Full and busy weekend
Hi. First of all, on Thursday plumtreeblossom and I saw The Yeomen of the Guard put on by the MIT Gilbert and Sullivan Players, and it was a rolicking good time.
Then yesterday (Saturday) we went to see the Boston Ballet. Aside from The Nutcracker, this was the first time I’d seen ballet live, and I loved it, as did plumtreeblossom. They performed three pieces.
The first was The Second Detail, which was atonal music and comparably “atonal” ballet - lots of dancers on stage, all doing different things, with lots of running on and off and around stage and lots of stuff that looked like flailing, but all very very effective together. I loved it. I want to watch it over and over again, because with so much going on on stage all at once, it would take a very long time to even have caught everything, much less catch all the relationships. But the one viewing was well worthwhile. I wish I knew enough about ballet to have language to describe the build towards the almost feral frenzy the piece ended with, but it was exhilarating. About a third of the audience was standing for the ovation (me included).
The second was Part I, Part II, and Part III, to music by Arvo Pärt. (Each “Part” had a subtitle, but the second page of the Boston Globe article says the play is an homage to Pärt, so I’m sure the pun is intentional.) This seemed (to my untutored eye) like a much more traditional ballet, with pas de deux and intelligible plot to the dancing. Definitely enjoyable, but not the highlight of the evening (which for me was the first piece, although the title piece followed close behind).
And the third piece was Jiří Kylián’s ballet Bella Figura. This was to a variety of classical music, and was much less traditional than Parts I, II, and III, but much more patterned and symmetric than The Second Detail. It did very interesting things with the stage curtains; at lots of points the curtains descend and or come in from the wings to section off a tiny piece of the stage where the dancers are constrained. At one point one dancer is in such a square defined by the curtains, while another one, in front of the curtain, is dancing in a square spotlight on the other side of the stage. At one point two dancers mime pulling the curtains closed. At one point the curtain descends into the arms of a row of dancers, piling up in their arms (and the sheer weight of it must have been fairly impressive). For much of the ballet, the women (like the men) are bare-chested, and the men (like the women) are in long red skirts with bustles. The parts being danced are gendered, but seemed (again to my untutored eye) more balanced and even than is typical.
We got relatively affordable tickets through MIT, but I think they may have us hooked. (“Psst! Hey, kids, wanna see a ballet? All the cool kids are doing it! First one’s free!”)
Then today we helped surrealestate and DD move to their new condo. (Well, and Julian moved too, but he wasn’t really carrying his weight. Kid’s a slacker - he didn’t even help with the chest freezer!) Their new place is much closer to plumtreeblossom’s, and is really nice. I’m looking forward to having them a bit more conveniently located. They had a lot of people helping and everything they were planning to move got moved in good time.
Then tonight were tryouts for PMRP’s summer live radio drama trilogy. I’m trying out for voice rôles this time (after doing a lot of Foley); plumtreeblossom is trying out for both voice and Foley. That was fun, and we’ll see what happens.
Life is good.
And now it’s 11:30pm and I’m home and really tired (physical labour will do that to you), and it’s just barely conceivable that I will be asleep before midnight for a change.
Then yesterday (Saturday) we went to see the Boston Ballet. Aside from The Nutcracker, this was the first time I’d seen ballet live, and I loved it, as did plumtreeblossom. They performed three pieces.
The first was The Second Detail, which was atonal music and comparably “atonal” ballet - lots of dancers on stage, all doing different things, with lots of running on and off and around stage and lots of stuff that looked like flailing, but all very very effective together. I loved it. I want to watch it over and over again, because with so much going on on stage all at once, it would take a very long time to even have caught everything, much less catch all the relationships. But the one viewing was well worthwhile. I wish I knew enough about ballet to have language to describe the build towards the almost feral frenzy the piece ended with, but it was exhilarating. About a third of the audience was standing for the ovation (me included).
The second was Part I, Part II, and Part III, to music by Arvo Pärt. (Each “Part” had a subtitle, but the second page of the Boston Globe article says the play is an homage to Pärt, so I’m sure the pun is intentional.) This seemed (to my untutored eye) like a much more traditional ballet, with pas de deux and intelligible plot to the dancing. Definitely enjoyable, but not the highlight of the evening (which for me was the first piece, although the title piece followed close behind).
And the third piece was Jiří Kylián’s ballet Bella Figura. This was to a variety of classical music, and was much less traditional than Parts I, II, and III, but much more patterned and symmetric than The Second Detail. It did very interesting things with the stage curtains; at lots of points the curtains descend and or come in from the wings to section off a tiny piece of the stage where the dancers are constrained. At one point one dancer is in such a square defined by the curtains, while another one, in front of the curtain, is dancing in a square spotlight on the other side of the stage. At one point two dancers mime pulling the curtains closed. At one point the curtain descends into the arms of a row of dancers, piling up in their arms (and the sheer weight of it must have been fairly impressive). For much of the ballet, the women (like the men) are bare-chested, and the men (like the women) are in long red skirts with bustles. The parts being danced are gendered, but seemed (again to my untutored eye) more balanced and even than is typical.
We got relatively affordable tickets through MIT, but I think they may have us hooked. (“Psst! Hey, kids, wanna see a ballet? All the cool kids are doing it! First one’s free!”)
Then today we helped surrealestate and DD move to their new condo. (Well, and Julian moved too, but he wasn’t really carrying his weight. Kid’s a slacker - he didn’t even help with the chest freezer!) Their new place is much closer to plumtreeblossom’s, and is really nice. I’m looking forward to having them a bit more conveniently located. They had a lot of people helping and everything they were planning to move got moved in good time.
Then tonight were tryouts for PMRP’s summer live radio drama trilogy. I’m trying out for voice rôles this time (after doing a lot of Foley); plumtreeblossom is trying out for both voice and Foley. That was fun, and we’ll see what happens.
Life is good.
And now it’s 11:30pm and I’m home and really tired (physical labour will do that to you), and it’s just barely conceivable that I will be asleep before midnight for a change.