Home » Discussion Forums » Blog Post Discussion » Return of the Knitting Lady, or, what were intervals made for anyway
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| Re: Return of the Knitting Lady, or, what were intervals made for anyway [message #45901 is a reply to message #45900 ] |
Sat, 29 October 2011 22:21   |
EMoon
Messages: 664
Registered: March 2009 |
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Sounds like a wonderful, though strenuous, time. Totally agree about the concentration needed to drive.
So...how about the knitting?
E
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| Re: Return of the Knitting Lady, or, what were intervals made for anyway [message #45905 is a reply to message #45900 ] |
Sun, 30 October 2011 04:20 |
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 Julia
Messages: 531
Registered: October 2008
Location: Library School |
Senior Member |
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Yes! I saw it too! But I'm in France, so that was an interesting exercise in comprehension- listening to the Italian and reading French subtitles which I then translated to English. It went pretty well, actually, and I was quite proud of myself. 
Leporello was indeed a bit overdone, but I enjoyed watching him. ( I also liked the bit near the end of the dinner sequence when Leporello said "Oh, I know this song!" and sang along: "Dum duh dah dum dah dah dumm dah daaah dum, bum bah dum bum ba dum bum ba dum.") | Quote: |
Kwiecien has the voice and the charisma to bring the character off as toxic pond scum and not lose the plot of the Don as the great seducer.
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I totally agree.
And I agree about this Don Ottavo, too. He had... dignity.
Oh, and did you get the same intermission interview with Jay Hunter Morris from Siegfreid? When he said "Right on, Renee" I wanted to laugh, but no one else understood (because it was in English, obviously).
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| Re: Return of the Knitting Lady, or, what were intervals made for anyway [message #45906 is a reply to message #45900 ] |
Sun, 30 October 2011 05:42 |
harpergray
Messages: 87
Registered: March 2011
Location: Sweden |
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If you have a chance to see it—and have some idea what you’re getting into—by all means go. ... Even going to a cinema opera—far less threatening (and expensive) than the live variety—and sitting slumped in your chair for a few hours is surprisingly tiring.
Ironically, for me* here in Sweden the live variety is actually cheaper than the cinema variety. I would have liked to see DON GIOVANNI, but...I do have a fair idea of what I'm getting into, and alas elected not to go. I'll keep an eye out for the repeat, though, because your glowing review has made me thing "Well...maybe..."
*As a student who doesn't mind wonky seats too much as long as the acoustics are good and I can see at least a little. When I went with a couple of friends to see CARMEN recently, our seats meant that almost half the stage was obscured^, and after the interval we switched seats so that my friend could see a little bit more.
^The old opera house syndrome where it's more important to watch the audience than the show, I suspect.
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| Re: Return of the Knitting Lady, or, what were intervals made for anyway [message #45909 is a reply to message #45900 ] |
Sun, 30 October 2011 11:37 |
AnguaLupin
Messages: 11
Registered: May 2011 |
Junior Member |
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Normally I close my eyes during Don Giovanni and just listen -- totally abhorent characters that I'm supposed to care about, whatever -- but with this production, I watched almost the whole thing. Leparello was hillarious, Don Giovanni was deliciously self-absorbed, Donna Elvira had actual depth, and Zerlina was sassy. Donna Anna was wet, but that's unavoidable.
I agree completely that the portrayal of Giovanni as a total prick is much better than the portrayal of Giovanni as "one of those lads"; Kwiecien managed to pull off strangely seductive pond scum with flair. The ending, I thought, was brilliant -- when the Met pulls someone down into hell, they don't mess around. You were left with the feeling that Giovanni actually was !@#&ed, which isn't usual. Normally it's more like, "oh, Giovanni ended up in hell, I guess Mozart had to make it a morality play in the end". Not this time. Giovanni got his comeuppance.
Also, while I've loved both Wagners so far, judging by the thirty second clip of Seigfried, I'm going to adore next weekend. Wow. Jay Hunter Morris truly inhabited Seigfried; if he can pull off that charisma while standing up to Bryn Terfel, it's going to be an amazing opera.
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| Re: Return of the Knitting Lady, or, what were intervals made for anyway [message #45910 is a reply to message #45900 ] |
Sun, 30 October 2011 14:01 |
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Diane in MN
Messages: 2731
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
Senior Member |
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We've had two productions of Don Giovanni here at MN Opera, and neither one has gone for a boys-will-be-boys approach to the Don and his activities. I don't myself think that the libretto supports that sort of interpretation, but of course that wouldn't stop a director.
Kwiecien has the voice and the charisma to bring the character off as toxic pond scum and not lose the plot of the Don as the great seducer.
What's interesting about the plot, though, is that D.G. is a pretty unsuccessful seducer in the course of this opera. Not that this affects his opinion of himself. Here, it’s less about courage than that he is mean, petty, and self-absorbed to the bitter end. Yes--it doesn't enter his universe that the jig could be up.
And don’t even talk to me about Cosi Fan Tutte.
MN Opera opened its season this year with Cosi. There was nothing objectionable about the production at all, but even by 18th-century standards the plot can be described as snarky at best. The director assumed the perspective that the women were in arranged marriages and that a realignment of the two couples would make for a true happy ending, but I suspect that he took that position to make the plot more acceptable to a 21st- century audience, because the libretto suggests nothing of the sort. But it's Mozart, so if any muttering was done, it wasn't obvious.
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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| Re: Return of the Knitting Lady, or, what were intervals made for anyway [message #45915 is a reply to message #45900 ] |
Mon, 31 October 2011 00:46 |
Firebyrd
Messages: 20
Registered: October 2008
Location: Utah |
Junior Member |
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I love posts like this, not because I'm glad anyone suffers like this of course, but because it makes me feel like I'm not actually crazy. I rarely go to things like church, even though I'd like to and I sit at home most of the time, but sitting still (especially in a dress) is completely different from what I do at home. If I do go, I come home exhausted, in pain, and usually have to take a nap, even if I've only gone and sat for an hour. I feel like I'm a big baby, but it definitely helps to know I'm not the only one.
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| Re: Return of the Knitting Lady, or, what were intervals made for anyway [message #45947 is a reply to message #45900 ] |
Tue, 01 November 2011 10:10 |
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glanalaw
Messages: 88
Registered: August 2010
Location: Tennessee |
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I have got to find a cinema nearby which shows the Live at the Met operas. Although the Nashville Opera, which is close, sells student rush tickets for a song (pun not originally intended, but I'm leaving it anyway), so I do get to see live opera on a fairly regular basis! This Don Giovanni sounds great, though.
I went to see La Traviata last month and I took my knitting. The expensively-dressed season-ticket holders I was sitting next to found it fascinating, but odd. They inquired what I was making, and I told them a sock (I was about 5 rounds into the cuff at the beginning of the first interval.) "There's not very much of it," one lady replied dubiously... I assured her there would very soon be more of it, but I'm not sure she believed me.
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| Re: Return of the Knitting Lady, or, what were intervals made for anyway [message #45948 is a reply to message #45909 ] |
Tue, 01 November 2011 10:17 |
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glanalaw
Messages: 88
Registered: August 2010
Location: Tennessee |
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| AnguaLupin wrote on Sun, 30 October 2011 11:37 |
The ending, I thought, was brilliant -- when the Met pulls someone down into hell, they don't mess around. You were left with the feeling that Giovanni actually was !@#&ed, which isn't usual. Normally it's more like, "oh, Giovanni ended up in hell, I guess Mozart had to make it a morality play in the end". Not this time. Giovanni got his comeuppance.
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I am slightly envious. I saw Don Giovanni in Nashville a few years ago... it was a fabulous production, with good characterization, great sets, period costume, etc -- up until the final moments, when they had Giovanni stroll back on stage in a white suit and shades with a blonde on each arm, as if he not only had learned nothing, but was in fact getting exactly what he always wanted - lots of women - in the afterlife. This after a very effective dragging-down-to-hell scene. That one director's choice spoiled the whole production for me! I left saying over and over "but why would you DO that?!?"
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| Re: Return of the Knitting Lady, or, what were intervals made for anyway [message #45958 is a reply to message #45915 ] |
Wed, 02 November 2011 00:44 |
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danceswithpahis
Messages: 380
Registered: October 2008 |
Senior Member |
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| Firebyrd wrote on Mon, 31 October 2011 00:46 |
I love posts like this, not because I'm glad anyone suffers like this of course, but because it makes me feel like I'm not actually crazy. I rarely go to things like church, even though I'd like to and I sit at home most of the time, but sitting still (especially in a dress) is completely different from what I do at home. If I do go, I come home exhausted, in pain, and usually have to take a nap, even if I've only gone and sat for an hour. I feel like I'm a big baby, but it definitely helps to know I'm not the only one.
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I wonder if it might be helpful for you to find another church? I don't know what's available in your area, and this may not be an option for you. However, I know that at my church people wear things that aren't dressy all the time, and we have an area in the back behind the pews that has space for whatever people need it for. People walk babies (not the fussy ones -- they usually go outside -- but the ones who let you know that they WILL be fussy if you don't start walking), sit in wheelchairs, stand and fidget, whatever is needed. It's nice if you have some reason that regular sitting in pews isn't going to work.
"Oh good! My dog found the chainsaw!"
-- Lilo ("Lilo and Stitch")
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| Re: Return of the Knitting Lady, or, what were intervals made for anyway [message #45962 is a reply to message #45958 ] |
Wed, 02 November 2011 08:28 |
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blondviolinist
Messages: 1069
Registered: October 2008
Location: Midwestern United States |
Senior Member |
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| danceswithpahis wrote on Wed, 02 November 2011 00:44 |
| Firebyrd wrote on Mon, 31 October 2011 00:46 |
I love posts like this, not because I'm glad anyone suffers like this of course, but because it makes me feel like I'm not actually crazy. I rarely go to things like church, even though I'd like to and I sit at home most of the time, but sitting still (especially in a dress) is completely different from what I do at home. If I do go, I come home exhausted, in pain, and usually have to take a nap, even if I've only gone and sat for an hour. I feel like I'm a big baby, but it definitely helps to know I'm not the only one.
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I wonder if it might be helpful for you to find another church? I don't know what's available in your area, and this may not be an option for you. However, I know that at my church people wear things that aren't dressy all the time, and we have an area in the back behind the pews that has space for whatever people need it for. People walk babies (not the fussy ones -- they usually go outside -- but the ones who let you know that they WILL be fussy if you don't start walking), sit in wheelchairs, stand and fidget, whatever is needed. It's nice if you have some reason that regular sitting in pews isn't going to work.
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It *is* really nice if you have a church that's flexible like this. I have a friend, however, who attends a t-shirt-&-jeans-type church, and she still misses a lot because she can't afford to be flat on her back the next day b/c she went to church on Sunday. Sometimes there is simply *no* reserve energy, no matter how accommodating the church is. (She's also a full-time doctoral student, including teaching several classes per week. I find being a grad student hard enough with a healthy body. I have no idea how she manages to do it.)
"Purity of heart is to will one thing." Kirkegaard
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| Re: Return of the Knitting Lady, or, what were intervals made for anyway [message #45975 is a reply to message #45962 ] |
Wed, 02 November 2011 23:04 |
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danceswithpahis
Messages: 380
Registered: October 2008 |
Senior Member |
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| blondviolinist wrote on Wed, 02 November 2011 08:28 |
| danceswithpahis wrote on Wed, 02 November 2011 00:44 |
| Firebyrd wrote on Mon, 31 October 2011 00:46 |
I love posts like this, not because I'm glad anyone suffers like this of course, but because it makes me feel like I'm not actually crazy. I rarely go to things like church, even though I'd like to and I sit at home most of the time, but sitting still (especially in a dress) is completely different from what I do at home. If I do go, I come home exhausted, in pain, and usually have to take a nap, even if I've only gone and sat for an hour. I feel like I'm a big baby, but it definitely helps to know I'm not the only one.
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I wonder if it might be helpful for you to find another church? I don't know what's available in your area, and this may not be an option for you. However, I know that at my church people wear things that aren't dressy all the time, and we have an area in the back behind the pews that has space for whatever people need it for. People walk babies (not the fussy ones -- they usually go outside -- but the ones who let you know that they WILL be fussy if you don't start walking), sit in wheelchairs, stand and fidget, whatever is needed. It's nice if you have some reason that regular sitting in pews isn't going to work.
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It *is* really nice if you have a church that's flexible like this. I have a friend, however, who attends a t-shirt-&-jeans-type church, and she still misses a lot because she can't afford to be flat on her back the next day b/c she went to church on Sunday. Sometimes there is simply *no* reserve energy, no matter how accommodating the church is. (She's also a full-time doctoral student, including teaching several classes per week. I find being a grad student hard enough with a healthy body. I have no idea how she manages to do it.)
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Yes, I know that sometimes no matter how much you want to do something and how much accommodation you can squeeze out, it just isn't possible. I only wanted to mention it because I know sometimes a little thing like different clothing requirements or knowing that getting up and moving around WON'T actually bother anyone else can make a big difference if you're on the borderline of being able to do it or not.
"Oh good! My dog found the chainsaw!"
-- Lilo ("Lilo and Stitch")
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| Re: Return of the Knitting Lady, or, what were intervals made for anyway [message #45996 is a reply to message #45975 ] |
Thu, 03 November 2011 17:16 |
Firebyrd
Messages: 20
Registered: October 2008
Location: Utah |
Junior Member |
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| danceswithpahis wrote on Wed, 02 November 2011 21:04 |
| blondviolinist wrote on Wed, 02 November 2011 08:28 |
| danceswithpahis wrote on Wed, 02 November 2011 00:44 |
| Firebyrd wrote on Mon, 31 October 2011 00:46 |
I love posts like this, not because I'm glad anyone suffers like this of course, but because it makes me feel like I'm not actually crazy. I rarely go to things like church, even though I'd like to and I sit at home most of the time, but sitting still (especially in a dress) is completely different from what I do at home. If I do go, I come home exhausted, in pain, and usually have to take a nap, even if I've only gone and sat for an hour. I feel like I'm a big baby, but it definitely helps to know I'm not the only one.
|
I wonder if it might be helpful for you to find another church? I don't know what's available in your area, and this may not be an option for you. However, I know that at my church people wear things that aren't dressy all the time, and we have an area in the back behind the pews that has space for whatever people need it for. People walk babies (not the fussy ones -- they usually go outside -- but the ones who let you know that they WILL be fussy if you don't start walking), sit in wheelchairs, stand and fidget, whatever is needed. It's nice if you have some reason that regular sitting in pews isn't going to work.
|
It *is* really nice if you have a church that's flexible like this. I have a friend, however, who attends a t-shirt-&-jeans-type church, and she still misses a lot because she can't afford to be flat on her back the next day b/c she went to church on Sunday. Sometimes there is simply *no* reserve energy, no matter how accommodating the church is. (She's also a full-time doctoral student, including teaching several classes per week. I find being a grad student hard enough with a healthy body. I have no idea how she manages to do it.)
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Yes, I know that sometimes no matter how much you want to do something and how much accommodation you can squeeze out, it just isn't possible. I only wanted to mention it because I know sometimes a little thing like different clothing requirements or knowing that getting up and moving around WON'T actually bother anyone else can make a big difference if you're on the borderline of being able to do it or not.
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Yeah, that's not really an option, and church was just one example as being weekly, it comes up more frequently. Going to the movies is difficult, going in a car as little as fifteen minutes can be problematic, and so on and so forth. And I think even the most liberal of churches would probably start looking at me funny if I started putting my legs up on the pew in front of me like I do on my desk at home.  I appreciate the suggestion, though!
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