Summer Opera Picnic: Finale 


The best day ever. 

This afternoon, all the time I was putting the picnic final touches on, it was pouring the rain. I was determined to slog over there and find a place under the tent. But about 5 p.m. the sun came out and the temperature dropped into the low seventies! A gentle breeze came in. Wow. So Stephen and I went over and secured a table, and our friends showed up about six. Everything was basically delicious. The cucumber soup could have had a bit more nip and the wine could have been a tad more distinctive, but seeing our friends take second helpings suddenly make everything seem great.

We retired to see Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, which WAS very enjoyable. Unfortunately, the weather, food, company and wine conspired to put me to sleep. Every time the witch cast a spell, it seemed to work its magic on me. Don't get me wrong. I have given myself permission to doze a little in operas. It DOESN'T MEAN I'm not having a good time. I know I can count on Stephen to nudge me if I start snoring. But very, very lovely voices. I especially enjoyed the baritone who played the father, Ian Greenlaw, and Maria Zifchak in her witches scenes. Besides being a dynamic performer, and convincing all of us that she really would enjoy eating the children (in a good-natured sort of way), she had the part completely under control. But Hansel (Leah Wool) and Gretel (Saundra DeAthos) were both charming and well-sung.

And the music, definitely diatonic, nary a tone-row or dissonant chord in the whole piece. Much of it was used to good effect to recreate a musical panorama for this children's tale, but there are only so many minutes that I can wait for a dominant seventh chord to resolve to the tonic and not have my mind drift a little. Now that's really NOT a complaint, just recognizing that if someone said to me, "Would you rather go see La Boheme or Hansel and Gretel?" I wouldn't have to think before I answered.

The costumes, sets, and special effects were all that we have come to expect from OSTL, with first a convincing rustic woodland cabin, next eerie and scary trees about an ominous forest entrance, and then, genuine fairy dust, vivid and fanciful fabric, a gorgeous gingerbread house, a mightily smoking oven, luscious looking candy props, a grand cage in which to imprison Hansel, glowing blankets that conveyed a spell, a floating broom, in short the works. A friend of Stephen's who brought his two children reported at the break that they were enraptured. You just can't go to OTSL and not be entertained, ever, though you might carp a bit about a few of the operas.

And of course everyone clapped and cheered when Hansel and Gretel pushed the witch into the oven.

And then, I have to tell you. To come home and find out that Jefferts Schori has been elected to a nine-year term as Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, dear God, what a gift. Read Matthew Owings June 18 blog entry on today to find out how it felt to one Trinitarian.

And that's only HALF of the good news I got today. Sometimes, it really does seem that life is a joy. 

Posted: Sun - June 18, 2006 at 11:41 PM          

©