Day 8 - The Met Museum of Art and A Midsummer Night's Dream

Holy macaroni! I didn’t plan to take such a long time to post again, but now it’s been almost a week! Things have been completely crazy, as some of you know I’m applying to colleges in the US to get my graduate diploma so there are a lot of things I need to do/write and Microsoft Word’s column system has managed to drive me just over the edge. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, it’s easier to actually sing all this music than to fucking list it in a nice, clean, space saving manner. 

I’m writing this while listening to the Met’s last year’s production of Un Ballo in Maschera, my favorite part, beginning of act 3. Love the baritone/soprano faceoffs/duets, especially if the soprano is Sondra Radvanovsky and the baritone is Dmitri Hvorotovsky. Man, this reminds me that a lady sent me a message on Facebook trashing Sondra’s work in Norma and I was so pissed off I almost had a total fit and called her a billion names, but I was able to simply ignore her. But then she went to this opera group thing on facebook and bad mouthed Sondra and I could not keep quiet, I told her that she was rude and very disrespectful and who did she think she was to talk about Sondra like that. I felt awesome, because Sondra is awesome and I won’t have anybody badmouthing her on my watch.

Anyways, where was I? Oh yes! Friday, the 11^th! So this day was pretty gray, the weather was very bleh and it rained just a bit, me and my mum hanged for a while in Lincoln Center and then headed off to PJ Clarks for lunch. It’s not like my favorite restaurant EVER, I much prefer Japanese food, but the fact that it has somehow affordable prices and it is ridiculously close to the Met totally wins me over.

Well we had a plan, we’d walk to the Met Museum of Art through Central Park since we hadn’t been there yet.  Yes, it’d been more than a week that I was there and I hadn’t gone to Central Park, and I’ll tell you why. I’m a reasonable fan of green and parks and stuff, but if I’m in the city of my dreams for a limited number of days I do not want to spend my precious New York hours looking at green stuff and smelling the fresh air that was purified by the trees. So as we entered the park I almost immediately wanted out! I just wanted to get to the Met Museum to see all the great stuff I wasn’t able to see last time I was in NYC. But my mum wanted to stop by everything that stood out to take a nice little pic. We did walk a lot, from Lincoln Center to the Met Museum that is on the other side of the Park on 5^th avenue. Long walk.

ridiculously cute squirrel at Central Park 

We finally got there but the main entrance was closed for renovations and I was a tad upset because I wanted to take a picture on the top of the Met steps like Blair Waldorf. We got inside and man I love this museum, I could see myself easily coming here every single time I come back to the city. It’s like an awesome trip in time, we walked in through the Greek/Roman area and I just marveled at those very genuine and old statues in awe! We went to the American Wing (or something like that), I just know that we walk inside a house and before you know it there are a gazillion floors and corridors and other places full of awesome stuff and beautiful furniture. 

now tell me, who wouldn't want to live in a place like this?

But we went there to see the cool awesome paintings on the second floor. And oh my! I mean, so many great works there I just got dizzy. And it’s so awesome that we can actually take pictures and stand quite close to the paintings. Big time names there, Van Gogh, Seurat, Picasso, Cézanne, Renoir and Monet. I’m gonna share some of my favorites with you guys.

Camille Pissarro "Rue de l'Épicerie Rouer"

Both painting above are Auguste Renoir's the first is called "In the Meadow" and the other "By the Seashore"

"Adolphe Monet Reading a Garden" Claude Monet

"Garden at Sainte-Adresse" Claude Monet

Pablo Picasso's "Woman in White"

Unfortunately we were running out of time and as we marveled the perfection of Monet’s masterpieces we realized it was 6:00pm and we had to get back to the hotel to get ready for the opera that started at 7:30 and we were an hour walk from the hotel. We walked, ALL THE WAY BACK. My feet were throbbing! They doubled in size, I quite literally could not fit my feet inside my own shoes. How insane is that?

Well I did manage to squeeze my feet inside some fabulous new shoes I got, they are pink and black and awesome! Plus they matched my cardigan like perfectly!

Ok, something so magical has just happened now, I look to the side and see an unfamiliar bag in my desk I hadn’t noticed was there. I take it and look at the contents inside and BAM two Olga Borodina cds! Holy crap I’m happy! How cool is that? Well actually I was expecting to get them since when I bought 2737092 cds on Amazon they did warn me that some of the deliveries might be late, and they were, so my uncle who was in NYC just last week got them for me. But this was very unexpected. Very happy now. The cds are Olga Borodina singing Tchaikovsky’s romances “None but the lonely heart” and an amazing recording of Olga Borodina, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Valery Gergiev with the St Petersburg Chamber Choir doing Russian music “The heart and soul of Russia”. I don’t know if you noticed but I’m a big fan of Russian music.

But back to that Friday, we managed to get ready in time and I remember I ran to a Starbucks to get at least some coffee for us to have before the performance. And as I ran the streets of NYC with two piping hot lattes in hand, my purse overflowing with stuff, my phone buzzing and trying to get hold of something to eat, I felt RIGHT. It’s weird, but I felt home, I felt like I could do that every day and be happy for ever. I don’t know what it is about NYC but I just feel so comfortable there, I feel safe, and understood and finally like I belong. Like people don’t talk to me like I’m a freak when I tell them about my career but they actually know something or other about opera and are eager to learn more talking to you. Like you can talk normally to a fellow singer without having to list out your repertoire to the person’s snarky comments or have to listen to them trash someone. You simply talk about your favorite operas and good aspects of various performers. I feel like people in NYC in general are so much more positive and kind compared to the folks back in São Paulo.

Well anyways, I’m babbling a lot today! We got to the Met in time, we were watching “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and I’m gonna let out a little secret to y’all. I have never seen the play nor the movie or knew the story, there I’ve said it. I’m a big Shakespeare fan and have done my share of Shakespearean plays, but I didn’t know this one. We go all the way up, up to the Family Circle and after 5 minutes the lights dim and let’s get to it!

view from my seat, dangerously high!

The production is absolutely adorable, very much like a dream place of a child you might say. The Met’s children’s chorus was adorable and INCREDIBLE. I mean, this is Benjamin Britten we are talking about, this music is difficult for an adult to learn, let alone a child, although I do believe children have a natural easiness to learning things in general, bottom-line the music was difficult. The story was kind of cloudy to me at the beginning, nothing really seemed to make sense. Fairies, evil fairy who only speaks and does not sing, lovers that can’t be together, a woman with a serious obsession about a dude who despises her and a play rehearsal. You can only imagine that if I was confused my mum was beyond help. As the first act progressed I did get how all these things entwine and started having a great time. 

You know what the costumes for the guy counter tenor fairy and the lady high soprano fairy reminded me of? COSMO AND WANDA! From The Fairly OddParents! Ok, shut up! Anyways I was a bit mad at Lysander, what a prick to treat Hermia like that! But if I have to choose a favorite part for the first act I must say the theater group rehearsal. I think that was probably the part I liked the most even though they were the smallest characters. But I think that Britten did such an amazing job writing for all those different voices and taking the time to match their personalities with the type of singing and the voice types. And when they sang together is was so beautiful all that harmony resonating gloriously to my cheap Family Circle seat was just amazing!

Well there is a total mess in this story, because fairy counter tenor wants a little boy fairy high soprano has. So he comes up with this crazy plan of giving her some sort of drug stuff powder to make her fall in love with the first thing she sees. And what does she see but a man who’s been turned into a donkey! In the human world Demetrius and Helena are in love but Helena is promised to Lysander and Demetrius is broke. So they run away together.   Lysander runs after them but is also pursued by Hermia who has a serious mental problem. I say that because even though he treats her like shit she keeps on following him and telling him she loves him and all that. Have some self respect girl! The fairy counter tenor guy sees Lysander being a total jerk to Hermia and orders his servant who only speaks and never sings to throw the love powder thing on Lysander as well so he’ll fall for Hermia! BUT the fairy dude does not say Lysander he says “a Greek guy wearing white robes” (or something). So the fairy servant that never sings OBVIOUSLY mistakes   Lysander for Demetrius. And when Demetrius wakes up he first sees Hermia, BANG tots in love with her and totally drops Helena!    

And do you remember that theater group? There’s this guy who wants to play every single role but his own and so the fairy who won’t sing turns him into that donkey the high soprano fairy falls for! Ends first act and I’m like “This story couldn’t get any crazier, seriously.” But I did enjoy myself a lot. And guys don’t mind my referring to the characters as “counter tenor fairy” and “kinda cute guy who gets turned into a donkey”, I don’t know the names, I only know the names of the lovers because they are the same names as in The Enchanted Island.

I developed quite a nice habit at the Met when I’m alone at intermission, looking dreamily at the gorgeous chandeliers. And I can assure you, you can spend a long period of time staring at them, they are just so gorgeous and I also observe the people and it’s fun!

 

Second act starts and high soprano fairy is so smitten with the donkey guy thing. She makes her fairies take care of him and obey his every command. But his commands consisted mainly in them scratching behind his ears. For a terrified moment I thought the soprano fairy was gonna try or actually accomplish kissing the donkey head. That would have been disturbing on the very least. But no kissing occurred. Ah the counter tenor fairy got the child, what he did with him? No one knows, be afraid.

Well while that happens Demetrius is now chasing Hermia who thinks he’s playing a trick on her and Helena is pursuing Demetrius who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about her. Lysander appears and now he pursues Helena, it’s a pretty ugly mess to sum up. When the counter tenor fairy sees the enchantment hit the wrong person he makes his non singing fairy do the powder enchantment thing on Lysander. Lysander is enchanted and now there are two guys fighting over the ever more suspicious Hermia while Helena weeps because her lover doesn’t care about her anymore. I liked this scene, real funny. Specially because Hermia lets it all out and tells Helena how she made her feel and you’re like “a lot of unfinished business there”.

The countertenor fairy gets tired of them babbling and fighting and puts them all to sleep and makes the musically mute fairy lift the spell from DEMETRIUS. Ends act 2 and I’m like, this opera has 3 acts? Holy mother of God, what more could possibly happen? A lot, as I will learn on the third act.

moi at intermission!

Well, the counter tenor fairy lifts the spell from the soprano fairy and I don’t know if I didn’t catch this in the beginning but they apparently have a thing, are married or something. What? The two fairies I mean. Well, the scene is quite beautiful, they end up dancing and it’s very romantic! And the donkey person gets himself turned back to his kinda cute human self. The lovers wake up and sing about 15 minutes long of a quartet telling each other they love each other and it’s adorable but I’m still wondering why they made a whole other act just for that. Foolish me thinking that this was over, the best part was yet to come! Because the theater group is back together and after apparently a night of rehearsal they are ready to perform, and not just to an one but to the emperor! 

The emperor and his wife appear and the lovers ask them to get married and they let them and are all happy and sappy. The theater group arrives and they perform their play. That was the best part of the opera, I never laughed so bad in live opera before. One because their “over the top acting” was amazing and it was an all man’s group doing a romantic story, so the shortest and chubbiest guy with a stutter problem was playing the lady. The others had pretty ridiculously hilarious parts like a wall, the moon, a tree. The whole performance was very funny, especially when the girl kills herself. I just could not stop laughing and then basically they all live happily ever after, the end!

my mu super pro in taking curtain call pics!

I really liked this opera, although it’s not my favorite kind of music (I’m a Puccini, Verdi kinda girl) I had a fantastic time! And I think we have to watch everything you know, at least once, just to go out and say “Hey, not really my cup of tea” but then you’ve seen it, you talk from experience. Not that I did not like the opera, I did, but it’s not like I’m going to have pictures of the performance on my bedroom wall like I have of Tosca.

Well, this is long enough hun? Guys, have a ball, only 3 posts to go and the following will have major fangirling moments and loads of happy tears! Cheers!

Still on the Subject of Protest

Oh boy, yesterday was quite a day! But let me start from the beginning, on Monday evening there was a new protest that, if I’m not mistaken, gathered more than 70.000 people, my bad for believing the media, they say there were 70.000 but I recently found out there were ONE MILLION PLEOPLE here in São Paulo. My parents had strictly forbidden me and my sister to go to these things because it was dangerous and bla bla bla, and I must admit I was kind of scared of getting shot (who isn’t, right?). But as I accompanied the news of that protest and of the other 40 protests that happened at the same time all over Brazil in 11 states, my legs started hurting. I knew right away why, because I wanted to be there, for me it wasn’t enough just sharing videos and images on Facebook and twitter.

Protests on Monday

The protests on Monday were quite marvelous, I’ll talk about the four I know best, but I won’t extend myself on this.

In Brasilia, our capital city which was in its whole completely designed by the great architect Oscar Niemeyer, thousands of people marched towards the National Congress, one of Niemeyer’s beautiful works of art. There they actually kind of broke into the exterior part of the building and hundreds of protesters climbed the roof. Mind you, they DID NOT use violence; all of these protests are PEACEFUL! It was really a sight to see, the people shouting for justice and better life conditions as one. It brought tears to my eyes, here are some pictures.

 



In Rio de Janeiro around one million protesters closed the Primeiro de Março Street, which is one of the city’s most important streets and in it they marched towards the Candelária Church. The police officers were nearby but didn’t attack, but I hear that at the end of the evening there was some confrontation between the police and a few protesters. Check out the amazing pictures:

 

In São Paulo another million people met at the Largo da Batata in Pinheiros and marched towards the famous Paulista Avenue. Also there was no confrontation with the police and the movement was peaceful and legit. I had many friends who were there that will attest to that, no violence, just the smell of change and determination in the air.

 

And finally in my home town that is not even comparable with the above in size but also has people who are willing to go out on the streets to fight for their rights. Another peaceful protest, they took over the beach avenue that is the most important avenue in the city and finished their march at the seaport where the ferries are. My wicked little sister, against our parents orders went to the manifestation, first I thought “That little bitch!” but then I thought “You damned coward!”.

My experience at the protest on Tuesday

And so I decided to go and see for myself what these protests are really about. So yesterday I went to college in my normal routine, studied all afternoon long and then decided I was going to go there. I walked to the Sé Square where the protesters were meeting, all by myself, I must admit I was very scared mainly because I was alone. On my way I saw helicopters covering the area and as I approached that GORGEOUS cathedral I started hearing the sound of the revolution.

Ok, I’ve NEVER seen so many people in my whole existence! It was literally a sea of people I couldn’t actually believe my eyes. And I mean, I’ve been to New York, London, I live in São Paulo, I’ve already been on a train here at 6:00pm, I’ve seen a lot, but nothing like this. I climbed the stairs of the church to get a better view of the gathering and took some pictures. It was amazing, the only other time I had seen so many people wearing our country's colors and making so much noise was when there was a football match. But even the football matches enthusiasm couldn’t remotely compare to what I saw, it was like game day 100 times more people and belief.



my view from up the stairs of the Se Cathedral


The best moment for me, the most magical actually, was when the cathedral bells started ringing and the people started shouting as one the national anthem. It really brought tears to my eyes, everybody with their hands over their hearts singing, it was really wonderful!

I couldn't help but also take a picture of this beautiful master piece we have in São Paulo

What I found most refreshing was that it was a very peaceful thing, yes, people were screaming and jumping, but no violence whatsoever. Signs were being held up addressing to the most various problems, from the initial bus fare issue to the new “Gay Cure” law that’s about to be approved. From people asking for the immediate arrest of the politicians who for so many years have stolen our tax money to others saying they couldn’t give a flying *uck about the World Cup, what we need is quality of life. From signs that read “The Alkimin Dead” (it’s the name of our governor) to others saying “Goku is with us in this fight” .

 

I loved this guy's enthusiasm, his sign reads "Fuck the World Cup" 

Another wonderful thing is that I saw of all sorts people in this manifestation, not only young college students, but parents with their children on their shoulders, old ladies with their smart phones taking pictures of everything, people who had just come from work in suit, tie and smart clothes, EVEN SPIDERMAN WAS THERE FOR CHRIST SAKES!
 

I stayed there from 6:00pm ‘till 7:20pm when they started leaving the square to march up the Brigadeiro Avenue to get to the Paulista Avenue. I swear to God, I stood there watching as the people left the square for 10 solid minutes and the people just kept on showing up. When I finally left there were more people still marching by the place where I was standing in awe for the number of people.

One thing that made me REALLY pissed was the fact that the Sé Subway simply closed its doors, so I had to walk to another subway station to get home. I found it outrageous because there was absolutely no trouble going on there, it was a peaceful movement. Plus I’m pretty sure they don’t close their doors when those retarded football players come to “parade” with their meaningless trophies around the city.

Fun facts about Brazilian Politics

Did you know that our distinguished president is threatening to cut off the internet here in Brazil if the protests go on?

Did you know that the Senate is voting this week on a bill called PEC37 that will let them steal even more of our tax money and get out of a hard situation in a blink of an eye?

Did you know the police had infiltrated people at the protests who vandalized public property to pin it on the protesters? If you saw a crazy human being with a gas mask throwing everything he could find at the door of the City Hall of São Paulo last night, yes, he was a police agent ordered to do so.

Did you know we have a homophobic Senator who is putting through Senate a bill for the “Gay Cure”?

Did you know that the government has spent 1.5 billion reais in building ONE football stadium alone in Brasilia?

Did you know our president spend almost R$400.000,00 of public money alone in a trip she made to Rome in order to meet the Pope?

Did you know the government has already penalized Facebook because it’s where the protests are being organized and has ordered for them to go off the air for an entire day in Brazil?

Did you know that while the government spends billions investing the World Cup and Olympics there are people dying in public hospitals that can be compared to garbage cans?

Did you know that we have projects that give money to poor people for having loads of children? As a result of that there are people who purposely have about 10 children and don’t work at all since they receive an amount of money per child.

Did you know these projects also apply to people who are in prison and that they sometimes surpass the minimum wage that is around R$600,00 per month.

Did you know that the Brazilian army went to Haiti in 2004 to help for 6 months and are still there? This project was to cost us 150 million reais and now is around 2 billion reais.

Did you know that in 2007 the Pan American Games were to cost less than 400 million reais and in the end the check was at 4 billion reais?

Did you know that in Salvador it’s been more than 10 years that the subway is under construction and would cost 300 million reais, now it’s on 600 million reais and still no subway.

Did you know the costs for the World Cup just recently have gone up 1 billion reais?

And finally, did you know there’s a new bill that wants to forbid abortion in case of rape and instead give money to the victim so she can raise the raper’s child?

The reality of Opera in Brazil

Did you know that the two only opera houses here in São Paulo (the most important urban center in the country who recently received Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato and Vesselina Kasarova) are run by the government? The Theatro Municipal (the largest) is run by the city of São Paulo and the Theatro São Pedro is run by the state and the mayor and the governor are from rival parties. So you know what they do to see who wins the people over? They schedule operas for the SAME DATES! In their ENTIRE opera season the Theatro Municipal has 5 productions and so does the Theatro São Pedro and they most curiously picked the very same dates for their recits, out of 365 freaking days of the year!

The government ALWAYS over prices any sort of project it does. So you can imagine the opera is no different. We were actually going through a marvelous time about two years ago, the Theatro São Pedro was hiring young singers for the opera chorus and many of my colleges and friends had a job in opera thanks to that. They did Carmen, Romeo et Juliette, Il Guarani, L’Elisir D’Amore and other operas and it was a real marvelous season. But then it was discovered that the Politian in charge was over pricing the productions and getting the money for himself while others were getting wages that could only be described as “they REALLY LOVE WHAT THEY DO”. The theatre was closed for about 6 months and after that there were no operas with chorus and the productions really decreased in quality.

The Theatro Municipal was closed for 8 YEARS for renovations that were also overpriced.   

The Turn of the Screw

And since we are at the opera subject here, yesterday I watched one (yes, right after the protest). It’s called The Turn of the Screw by the composer Benjamin Britten and I must say I didn’t thoroughly enjoy it. It was in English so I expected PERFECT pronunciation and that I did not get and the fact that I had to look at the subtitles because I couldn’t understand what they said annoyed me enormously (and I don’t mean to sound arrogant but I KNOW that my listening skills are not the problem). On the bright side the scenery was beautiful! Although, since it’s a ghost story, they had the opportunity to give the public several frights and they didn’t (again don’t get me wrong but one of best plays I’ve ever watched was Woman in Black, I totally pissed my pants with fear and screamed, IT WAS AMAZING!).

the view from my seat

I really liked the mezzo soprano who was playing Miss Jessel, Luciana Bueno,  I already knew she was good, I saw her as Carmen a couple of years ago and she was just marvelous. Same here, creepy and wonderful ghost she was, I found that that was the coolest role in the opera. Kudos also to the soprano playing Mrs. Grose, Celine Imbert , she had a big big voice which I love, and a lot of stage presence. The kids were lovely and the little boy in particular was very weird (which is good for the story), sort of like a creepy child. The Governess character annoyed me enormously and up until the end I did not like her she was so dramatic and helpless. The music is tonal but different, I really liked it, specally when there were musical themes to each character in each scene, so that was pretty awesome. I particularly liked the theme for Miss Jessel in the bedroom scene she has with the Governess.
 

Plus I didn’t read the program whatsoever before watching it, I always do this because I want the opera to tell me story, knowing what’s to happen is so irritating. But I didn’t understand some things of the story, specially why it’s called The Turn of the Screw, any ideas?

Well that was it basically, oh and not forgetting my dear ex boyfriend got me a free ticket for this opera! PEACE EVERYONE, ALWAYS AND #CHANGEBRAZIL