Musical weekend, Speight Jenkins, Ilkka Talvi.

Speight was right, anomann, you shoulda been there.

I Puritani was terrific!
Maybe the weather had something to do with it, but I have never in all my opera going experience (all at Seattle Opera) seen such audience response.
Every aria was applauded.
The standing ovation at the end was ear shattering, I was holding mine which saved my hands from applause blisters.
Bravos, Bravas, Tuttibravas abounded.

The story, of course was absurd and irrelevant.
As was Bellini, frankly.
Well, B. wasn't any more absurd than any other composer, it's just that the performances were so outstanding that the work itself didn't seem to make much difference.

In order of audience decibelity the stars of the show were;

Lawrence Brownlee, As Arturo; What a fantastic voice!
Norah Amsellem, as Elvira; Just a touch shrill at the top but more than capable of convincing me that she was, in fact the tortured girl in question.
Pretty much tied with;
Mariusz Kwiecien, as Riccardo; Great stage presence, bounding up staircases two at a time while singing. I would comment on the singing, but it was overshadowed by Brownlee's.

The set, for some reason was a DaDaistic collection of stairways.
Reminded me of Kurt Schwitters a bit.
I liked it, but I can't imagine what it had to do with Cromwellian England.
It didn't really need to.

Would have been fun to play on.

Anyway, that was Saturday Night (Live of which I missed because I.P. was four hours long [Wagner territory {though it didn't seem long to me, as Wagner often does}], I didn't mind),(however)

Meredith was uncomfortable due to being under dressed because of the strange weather
(warmer than Arizona, go figure) and having a blast of conditioned air down her back.

Soooo.....Sunday...

Out in Tukwila (means hazelnut in the local native language) the Rainier Symphony gave a concert yclept "Around the world in 80 minutes" a "Pops" concert.

David Waltman - Music Director -- Ilkka Talvi - Concertmaster

Overture to William Tell ..................................Gioacchino Rossini
Bersaglieri March ..............................................E. Di Capua
Hungarian Rhapsody No 2 ...............................Franz Liszt
The Sorcerer's Apprentice ...............................Paul Dukas
Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op 28 ..Camille Saint-Saëns

The Capriccioso was played by Marjorie Kransberg-Talvi

Intermission

Toccata and fugue in D minor .................Johann Sebastian Bach/Leopold Stokowski
Tarantelle, Op6..........................................Camille Saint-Saëns
Peer Gynt Suite No1.................................Edvard Grieg
The Pirate King Song from "The Pirates of Penzance" Sir Arthur Sullivan
Hoedown from "Rodeo" ...........................Aaron Copland

Tarantelle was played by Shari Muller-Ho, flute and Eric Tishoff, clarinet.

Andrew Krus was scheduled to conduct (and sing) "Pirates" and "Hoedown" but couldn't make it, so Mr Waltman did the honors (including costumes)

But wait, don't leave the theater yet we have three John Phillip Sousas for you.
ending up with "Stars and Stripes" the greatest march ever written.
Kicks "Radetzky's" butt.
Eat your heart out "Aida"

Stay tuned for more

"Road to Ruins"

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