling him he’s not tagging along because he’d rather stay in captivity with
his hot girlfriend. They change back and two guys who were on Galitsky’s side
spot Igor and summon everyone to tell them he’s back in order to redeem
themselves.
Igor has a
pretty romantic and sweet moment with his wife which was brief but I loved it.
And then he turns defeated to his people and says that he feels all this is his
fault and that they all have to work together in order to rebuild the city. I
think its so great that after that he starts to clean up and everybody follows
suit and that’s how the opera ends.
After the
opera ended I headed to the stage door because I needed to take a picture and
speak to Ildar. But I must confess that this time was the most awkward I’ve
ever felt there. The reason? It’s very simple, I was the only one there. Not
even the freaks were there! And about a million people came out of that stage
door and I was truly feeling very uncomfortable. After about half an hour I
heard the crazy white haired bag lady’s voice and I was like “I refuse to stand
out here with that deranged woman!”, so I went inside. I knew she couldn’t come
inside because she had been banned so I felt a lot safer and warm by the
payphone. It took him a little while longer but it was totally worth it, for
when Ildar appeared he was in the company of none other than Barbara Fritolli!
Here are some awesome pics I took at curtain call
Yes! And it took all the courage that I could muster to go up to them and say “Hey, do you guys have a second?” because they were quite resolute on heading towards the door. But as soon as I said I was such a huge fan of both of them they took their time to talk and Ildar signed my copy of his CD with my name on it. I actually ended up talking more to Barbara because I told her that that last production she did of Don Giovanni at the Met was the first opera I ever saw and it made me fall in love with opera. She was so thrilled and also SO NICE. He actually asked me what I had thought about the production and I was so speechless I said “Well at the time I thought it was great because it was the first one I’d ever seen and the singers and the music were so good” and turned to me and said with that awesome Italian accent “There are much better productions than this” and I told her that indeed I had seen better productions since but that she had always remained my favorite Donna Elvira. She was very touched and we took pictures and I also got to tell Ildar how AMAZING he was in this opera and how I admired him. They are THE sweetest couple you know, as I was telling Ildar how incredible he was Barbara was like “Wasn’t he? Wasn’t he great?”
And let me
tell you something else girls, when he pulled me towards his side to take the
picture I almost fainted. He is so attractive! He’s my type, big, strong, Russian,
deep voice and a friendly smile. It was great! After that I went back to the
hotel completely dazzled, what a performance!
And now I
should go! I’m so sorry I took such a long time to update! I’ll try to not let
it happen again! Cheers people!
