Monday, November 01, 2004
The weekend was the kind I love. Fritz's for the first half, and three operas in two days in the second. Saturday night, Boston University presented two contemporary one act operas in the studio space where I designed my very first production of anything (Arthur Miller's A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE) as a freshman at age seventeen. Both went well but the second, Philip Glass's GALILEO GALILEI, received an extraordinary production. Singers and dancers were integrated by the director into an ensemble that acted out Galileo's inventions with balls of various sizes and lengths of white ribbon, and their own bodies. Everything--the decay rate of the swing of a pendulum, the movement of the solar system, the lunar movement of the tides--was fascinatingly and very theatrically acted out in way that was delightful to watch and crystal clear to understand.
My husband is very kind and indulgent of me--he calls himself an opera widow but understands the place opera has had in my life since I was seven years old.
Sunday I went down to New York City to see the world premiere of HAROUN AND THE SEA OF STORIES, based on a childrens' book by Salman Rushdie. The production again was delightful and the performance excellent but the music by a respected composer of orchestral music, Charles Wuorinen, was no fit with the story at all. Two and a quarter hours of heavy, percussive atonal music for a light as a feather story like one of the Arabian Nights fairy tales.
After so full a weekend and a crazy day today, I spent the evening quietly at home preserving the last tomatoes in the garden. It was so cold when I got to the house I decided to bring in all the remaining green tomatoes, which turned out to be almost fifteen pounds worth, and make green tomato chutney. I sauté two big chopped onions in olive oil with salt, curry powder and crushed walnuts. When the onions are translucent I add the coarsely diced tomatoes and some dried fruit--chopped dried apricots or raisins. I simmer on low, stirring every five minutes or so, and there it is. Karl, do you approve?
My husband is very kind and indulgent of me--he calls himself an opera widow but understands the place opera has had in my life since I was seven years old.
Sunday I went down to New York City to see the world premiere of HAROUN AND THE SEA OF STORIES, based on a childrens' book by Salman Rushdie. The production again was delightful and the performance excellent but the music by a respected composer of orchestral music, Charles Wuorinen, was no fit with the story at all. Two and a quarter hours of heavy, percussive atonal music for a light as a feather story like one of the Arabian Nights fairy tales.
After so full a weekend and a crazy day today, I spent the evening quietly at home preserving the last tomatoes in the garden. It was so cold when I got to the house I decided to bring in all the remaining green tomatoes, which turned out to be almost fifteen pounds worth, and make green tomato chutney. I sauté two big chopped onions in olive oil with salt, curry powder and crushed walnuts. When the onions are translucent I add the coarsely diced tomatoes and some dried fruit--chopped dried apricots or raisins. I simmer on low, stirring every five minutes or so, and there it is. Karl, do you approve?
