at least.. I will always..
When I came to Paris three months ago, I assumed I'd be leaving in tears. Back to where the abundance of money and jobs still has created neither urban life nor, as a consequence, something I would seriously take as classical music, art, or architecture.
In Paris, I walked for hours, I ate in cafes, and I did pretty routinely go to the Philharmonic and the Opera, and all that was great. Indeed, leave in tears I was preparing to, when the heat wave came. 37° C, for what seemed like countless days in a row (three? four? who cares when you can do nothing, and you want nothing). No air conditioning almost anywhere except for Les grands magasins, for which I am way too poor--and they are way too boring to even look at. After the second day or so of this heat, Seattle didn't seem that bad.
And then la fête de la musique came. I found out about it by chance, from a colleague. This is how isolated I actually lived here; I normally had no idea what was going on apart from the ridiculous Paris-related security emails sent to me by the University of Washington. I still enjoyed being here, because one doesn't need to get informed externally about the city when the city is right around them.
"When he [Maurice Fleuret] discovered, in a 1982 study on the cultural habits of the French, that five million people, one child out of two, played a musical instrument, he began to dream of a way to bring people out on the streets. It first took place in 1982 in Paris as the Fête de la Musique."
During la fête de la musique, the music of all kinds is played at every intersection, and at every other cafe. People are dancing and singing in the streets (they sort of do that along the river anyway, but this is the whole city we are talking about). Furthermore, every embassy is open to public, and there is a concert; Ukrainian, Mexican, you name it. But let me tell you about the Italian Embassy.
The Italian Embassy is located on Rue de Varenne. It is a small palace, with a garden, a very nice decorated ballroom etc. Today the small palace also opened its doors to everyone---and invited singers from l'Accademia Teatro alla Scala to entertain them, no less. What a magical experience it was to just wander in.
The singers were young musicians, far (?) from being world-famous or anything. Yet the artistry, the talent, the dedication, the modesty, the generosity with which they gave this free concert for about 100 people (at most) was beyond anything I've ever seen before. I could only possibly compare it to a wonderful "Eugene Onegin" I once heard in Vishnevskaya's student theater in Moscow. But today was better because it was perfect. In Vishnevskaya's theater, the very talented young singers had to work with a really poor orchestra. The La Scala singers today worked with a fantastic pianist who engaged in some acting while playing along with them and even took a small part in singing at some point---and was great at it. He loved them and they loved him. It goes without saying that we hardly ever get such voices in Seattle, let alone the artistry. And we never, ever get such concerts overall (we may get a big voice or a modestly big name once in a while in a Wagner production). How astonishingly fully they showed you each character, with all its story and emotion, how wonderfully theatrical they were in that 37° C ballroom with 100 listeners. To witness such a strong artistic force coming from these young people was amazing.
I walked home in 37° C, in tears, as I was passing the numerous latina and rock concerts on boulevard Saint-Germain. Which were also not bad, by the way.
In Paris, I walked for hours, I ate in cafes, and I did pretty routinely go to the Philharmonic and the Opera, and all that was great. Indeed, leave in tears I was preparing to, when the heat wave came. 37° C, for what seemed like countless days in a row (three? four? who cares when you can do nothing, and you want nothing). No air conditioning almost anywhere except for Les grands magasins, for which I am way too poor--and they are way too boring to even look at. After the second day or so of this heat, Seattle didn't seem that bad.
And then la fête de la musique came. I found out about it by chance, from a colleague. This is how isolated I actually lived here; I normally had no idea what was going on apart from the ridiculous Paris-related security emails sent to me by the University of Washington. I still enjoyed being here, because one doesn't need to get informed externally about the city when the city is right around them.
"When he [Maurice Fleuret] discovered, in a 1982 study on the cultural habits of the French, that five million people, one child out of two, played a musical instrument, he began to dream of a way to bring people out on the streets. It first took place in 1982 in Paris as the Fête de la Musique."
During la fête de la musique, the music of all kinds is played at every intersection, and at every other cafe. People are dancing and singing in the streets (they sort of do that along the river anyway, but this is the whole city we are talking about). Furthermore, every embassy is open to public, and there is a concert; Ukrainian, Mexican, you name it. But let me tell you about the Italian Embassy.
The Italian Embassy is located on Rue de Varenne. It is a small palace, with a garden, a very nice decorated ballroom etc. Today the small palace also opened its doors to everyone---and invited singers from l'Accademia Teatro alla Scala to entertain them, no less. What a magical experience it was to just wander in.
The singers were young musicians, far (?) from being world-famous or anything. Yet the artistry, the talent, the dedication, the modesty, the generosity with which they gave this free concert for about 100 people (at most) was beyond anything I've ever seen before. I could only possibly compare it to a wonderful "Eugene Onegin" I once heard in Vishnevskaya's student theater in Moscow. But today was better because it was perfect. In Vishnevskaya's theater, the very talented young singers had to work with a really poor orchestra. The La Scala singers today worked with a fantastic pianist who engaged in some acting while playing along with them and even took a small part in singing at some point---and was great at it. He loved them and they loved him. It goes without saying that we hardly ever get such voices in Seattle, let alone the artistry. And we never, ever get such concerts overall (we may get a big voice or a modestly big name once in a while in a Wagner production). How astonishingly fully they showed you each character, with all its story and emotion, how wonderfully theatrical they were in that 37° C ballroom with 100 listeners. To witness such a strong artistic force coming from these young people was amazing.
I walked home in 37° C, in tears, as I was passing the numerous latina and rock concerts on boulevard Saint-Germain. Which were also not bad, by the way.