day opera trip to Chicago
A long day. A good day, but a long one. The short answer is: loved the opera. Good set design, with a nice transition between Act 2 (Merry Widow's garden) and Act 3 (Chez Maxime). But perhaps more importantly for me: Thomas Hampson and Renee Fleming as the lead characters. Experienced performers, both, and gifted (to put it mildly) at what they do....AND have worked together quite a bit over their careers.
The Merry Widow's a pretty lightweight opera, to be sure, but unlike Die Fledermaus, which is straight foam, The Merry Widow does have a central will they-won't they romance going. For that to be plausible, there has to be a chemistry between the performers. Which Hampson and Fleming do quite nicely, at least on stage. (Dunno how they feel about each other in private life.)
I'd seen them together a few years ago in the Chicago Lyric's La Traviata, though there more a truly antagonistic relationship (he played Germont pere, she played Violetta). But the scene in which Giorgio Germont begged Violetta to give up her relationship with his son almost broke my heart....and that's the opera which Certain Husbands ruined for me with a Monty Python reference during Violetta's climactic aria. As a whole, so not taking it seriously! But with lesser performers, dog knows what I'd have thought.
On the plus side, taking the Amtrak spur from within spitting distance of our house to within spitting distance of the opera house. This is a very plus, as we don't have to drive to Michigan City to pick up the South Shore...and then drive back at the end of a long day. Cushy seats too. Minor disappointment here being that someone had rented the Great Hall (the original waiting area) for a party, so travelers were reduced to the inherently manky waiting room we'd been stuck with for the first fifteen or so years of traveling to Chicago. Hmph. I do so hope we get put back to the Great Hall! though fortunately here, traffic was sparse to say the least, so we and the Amtrak staff weren't juggling mobs and lines.
Another...not disappointment exactly, but a crestfallen: we went back to "The Pint", up by a used bookstore we quite like in Wicker Park. We'd first tried it a couple of months ago, after our Nommable Restaurant right next to the bookstore closed, but that wasn't a particularly fair trial, as I was in the middle of what turned out to be a mildly nasty systemic infection requiring (in the end) hospitalization for IV antibiotics. Not the best circumstances under which to try a new restaurant!
So we wanted to try it again, under moderately calmer circumstances, when I wasn't queasy and shaky. To be fair, it's a neighborhood bar which serves food. Therefore, and not surprisingly, the beer selection is good, but the food is uninspired. Since stephe and I are going mostly for the food, with an avid interest in drinks, this mightn't be something we'd go out of our way for in future. But ask me again in a year or two.
But then (and there's a place in the world for this) it strikes me as a place to go for an unbothered drink with friends. Particularly, it strikes me as a place where women may come alone for a drink without worrying about yobboes, though I'd want to see how things went in the weekend evenings.
The Merry Widow's a pretty lightweight opera, to be sure, but unlike Die Fledermaus, which is straight foam, The Merry Widow does have a central will they-won't they romance going. For that to be plausible, there has to be a chemistry between the performers. Which Hampson and Fleming do quite nicely, at least on stage. (Dunno how they feel about each other in private life.)
I'd seen them together a few years ago in the Chicago Lyric's La Traviata, though there more a truly antagonistic relationship (he played Germont pere, she played Violetta). But the scene in which Giorgio Germont begged Violetta to give up her relationship with his son almost broke my heart....and that's the opera which Certain Husbands ruined for me with a Monty Python reference during Violetta's climactic aria. As a whole, so not taking it seriously! But with lesser performers, dog knows what I'd have thought.
On the plus side, taking the Amtrak spur from within spitting distance of our house to within spitting distance of the opera house. This is a very plus, as we don't have to drive to Michigan City to pick up the South Shore...and then drive back at the end of a long day. Cushy seats too. Minor disappointment here being that someone had rented the Great Hall (the original waiting area) for a party, so travelers were reduced to the inherently manky waiting room we'd been stuck with for the first fifteen or so years of traveling to Chicago. Hmph. I do so hope we get put back to the Great Hall! though fortunately here, traffic was sparse to say the least, so we and the Amtrak staff weren't juggling mobs and lines.
Another...not disappointment exactly, but a crestfallen: we went back to "The Pint", up by a used bookstore we quite like in Wicker Park. We'd first tried it a couple of months ago, after our Nommable Restaurant right next to the bookstore closed, but that wasn't a particularly fair trial, as I was in the middle of what turned out to be a mildly nasty systemic infection requiring (in the end) hospitalization for IV antibiotics. Not the best circumstances under which to try a new restaurant!
So we wanted to try it again, under moderately calmer circumstances, when I wasn't queasy and shaky. To be fair, it's a neighborhood bar which serves food. Therefore, and not surprisingly, the beer selection is good, but the food is uninspired. Since stephe and I are going mostly for the food, with an avid interest in drinks, this mightn't be something we'd go out of our way for in future. But ask me again in a year or two.
But then (and there's a place in the world for this) it strikes me as a place to go for an unbothered drink with friends. Particularly, it strikes me as a place where women may come alone for a drink without worrying about yobboes, though I'd want to see how things went in the weekend evenings.