A measure of pleasure
Jun. 30th, 2008 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pallas_athenaI had a strangely blissful two weeks in DC, ending with a concert that pleased both me and my colleagues (and, I hope, our lovely audience.) Our finale, the Presentation of the Rose from der Rosenkavalier, had had us all sweating blood during rehearsals... but in performance, the ghost of Richard Strauss smiled on us, and it went beautifully. (At least, it felt beautiful-- I have no idea what it sounded like from the outside.)
When not singing, I looked after my mother's house. The pool needed an especially large amount of looking after. Any moment I could spare, I was in there looking after it. Luckily![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
speedlime helped me with this burden, selfless as she is. Once we swam during a thunderstorm, and afterwards saw a double rainbow-- the second we'd seen in a week.
I also went to plays: no trip to DC is complete without seeing a science-fiction icon do classical theatre. No, seriously: Avery Brooks (the captain on Deep Space Nine, forsooth) got his start in DC theatre: I've seen him play Othello, Oberon and too many others to count (though I sadly missed his Tamburlaine last autumn.) I've seen one other starship captain play Othello in DC: Patrick Stewart, as the only white actor in an all-black cast. This time round, it was another Deep Space Nine alumnus, René Auberjonois, playing Argan in Molière's The Imaginary Invalid. He turns out to be a quite brilliant physical comedian, full of charm, with great delivery.
Le Malade Imaginaire is Molière's last play; he himself played Argan, but died shortly after the fourth performance. The current production is set on that specific night, so they cut none of the period-specific detail; the singing and dancing, the little homages to Louis XIV at the beginning and end of the show, were all left in. I think a lot of people who expected straightforward theatre were left going "WTF?" I, however, loved it and loved the madness of the company for doing it: theatre of this period is something other, no use pretending it's not. When else are you going to get to see a comedy-ballet performed as it was in Molière's own time? Also, the seventeenth-century costumes were beautiful; I dearly wished some of my costuming friends had been on hand for frock coat analysis.
I also took in Measure for Pleasure at the Woolly Mammoth; it's a comedy written in 2006 by David Grimm, but set in 1751-- the final scene being a debauch in the caves of West Wycombe. I found it filthy as all hell and sublimely hilarious.
I love my city's summers. Exiting an air-conditioned theatre into the humid embrace of a DC summer night is a sensual experience: the full moon blurrily drunk on the moisture in the air, air so warm and heavy you could swear your outstretched arms leave trails through it. Also, the humidity makes my hair go all Alphonse Mucha (see my icon for an example; it was, after all, drawn during a DC summer.)
When not singing, I looked after my mother's house. The pool needed an especially large amount of looking after. Any moment I could spare, I was in there looking after it. Luckily
speedlime helped me with this burden, selfless as she is. Once we swam during a thunderstorm, and afterwards saw a double rainbow-- the second we'd seen in a week. I also went to plays: no trip to DC is complete without seeing a science-fiction icon do classical theatre. No, seriously: Avery Brooks (the captain on Deep Space Nine, forsooth) got his start in DC theatre: I've seen him play Othello, Oberon and too many others to count (though I sadly missed his Tamburlaine last autumn.) I've seen one other starship captain play Othello in DC: Patrick Stewart, as the only white actor in an all-black cast. This time round, it was another Deep Space Nine alumnus, René Auberjonois, playing Argan in Molière's The Imaginary Invalid. He turns out to be a quite brilliant physical comedian, full of charm, with great delivery.
Le Malade Imaginaire is Molière's last play; he himself played Argan, but died shortly after the fourth performance. The current production is set on that specific night, so they cut none of the period-specific detail; the singing and dancing, the little homages to Louis XIV at the beginning and end of the show, were all left in. I think a lot of people who expected straightforward theatre were left going "WTF?" I, however, loved it and loved the madness of the company for doing it: theatre of this period is something other, no use pretending it's not. When else are you going to get to see a comedy-ballet performed as it was in Molière's own time? Also, the seventeenth-century costumes were beautiful; I dearly wished some of my costuming friends had been on hand for frock coat analysis.
I also took in Measure for Pleasure at the Woolly Mammoth; it's a comedy written in 2006 by David Grimm, but set in 1751-- the final scene being a debauch in the caves of West Wycombe. I found it filthy as all hell and sublimely hilarious.
I love my city's summers. Exiting an air-conditioned theatre into the humid embrace of a DC summer night is a sensual experience: the full moon blurrily drunk on the moisture in the air, air so warm and heavy you could swear your outstretched arms leave trails through it. Also, the humidity makes my hair go all Alphonse Mucha (see my icon for an example; it was, after all, drawn during a DC summer.)