The bare facts...nothing but the bare facts

Some time ago I read and perhaps even posted that Daniel Okulitsch, a Canadian Baritone,
caused a sensation as he sang 'en naturel' (in anticipation of the body scanners?-just kidding)
 in LA Opera's THE FLY. To get a brief view  :-),  click on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdCtfFh9AkA

Okulitch's schedule for 2011 will include the title role in Mozart's "Don Giovanni" at Opera Theater of St. Louis in June and July.
Here he is with 'La ci darem la mano' from Don Giovanni.
In the scene where the roue Don tries hard to seduce the young peasant girl Zerlina
(did he or did he not succeed?):




Menotti

 and followed by Abdul in Gian Carlo Menotti's "The Last Savage" with the Santa Fe Opera in July and August.
Menotti (born 1911 in Italy, died 2007 in Monaco) said after a not so well received performance of the opera:
"To say of a piece that it is harsh, dry, acid and unrelenting is to praise it. While to call it sweet and graceful is to damn it. For better or for worse, in The Last Savage I have dared to do away completely with fashionable dissonance, and in a modest way, I have endeavored to rediscover the nobility of gracefulness and the pleasure of sweetness."

Well, I for one, am looking forward to hearing it in Santa Fe this August.
BTW: During 4 weeks in August one can hear all FIVE operas on the schedule, a different one every night!
A veritable opera feast! 
See you in Santa Fe in August?
For more information: http://santafeopera.org/

Since I could not find any excerpts of this rarely given opera,
here is the lullaby from his opera 'The Consul' as a sample of his other compositions:


I hope the lullaby will help you sleep :-)!

Hearing/watching Aeros loose to the Monsters this afternoon was not that nice!
Could it  have been the vaunted LAKE EFFECT?
Or the West to East moving 'Monster' Winterstorm?
That one, that collapsed the inflatable roof of the Minnesota Viking Stadium?

A green Monster of the Lake?

Travis Gawriletz scores game winner ( Photo source AHL)

Despite two goals by Rau=WOW (he sure is coming back strongly - goal and an assist, too in this game,  - after being sidelined for so long!) & McMillan in the First,  alas, they could not keep the momentum going - even after switching goalies!
Just a bad day for the Aeros? OR?
The Monsters lost big to the Marlies just the day before. They had to make up the deficit?
So the Lake Erie Monsters won 5:2.

And the 'oh so beloved' referee Terry K was on duty, calling penalties right and left  -
as usual a real 'stop and skate' (:-) type game -7 per team, spaced evenly through all three periods!
He outdid himself the previous night's game calling even more.
He really must like to take a breather, often! He has been at this for quite a while now, it seems.
Calling penalties stops the game after all!
Read about experience by the Wolfpack - you'll see some familiar skaters' names there, too :-) !
From a blog about a game in 2007 with this referee!
http://ordinaryleastsquare.typepad.com/howlings/2007/12/koharski-and-do.html

Now you will sleep better, eh!

Finally..

Hockey schedules will be posted this afternoon and trip planning can start.

Meanwhile here are just a few pix from last trip, starting with the COLD NIGHT on Sante Fe Operahill,

Thunderclouds and rain curtain over Opera Hill

Fat Man and Little Boy Atomic Museum, Albuquerque

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Pink Jeep among Red Rocks

Chapel of the Holy Cross Sedona and

Operas at high altitude..icicles optional

Day One at Santa Fe and "Life is a Dream-

well actually more of a nightmare..;-)

Conducted by Leonard Slatkin, 
who did OK, but then  10 tones are hard to miss ;-)?

Director - Kevin Newbury

Scenic Designer - David Korins, influenced by skeletal building remains?

Costume Designer - Jessica Jahn, decorative stuff, quaintly done

Lighting Designer - Japhy Weideman , rather innovative things lit up, here

Cast:

King Basilio - John Cheek- rounded bass

Segismundo - Roger Honeywell - strong tenor

Clotaldo - James Maddalena - an old favorite, specialises in modern

Rosaura - Ellie Dehn - light and yet dramatic soprano

World Premiere of a new opera composed (some time ago)
by Lewis Spratlan with a libretto by James Maraniss, based on a major work by Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca's "La Vida es Sueño".
(Calderón was born in 1600 to 1681. "Life is a Dream", among his many other works, feature the effects when  parents indiscriminately exercise their authority, as apparently did his father. Calderón studied for the priesthood but theater drew him to a successful career at the Spanish Royal court and player troupes who performed in corrales - open air theaters - surrounded by an audience which stood next to the platform or sat in galleries of seats around the perimeter.  Rather similar to Elizabethan theaters).

For dream we will, though we possess

No sense of where it is we thrive

And dreaming just means being alive.

The insight life’s experience gives

Is that, until man wakes, he lives

A life that only dreams contrive.

The king dreams he is king and reigns

Deluded in his full command,

Imposing order in his land.

The borrowed plaudits he obtains

Blow scattered through the wind’s domains

As death—man’s life is so unjust!—

Transmutes them into ash and dust.

Oh, who on earth could wish to wield

Such might when waking means to yield

It all to death’s dream, as we must?

Segismundo, Act II

Translated by Gregary Racz

The play philosophically "explores several dualities—the relationship between father and son, the importance of nature versus nurture in deciding behavior, the question of free will versus fate, and the difficulty of ultimately determining which, if any, of our experiences are real and which are dreamt" Or nightmares?.

10 tones is all that the composer used, combing them from 1-10 or back, or in any combo thereof.  You know, that kind of vocal sound (I hesitate to call it MUSIC, but that is strictly my opinion and may not be shared by others) reminded me of the Chinese language which also depends on inflections/shadings to express a  word, in this opera it's a feeling.
And such we heard on Thursday.
As can happen in Santa Fe..a huge thunderstorm blew in, literally dropping the temperature from the 80's to the 50's, combined with rain ..it was a bone chilling, teeth chattering night on the hill. People did le3ave in droves maybe because the were chased by those 10 tones (lol) or the COLD night, not being equipped with blankets, parkas, rain gear, earmuffs and gloves (yes, I did see several with earmuffs and gloves huddled under down comforters - that IS the chilling magic of Santa Fe..LOL).
An interesting experience, but ..let the composition languish again for years in a drawer IMO!
That actually happened after the commissioning opera company went kaput -due to NO  funds not because of the missing other notes :-) and so it took till this year for the resurrection of LIFE IS A DREAM by Santa Fe Opera..