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Monday, May 09, 2011

Culture is complex


There comes a time in most peoples’ lives when they realize that all the effort they put into their education is about to pay off.  A time comes when the full panoply of acquired knowledge has to be put to the test in a practical situation.  This is what you have been working towards!

I am now faced with such a situation.  A challenge.

Which subscription series should I choose for the next opera season in the Liceu?

If you think that this is a simple choice then I suggest that you start studying the 130 page long description of the forthcoming attractions and especially the pages devoted to how to choose your tickets.  And don’t get me started on how to fill in the application form!
The operas for the next season are (on the ticket I am likely to get) Scenes from Goethe’s Faust by Robert Schumann; Le Grand Macabre by Gyorgy Ligeti; Linda di Chamounix by Gaetano Donizetti; Il burbero di buon cuore (The Good Hearted Cermudgeon) by Vicent Martin i Soler; La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini;  Una tragedia florentina (Eine florentinische Tragodie) and El nan (Der Zwerg) by Alexander von Zemlinsky; Adriana Lecouvreur by Francesco Cilea and finally, Pelleas et Melisande by Claude Debussy.

There would seem to me to be a fair amount of work involved in that list where I have seen precisely one of the operas before and heard of one other!  Still, it is a challenge and that is to be relished.  I suppose.

Irene has talked about going to concerts in la Palau de la Musica, that Modernista extravaganza, and that might be light relief to the programme of operas!  Investigation is called for.
A long day and then preparation for Toni’s birthday celebrations – which went well with his collecting a respectable stash from the assembled guests!

The two small children factor means that we are now exhausted and reduced to half watching the remake of Shaft in Spanish.

Roll on bed time.

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