Here and Back Again in NYC (days 2 & 3) - Hartford, The Audition and Rusalka at the Met

Hallo world! It’s has been so incredibly crazy and wonderful! I decided not to post while I was there because 1- there was hardly any time to do so and 2- because I wanted to write it well. I’m already back in Brazil, arrived on Monday but let’s go back in time to NYC.

So Friday (the 14^th) was kind of a dead day because me and my mum went to Hartford that day in the afternoon. So we basically just ate and got our stuff ready, went to Port Authority and got on the bus to Hartford. I did eat a Salmon Wasabi Bagel that had WAY too much wasabi and my eyes started watering, it was pretty awful. We got to Hartford at about 6, grabbed a cab and I could understand about 25% of what the taxi driver was saying (I didn’t really like him)! At the hotel there were the sweetest reception ladies that made us feel so at home and comfortable and with whom we shared a lot of conversation over our Valentine’s day dinner. Me and mum did manage to lock ourselves out of the hotel room which was pretty pathetic but also oh so funny. Our room was fantastic and I had a really good night’s sleep.

me and mum having our Valentine's Day dinner

Next day was completely different, totally heretic and crazy! So we woke up pretty early, had some breakfast and packed our stuff and asked one of the nice ladies from the reception for a cab. When we got to the cab it was the very same guy from last night! He left us at The Hartt School and my heart started pounding real fast. The whole university was covered with snow but I could see how absolutely gigantic it was plus it was beautiful. We got in and I checked in with a very nice girl named Mia (yeah, like the princess!) and we got to talking a lot and guess what? She knows Sydney!

I went to this talk thing that was happening in this big gorgeous auditorium (they have so many, I was drooling!) about scholarships and life on campus and the school. It was pretty nice and a good way to keep my mind occupied so I wouldn’t be so nervous. Around 11:30 I went up to the fourth floor to do my warm ups, there were some pretty nice people there (all the students that were working that day were incredibly nice). Well, I got into a professor’s office which was my assigned place for warm-ups and started doing my thing and texting my voice teacher. I did about 15 minutes of vocal warm ups and a guy knocked on my door and said they were ready for me. HOLY SHIT! I grabbed my stuff and out I went only to find Sydney standing there! I was so happy to see her that the nervousness kinda diminished a bit.

Selfie warming up!

But on I was and in I went for my audition. The room I took my audition in was quite big and there was a long table with about 6 teachers there. There was a small stage with a piano and a pianist. The teachers were really nice and kept asking me fun sorts of questions. They said I could pick my first song so I picked the Modinha by Villa Lobos which was what Gerald Finley had advised me to do. To sing in my own native tongue as quickly as possible to show them my individuality and all. The pianist was insanely good, the intro to this song is super difficult and he totally pulled it off. I sang and I think I did a good job, I didn’t crack and I could hear my voice travelling quite nicely in that room with incredible acoustics.

Then they asked me what else I had brought and they decided on Les Filles de Cadix! One of the hardest ones! Apart from being super incredible the pianist was also so very nice. That Spanish tune went on and there I was, I sang and I didn’t crack which was fantastic. I did mess up some tempos because I was so nervous but overall I think it went pretty well. The high notes sounded really pretty and were kind of effortless and I made it to the end without passing out. After I finished one of the teachers said “Thank you very much, we will let you know”. I then turned to the pianist in a very discreet manner (as if) and asked him if it was good thing or bad that they didn’t ask me to do the sight reading thing. He told me that they probably just forgot and so I thanked him and flew out of that audition room feeling the weight of the world finally getting off my shoulders!

Sydney was waiting out for me and she said that from what she could hear I went pretty well. She showed me around campus a bit, to the libraries and stuff but it was really cold and snowing. We went to a small auditorium where I would be taking my Music Aptitude Test, I was a little afraid of it but as soon as I took it I was chilled. It wasn’t very difficult but I couldn’t wait for it to be over!

Sydney and I

I had a chance to talk to some people who were applying to the school and everyone just seemed so nice! After some time me and mum met Sydney and we ate at a supermarket place at the university. It was a shame our taxi got to Hartford University so quickly, we had to say our goodbyes and leave for the bus station. It was snowing by then and really cold. Our bus left 20 minutes late and the driver drove SO SLOWLY I wanted to murder him.

You see, Saturday I had a very good balcony ticket for the very last Rusalka from the Met which is probably the last Rusalka Renée Fleming would do, ever. My bus was to leave Hartford at 4:00 and arrive in NYC at 6:30. Bottom-line I was oh so very nervous for the whole trip, I watched about 3 episodes of Dracula to see if I could distract myself, it helped a bit. I was particularly pissed off because the driver took 9th Ave to head to Port Authority which means that, yes, we went by the Met at about 7:30. I went to the driver and asked him for the love of God to open the door so I could hop out because I had tickets for the opera and I wouldn’t be able to make it otherwise. The fucking bastard said that he just couldn’t do that and so, yes, I saw the Met go by and so went by my first act of Rusalka.

But I wasn’t going to give up so easily, 7:43 we arrived at Port Authority and I was flying out of that bus and into the subway. Flying from the subway to Columbus Circle and ran 3 blocks up to Lincoln Center and let me tell you, IT WAS SOOO COLD. And the streets were filled with snow and ice so it was quite slippery. 7:55 I was in front of the Met hardly believing I had made it. As I ran up the stairs to the Balcony area I could hear the instruments tuning and that lady with that instrument I do not know the name of which meant that the performance was gonna start at any minute. I could have totally passed out when I got there. I went inside and looked back only to spot Mike right away! I started screaming “Mike, MIKE!” but my voice was very weak because of the running. Suddenly I hear someone screaming “ISABELA!” it was Harry. We waved enthusiastically at each other, I got myself some water and went to my seat just as the lights were dimming still panting from the running marathon.

To top things off just before the performance started Peter Gelb appeared on stage and there was a loud sigh from the audience and I was like “Oh no, oh no, no, no!”. Fortunately he was only there to let us know that Dolora Zajick was sick but that she still wanted to perform and passed on to us her apologies. It took me the overture to have my blood run in a more human rate. The curtains open and you can’t help but be completely and utterly transported, I totally gasped when I saw that scenery. By the way I have not seen the live in HD nor have I ever seen this opera ever before so it was all new to me. For the first act we have the lake where Rusalka lives with her Green Gnome dad, the effect used for the water is the same as the one they use for Turandot and it definitely looks awesome when you are in the house but must have caused some confusion for the HD viewers. The set was boosted by the most amazing lighting design that could take you to literally any time of day in that place.

Well, in the beginning we have three nymphs playing around (much like the rhinemaidens) and then comes the Water Gnome who is completely blue and a total base. That guy’s voice is deep as hell! This scene reminded me a bit of Das Rheinegold because of the three beauties teasing someone who they knew wasn’t up to their standards. Rusalka then appears and I’m FREAKING OUT because it’s Renée Fleming, one of my personal heroes for crying out loud! Right after some song making with her Gnome dad and telling him she’s totally depressed because she’s in love with a human prince she sings her signature aria. I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t a very big fan of the acoustics from where she was singing, her voice sounded a little muffed (gorgeous as usual but muffed), I think the tree was too upstage and too high so the sound didn’t travel as well as some of the other singers’ did.

But the aria itself was like walking into a dream, although I felt the tempo being a little bit dragged! I couldn’t believe my luck that was actually getting to experience such a thing as this! Renée was glorious and she held that high B flat just a little bit longer like she always does and then there was a rain of applause that must have lasted 30 seconds. Rusalka goes to the witch Jezhibaba so she can turn her into a human (very much like the Little Mermaid). Let me tell you Dolora Zajick did not sound sick at all, her voice is totally huge and it just traveled beautifully through the whole theater. The character of the witch wasn’t exactly a villain but more like a mean comic relief. She asks Rusalka for her voice in exchange for the potion that will make her human plus if her lover is untrue to her she is condemned to become a dark water spirit neither living nor dead for the rest of her days and if her lover kissed her after that he would die. Pretty brutal, right?

They leave and on comes the Prince played by dashing tenor Piotr Beczala. I had already seen him live as Lensky which was such a wonderful performance but this one was even better. He sounded absolutely on the top of his game, voice crystal clear, beautiful color and charming all over, just a dream! And of course he has all that prince swagger dominated so he looked and sounded just perfect for the role of the Foreign Prince. He walks in and goes straight to the water to which he looks lovingly and strokes the water.

You see Rusalka is a water spirit, even though she looks like a woman to the audience she is really a wave from that river. And when the Prince comes and strokes the water and stares at it so tenderly Rusalka falls for him, after all he is caressing her! When Rusalka reveals her human self to him it’s like one of those love at first sight scenes, the Prince is completely taken by her beauty but she can’t speak.

And so one of the most interesting things happens. On the page this part looks like an aria, just the Prince singing but when you see and hear it it’s more like a one person duet. His lines yearn to be completed by something she would say, same with some vocal lines. It’s quite romantic and Renée is so absolutely graceful! This role fits her like a glove! They head off and it’s intermission time.

Normally I’m not a very big fan of long intermissions but, one, I had fantastic friends to chat to and two even if I didn’t I could just stare at those beautiful chandeliers all through it quite happily. I finally met Mike one of my closest and oldest twitter friends and saw Sasha and Harry again. I might have been over enthusiastic when hugging the friends. We chatted and the 30 minute intermission felt like 10 minutes. The gongs went off and it was time for me to get me ass back to me seat.

Happy intermission!

Second act is set just outside the Prince’s castle where you can see a big stair case and some large glass doors that led inside the castle. This first part we had the kitchen boy (a mezzo) and a huntsman chatting about this strange girl that the Prince found by the lake and with whom he’s totally in love with. The thing is, nobody really likes Rusalka, they think she’s weird and a little bit nuts. Because as a water spirit she was sweet, gentle and shy but as a human she has the very same personality but now in a human body, for you to get a mental picture she’s a bit like Luna Lovegood, with her head up in the clouds. Plus she’s very frigid to the Prince's caresses because she doesn’t really understand them. So Rusalka is not at all popular and is feeling quite literally like a fish out of water.

They come out and the Prince is making an effort to try and understand why Rusalka is so different and odd. He says she’s beautiful but her beauty is cold and he yearns for the warmth of her love for him. Enters then THE bitch, the Foreign Princess who is so pissed off because she was to be marrying the Prince but isn’t anymore because of Rusalka. She makes every effort to try and humiliate and bully Rusalka and to make her look unfitting and odd to the Prince’s eyes. She sways his attention by pointing out that he is giving a ball and should be a good host. The Prince takes the Princess by the arm and leaves poor Rusalka outside alone. She is miserable obviously, for the first time since she traded away her voice Rusalka speaks and her father appears and they have a long conversation.

The Prince reappears with the Princess and we can see through the glass doors that he’s making out with her with much ardor. What a dick! He comes back only to scorn Rusalka and tell her it wasn’t really going to work out because she’s so odd and chooses to be with the Foreign Princess. The water Gnome appears and takes Rusalka away and tells the Prince what an awful mistake he just made. As the Prince approaches the Princess once more she now scorns him and laughs at his face.

End of act 2 and another great intermission featuring some of my best opera buddies. But all good things tend to feel as if they last 5 minutes and before I knew it we had to run back to our seats for act 3.

Now in act 3 we have all that ‘you reap what you sow’ thing. Rusalka is back to her lake, cursed and miserable but she hasn’t touched the water yet, only when she touches the water she used to call home will she be cursed. She urges Jezhibaba to help her get back to her sisters and forget all this business. Jezhibaba tells her there is a way for things to be just the way they were, Rusalka must take a knife Jezhibaba gave her and kill her beloved Prince, that way she will be able to live as a water nymph again. Rusalka is horrified and absolutely refuses to kill him saying she would rather suffer for eternity than to do that to him. Jezhibaba is hardly impressed and gives her a “suit yourself bitch” look and heads off.

Rusalka goes inside the water and BANG she’s doomed! The Prince hurries to the lake but it’s too late, Rusalka is inside and totally cursed for good. They sing the most gorgeous duet and a water platform thing appears and Rusalka walks on the water toward her lover. When they meet they share a kiss that kills him and Rusalka goes back to the bottom of the lake to an eternity of misery. The end. Holy moly, that was SAD! I had to literally take a moment to just chill after that because as it ended I was crying like a baby!

Curtain call time and the people were quite enthusiastic. Here are some amazing pics my friend Felipe Cunha took, mine are awful!

Emily Magee as the Foreign Princess

Dolora Zajick as Jezhibaba

Piotr Beczala as the Prince

Renée Fleming as Rusalka

After that we all head down to the stage door. Stage dooring is a lot of fun but it is also a very nerve-racking business. Because you never know in what mood the singer is going to be in or whatever so I’m always excited but a little bit afraid. The more I like the singer the more afraid I am and keep rehearsing what I’m going to say to them in my head. So you can only imagine the state I was because of Renée. Getting to the stage door we had our usual crazy people and some normal people, there were about 25 people there if I can remember correctly. Dolora came out and just walked past everyone, did not stop not even to take a breath. I do understand her though, she was apparently recovering from sickness and must have been really tired.

Piotr was a sweetheart as always! Gosh I adore him, he is such a fantastic singer, great actor and such a cool person. He stopped to chat with us and even said he remembered me from Onegin! It was really cold so I was wearing my ridiculous hat and as I took it off to take the picture with him he told me he loved playing that game so we thought the bird should make an apparition at the picture.

After a while Renée came out and my heart was beating so fast I could have chocked on it. She talked to everyone and signed everything, she’s so fantastic! Although she would sign the programs of the stage door beggars (yes, that’s what I’m calling them now, my friend Felipe’s creation) with just a line. She finally came our way and we got to chat with her a little bit and I told her everything I wanted to tell her. She was very sweet but we could see it that she was very tired. She signed everything and also wrote a few words for me in my Inner Voice which was so amazing. I forgot to take off the pathetic hat before the picture, hence:

After all the stage door fever me, we went to PJ Clarks to grab something to eat and did not leave ‘till 2 in the morning or something. It was pretty fun, I loved seeing some of my friends again and meeting in person others. So I guess that was that for that Saturday. Stay tuned for more and pray that I get into The Hartt School!

Cheers!  

Trip to NYC - Day 9 - Cinderella and Eugene Onegin

I started writing this post on Halloween and only ended now.

Happy Halloween everybody! We unfortunately do not do trick or treat here in Brazil, far too dangerous and I would have been a MUCH chubbier child if we did. Ah well, the plan was to post everything about my NYC trip until the last day of October but as you can see that’s not gonna happen. I’ve had a hard horrible week but I’m glad that I was able to get through it and get my tests done without having my physiological state interfere with my grades. But I must tell you it was not easy to rehearse everyday with a person that has his own universe of pitch and not just smack him in the face, especially because he would act as if he was on pitch all along. That made my blood boil, I had to actually sing with this person in two tests last Thursday and he totally screwed his part up but was unable to throw me off my game and as the never ending Bach quartets ended I was pretty in pink and in pitch! But my teacher assured me that my grade was not going to be affected by his horrendous performance. Very Halloween themed test I did come to think of it… Plus a man hit me in the head with an enormous bag he was carrying on his shoulder on the subway that morning just as I was heading to that said test (that I had to wait 2 hours to do btw). I felt like crying, like bursting into tears really, but I was able to control myself and did the walk of shame to my train with tear filled eyes.

But I’m not here to talk about my problems! I’m here to talk about the best place of earth and that’s NYC! Well now we’re on Saturday, the 12th of October. As we were heading towards the end of our trip we decided to start going back to places we only went by and said “Ah, we have time, we’ll come back later!”. So off to 5th avenue me and mum went. We bought ridiculous amounts of chocolate and went ALL the way to 34th and Broadway to get a chance to go to Claire’s again. Remember we were at 57th and 9th, went to 5th and then back to Broadway and 34th in the morning.

But we had tickets for Cinderella this day and it started at 2. And we were already late and still deciding which earring to take at Claire’s. Result, we went to this place with a French name and got two sandwiches and ate them as we battled the ocean of people who all seemed to be on our way on Broadway at 1:30 on a Saturday afternoon. My sandwich was good, it had pesto sauce in it, I love pesto sauce.

We got to Cinderella just in time! I felt slightly out of place being in a matinee of a Broadway show surrounded by little girls dressed up as princesses. It was cute, don’t get me wrong and I love all things princess and fairy tales, but it’s a big change from the Met I must say. For one, people where in jeans and flip flops and the amount of food they had in the audience was alarming! It was a beautiful theater, The Broadway theater, in which I had seen Sister Act the last time I had been to NYC. 

View from my seat

Another thing that was SO disturbing was the fact that the conductor came in and lights were still on and everybody in the audience was chatting as if they were in a cocktail party. The overture started playing and the lights were still on and people started shutting up little by little. I know, this is not opera, this is musical theater, but it was just weird, especially because I had been to operas all these days so I was used to different conventions.

One more thing before we talk about the musical itself, microphones, the use of these gadgets for singing on a stage strikes me as odd and ‘whatever for? Don’t they teach these kids to project these days?’. I will leave it at that, I know not everybody has a voice the size of Sondra Radvanovsky’s.

But on to the musical, the production was ADORABLE! Very pretty, every place is sort of forest themed even the indoors places. Every single performer was REALLY good. They all had really good singing voices and seemed to be made to play their roles. It was quite amazing.

Cinderella was played by Laura Osnes, who I remember from some years ago that won that “You’re the one that I want” reality show thing to decide who was to play Sandy and Danny in Grease. And reality show people aren’t usually good, but she is. Really good! She had a lovely Disney princess voice plus is a fantastic dancer, I mean, her high kicks were as high as it gets. As my ballet teacher used to say ‘knee hitting forehead’. Plus she was so graceful and most importantly very genuine. Because roles like this, not very differently from Cenerentola (actually not different at all since it’s the same character only different language and composer), the lady playing Cinderella can come off as false and not believable. But when the performer is able to really channel goodness, kindness and forgiveness genuinely, like Laura and Joyce do, it can be a life changing experience. 

And I’m telling you, it kinda was for me, but let’s talk about the musical itself. As it starts you can notice that things are slightly different in this version of Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. The prince is a good soul and full of good intentions but extremely naïve. He’s a hero, who slays dragons while frying a egg but is clueless of how to run his country so his steward (warning, the bad guy) runs the kingdom for him.

And then we have Cinderella who is the kindest person ever to absolutely everyone, from the crazy homeless lady to her despiteful stepmother. Her step sisters are a bit different from what you would think. Charlotte is a short kinda chubby girl who is overly confident about almost everything, she is the comic relief of the piece. I was SO happy to actually see Ann Harada, who plays Charlotte, live. She originated the role of Christmas Eve in Avenue Q in 2003, she’s hilarious! I’m a big Avenue Q fan, I know all the songs and lyrics by heart! And then there’s Gabrielle who is a bit of a romantic and is actually smitten by Jean Michel, a simple but super well read young man with revolutionary ideas. Of course Madam (the stepmother) completely disapproves of him, she has higher plans for her daughter Gabrielle, to actually marry the Prince and the evil Steward is in in this as well.

So the Prince must marry so what better way to find the perfect lady than to throw a ball to which every girl who has a gown is invited! This number (The prince is having a ball) is quite impressive, the ensemble did a fantastic job dancing wise and the whole number was such a delight to watch. This musical really transports you to a land of fairy tales, it’s quite beautiful. Well, as you can imagine the stepmother forbids Cinderella to go to the ball and she’s left home in tears while the other three ladies leave for the party.

Cinderella is crying outside and crazy Marie appears and they start chatting about all the impossible things they wish would happen. After a little talk Marie miraculously and in full front of everybody magically turns into her fairy godmother! It’s very impressive, one minute he’s in rags the other she’s in a beautiful pink gown. Cinderella is stunned and says “Marie! But you are a crazy woman, what are you doing in that beautiful gown?” to which Marie replies “You have no idea how many beautiful gowns have crazy women in them” and the audience roared with laughter. They sing “IMPOSSIBLE!” and after a while everything they dreamed about starts happening, animals turning into men, the pumpkin into a beautiful carriage and seriously ONE SECOND Cinderella is in rags, she leans over on a tree and BANG she’s in the most beautiful white dress EVER! It’s insane how quick and magical these transformations are! My mum was particularly stunned. 

Well all magic aside the scene is quite beautiful. Cinderella gets to go to the ball! Now the ball is also really gorgeous, they put together some GREAT choreography for this bit. The thing about this ball is that every girl gets to dance with the prince for about a minute but since it’s a masked ball the girls don’t know who the prince is. In that minute Charlotte totally screws up and says some pretty nasty things to the prince while her sister knowing that he was the prince was overly cordial and kinda freaked him out. 

Along comes Cinderella and it’s really like one of those magical moments of love at first sight. Only the prince had already met Cinderella when she was in rags helping crazy Marie in the beginning of the show. They dance and it’s so adorable. The guests go about playing this game of insulting other people (YIKES) but when it comes to Cinderella’s turn she’s unable to bad mouth the person she’s supposed to. Even though the person she’s supposed to insult is none other than her own stepmother, instead she compliments her to everybody’s horror. She explains how much more profiting it is to be kind to people instead of trying to tear them to shreds. Cinderella’s thing catches on and suddenly everybody is complementing everybody and it’s adorable. The prince is absolutely fascinated and infatuated by her and they dance and talk all night, UNTIL, of course, midnight!

Midnight strikes and Cinderella runs for it. We have the classical scene of her running down the stairs and her crystal slipper falling off her foot. The prince is on her heels and grabs the slipper but just as she’s escaping she realizes she’s missing a shoe and comes back, hanks the shoe from his hand and runs for it. End of act one and I’m like “WHAT? But, but, how? What’s gonna happen? How is he supposed to find her now?”

We didn’t even leave our seats at intermission, I actually spent the whole intermission talking to my sister on the phone because the night before there had been a totally awesome party that I was obviously unable to attend. Ah well, missing the party was totally worth it.

Act two begins with the most incredible chase ever. Loads of dancing and acrobatic feats as the things started turning themselves into their original state. The humans being turned back into animals was particularly incredible! It was quite a long pursuit but eventually, again just like magic, Cinderella’s dress turned back into her rags and she was safely at home just in time to catch her stepmother and step sisters returning from the ball. They sing one of the loveliest tunes in the musical “A Lovely Night” which I sang along to.

Cinderella lets too much information about the ball out to Gabrielle and she recognizes her. But then Gabrielle tells her she’s really smitten with Jean Michel and they make a pact to keep each other’s secrets! ADORABLE!

Well the prince is looking for Cinderella like crazy and decides to have a banquet hoping that she’ll show up. Now Cinderella is dying to go but can’t because she doesn’t have a dress and doesn’t want him to know who she truly is. So as one hand washes the other her and Gabrielle make a plan, Gabrielle pretends she’s sick so her mother will leave her home and go off to the banquet. When Madam leaves she lends her dress to Cinderella and the door bell rings and it’s Jean Michel and they have a totally cute moment and kiss and it’s adorable. But, MA, as they kiss and Cinderella comes hoping like a happy rabbit with her sister’s dress Madam comes back! I totally gasped at this moment, like really loud, like “SHIT!”. Madam throws Gabrielle out and rips Cinderella’s dress to shreds.

It’s so sad! But of course, fairy godmother comes for the rescue and in a split second Cinderella is wearing a gorgeous golden gown! BAM, magic! Seriously, I so wish opera houses would do this magic transformation in Cendrillon or Cenerentola on stage, it’s so cool! Can you imagine Joyce DiDonato turning and suddenly her dress transforms itself! Life doesn’t get any cooler than that! (Only if you get cast as Tosca, that’s pretty hard core cool too!)

Oh well, Cinderella goes to the banquet but instead of just going and having a good time she actually uses her time to help others. You see the runaway Gabrielle is with Jean Michel and some very poor people who had been thrown out of their land by royal decree. Cinderella introduces the clueless prince to Jean Michel and JM tells the prince what’s really been happening to the kingdom. The prince cannot believe his ears and wants to find a way to make things right, so he actually calls upon an election! What? An election in Cinderella? What a plot twist! He names Jean Michel and his steward as the candidates and says everybody, rich or poor gets ONE vote. 

As they are all happy and rejoicing midnights strikes and oh no, Cinderella has to run! The prince begs her to stay but she’s ashamed of her true identity thinking he’ll not like her as she truly is. So she hands him her slipper and tells him to find her and runs for it.

Well, the prince has every single girl in the kingdom to try on the shoe, but obviously no one was a good fit. But finally Cinderella comes to try on the shoe and everybody is like “HAHA, as if!” but then we all know what happens and there’s the election and Cinderella and the prince get married and it’s adorable and cried and there I’ve said it, the end! I really liked this musical! I feel like I hit jackpot with is musical because it’s so cool and has such an incredible message!

Well, I didn’t have much time to process anything really because it was about 4:30 and I had to meet Harry (aka Opera Teen) at 5:30 in a restaurant on 68th street. So I ran back to my hotel, took a shower, got ready in record time and then as I was getting to the elevator I see a message from Harry. He’s gonna be late, rescheduling for 6:30, MAN! I go back to the hotel room, see if I didn’t forget anything, get my “Clash of Kings” and head off in the city. 

It was quite nice, I didn’t have my mother’s nagging presence and it was a beautiful end of afternoon. I decided to go to that grass field just between Juilliard and the Met, that one that is on top of the Lincoln Center Restaurant and read a bit while I waited for 6:30. But as fate would have it Harry had serious traffic issues and we weren’t able to have dinner together, so I was there, alone and like, what do I do? It’s so funny because I remember quite clearly standing in front of the Lincoln Center stairs and thinking “what do I do?” and just taking my time and breathing in the opera filled air, ah I wish I could get back to that moment, it was quite wonderful!

I ended up going to some market place and getting sushi and a fruit salad and eating all by myself in those iron tables just in front of The Empire Hotel. It was nice! Then I went to the Met and I was inside alone so I called my opera bff in Brazil and we proceeded to talk. About 7:45 I went up, up, up to my Family Circle seat and spotted the newly arrived Harry, I went to him and screamed his name, it was fun! So cool to see the “man behind the twitter”! We didn’t have any time at all to talk then though, I went to my seat and here we go, let’s watch Onegin AGAIN!

What’s fantastic about watching something from different seats in the house is that you can notice stuff that you couldn’t before. Like for instance, I found it so cool that there was actually a table on the farther part of the stage amongst the trees and there were ladies setting it and that the chorus actually ate there! 

Another great thing about different seats is definitely the sound. I’ve already said this on my “The Nose” post, for me, the best sound is up there in the Balcony and Family Circle. It’s unbelievable how good it is, you feel pure sound just hitting you in the face!

The performers were their usual awesome and this time I really tried to see the things I hadn’t paid attention to the other time. I felt so happy I was able to catch all of the mute scenes going on between Tatyana and Onegin and the adorable exchanges of Olga and Lensky. The letter scene was again, GORGEOUS, amazing! I cried, AGAIN! It’s just so powerful, especially in the end when the orchestra comes in and she’s spinning and writing, it’s very powerful, you totally feel like a wave of awesome has just washed over you! Then Onegin comes and today I felt he was more of a bastard. He had a cynical look on his face as he sang his sermon to Tatyana and she’s like “Please, let me die rather than hear this”. And that kiss in the end, again, when he did it I was like “What a jerk!”.

Well, intermission time and time to finally meet Harry! I was so excited to see him! Harry was one of the first opera twitter people I started talking to and now he’s become a really good friend. We talked during intermission as if we had known each other all our lives. It’s a funny thing, because I think that when that happens you were really destined to meet this person, even though he lives so far away and how on earth would we get to know each other if it weren’t for twitter/opera? I also got to meet another operarox fellow, Sasha! Who is also the sweetest! This was one intermission I never wanted to end but unfortunately since I was having such a blast of a good time it was over in a minute.

Me and Harry at intermission!

We come back for act 2’s ball! Oh, the set I just so gorgeous! And I really don’t know how I noticed this from my far away seat as opposed to when I was sitting much closer in the orchestra, but Onegin totally steals some kisses from Olga when he’s dancing with her. No wonder Lensky is beyond pissed! And you don’t fool me Olga, I know you were enjoying it! Ah well, the couples glided their ways through the stage until Lensky has had enough of Onegin groping and kissing his girl and we all know what happens.

Again the second half of act 2 was so, so heartbreaking and when Onegin was clutching Lensky’s lifeless body and you just breakdown because it’s just too much feels! The people sitting next to me were not the nicest people in the universe. An old man with a serious candy paper wrap problem, YES, he opened candy while Anna was singing, what? And a oriental lady who slept during half of the whole thing. I mean, COME ON, you people do not deserve to be here! I know so many people who are actually worth of their seats!

Second intermission was just as fast as me and Harry tried to talk about every single thing at the same time. He was quite amazed that we don’t get cool people like Anna or Renée to actually do opera over here in Brazil, yeah, we don’t. But we did get Sondra doing Tosca once a couple of years ago that I heard was just sublime. We said our goodbyes as that horrid gong rang and rang.

Last act and I’m already holding my breath as it begins. It begins with my favorite waltz and I’m again frustrated to see that lifeless dance for such a wonderful music. Onegin sees Tatyana and it’s BAM, it’s love! So heart ripping when he sings the letter song melody to express his love and you get hopeful for just a second.

Curtain comes down for quick set change and what do I see but annoying old man who’s sitting next to me and his wife simply LEAVE! THEY LEFT! What? They left right before the last scene? THE BEST EFFING PART OF THE WHOLE OPERA? What is your problem old man?? Ah well.

Last scene and I’m on the edge of my seat. This scene is perfection! And I think this production was just right for the performers that were singing it. Because when you come to think of it, even though it’s the same character, can you see Renée Fleming’s Tatyana kissing Onegin like that in the end? I can’t, I don’t think she’d be able to resist him if she kissed him at the end. Or can you see Anna’s Tatyana running away from him at the end? I can’t, because it doesn’t make sense that the character she created should run away. I’m not saying that Renée’s Tatyana is weak or that Anna’s Tatyana is cold. No, they are just different and I love that, to have a fresh interpretation of a character you really like, for me at least, is heaven!

Well the scene was so full of energy and passion and I was again mouthing the words and leaning and crying and a mess. The final kiss, again, did not disappoint, Anna was like a leopard or something and kissed him like there was no tomorrow and then walked away like a BOSS. I was crying a river at the end and clapping and cheering like crazy. I took a while to get up to applaud and I’m gonna tell you why, that Family Circle is high as hell and steep as fuck, when you get up excited to clap you have the terrifying sensation that you will fall to your certain death.

After all the clapping I went all the way down to the stage door. I met Sasha and we fangirled together. I asked Piotr to sign my “Heart’s Delight” cd. And complimented Anna on her amazing performance, and guess what? She remembered me, AGAIN! Isn’t that awesome or what? We actually got to talking for quite a while about tonight’s performance and she told me she liked this performance better than the last one. I was so delightfully surprised with her simplicity and interest on what I had to say, most of the singers I met were extremely nice and attentive. I was grateful for that because I don’t think there is anything more horrible for a fan than to idolize somebody and then the person comes in and treats you with indifference or badly, but that was definitely not the case for any of my favorites that I met in this trip. 

Then I went to talk to Mariusz and he also recognized me and we talked for a while as well. He signed my CD and I asked for another picture just because. Sasha and her dad took them for me, thanks guys! Man, Mariusz is so handsome it should be illegal for someone to sound so good and look so damn hot. Oh man, imagine when I meet Dmitri Hvorotovsky, I might faint! Hahaha

Well, 8 pages later that’s what happened on that fantastic Saturday, next post, Isabela meets Melanie and Joyce DiDonato!