Slogging through Wagner

A couple posts ago I wrote that the Metropolitan Opera is streaming free telecasts of old performances for stay-at-home audiences.  The operas I saw last week were all enjoyable.  

After "The Daughter of the Regiment" (which I wrote about) I saw another Donizetti opera, "Lucia di Lammermoor", on Saturday evening.  That was excellent and very dramatic.  The famous "mad scene" in which Lucia comes out in her blood-stained wedding dress after murdering the man she was forced to marry was really gripping.  I had never seen any works of Donizetti before, but after seeing his most famous comedy and his most famous tragedy, I must say that I like him. 

The next night I watched "Eugene Onegin" by Tchaikovsky.  I had seen a simulcast of that opera some years ago in a movie theater.  Tchaikovsky is one of my favorite orchestral composers, and this opera has a rather interesting story line.  (Naive Tatiana, a girl from the sticks, falls for a worldly nobleman, Eugene Onegin.  Onegin rejects her love.  Years later, Tatiana has married well, and is a glamorous princess.  When Onegin sees her, he is smitten, but virtuous Tatiana, even though she still has feelings for him, rebuffs his advances.)  This production was different from the one I had seen before.  The designer used very stark, minimalist sets which I did not care for.  Nevertheless, the story and the fine singing held my interest.

(image taken from the web)

Monday night's opera was Richard Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde".  I like the instrumental music from Wagner's operas, but listening to his complete operas is another thing.  I once started to watch on PBS one of his works from the "Ring Cycle", but  I didn't get very far.  In spite of that, I decided to give Wagner another try last night.  Jeez, the opera is four hours long!  I slogged my way through Acts I and II, and I forced myself to finish with Act III today.  It was a rather painful experience.

First of all, I hated the modern stage settings and costumes.  I realize that it is trendy to update classic operas and plays into present-day settings.  For some productions it works.  But this story centers around a magical love potion in a mythical medieval world.  A modern update just seems ludicrous.  The stage settings were all very dark and industrial.  The ship in which Tristan and Isolde are sailing across the sea looks like the hold of some grim cargo ship carrying toxic waste.  The costumes are equally dark.  You would think that an Irish princess on her way to marry the King of Cornwall would not be dressed so frumpily.

(image taken from the web)

In the first act Isolde's singing is the stereotypical shrieking that you associate with Wagnerian female vocalists.  In the second act the music is sweeter and more melodic, but the two of them go on and on and on about how it is "only in the long night of death that they can be eternally united."  I guess that's why the settings and costumes are all so dark.  This is morbidly depressing, and nobody has even died yet!  The final act contains the famous "Liebestod" (Love Death) which as an orchestral work is gorgeous... but it's less gorgeous with Isolde's wailing.  After four hours I just wanted it to be over.  

Guess what?  This whole week is going to be devoted to Wagner.  Good grief!  The next four nights are going to be the four operas that make up his "Ring Cycle".  The whole thing lasts about 15 hours in total.  I am going to pass.  I might try watching the last two nights of "Wagner Week"... "Die Meistersinger" (the only comic opera that he wrote) and "Tannhäuser".  Looking at the pictures on the website at least these two have traditional stage settings and costumes.

The good news is that next week's schedule includes some more appealing works by Verdi and Rossini.  (I look forward to "The Barber of Seville".)  

It's Happened Before

We are not the first ones to live in a time of pandemic.  Our great grandparents went through the 1918 -1920 influenza epidemic erroneously known as the "Spanish Flu".  During that period it is thought that perhaps one quarter of the planet's population was infected. Estimates of the death toll vary widely, from 17 million to 50 million.  Hopefully our current pandemic will not last as long, nor will it take as many lives.

A friend sent an email with this letter that was written by author F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I thought that it was worth sharing.  There are some interesting parallels with our time, and the letter ends with a note of hope.

A LETTER FROM F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, QUARANTINED IN 1920 IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE DURING THE SPANISH INFLUENZA OUTBREAK.

Dearest Rosemary,

It was a limpid dreary day, hung as in a basket from a single dull star. I thank you for your letter.

Outside, I perceive what may be a collection of fallen leaves tussling against a trash can. It rings like jazz to my ears. The streets are that empty. It seems as though the bulk of the city has retreated to their quarters, rightfully so.

At this time, it seems very poignant to avoid all public spaces. Even the bars, as I told Hemingway, but to that he punched me in the stomach, to which I asked if he had washed his hands. He hadn’t. He is much the denier, that one. Why, he considers the virus to be just influenza. I’m curious of his sources.

The officials have alerted us to ensure we have a month’s worth of necessities. Zelda and I have stocked up on red wine, whiskey, rum, vermouth, absinthe, white wine, sherry, gin, and lord, if we need it, brandy. Please pray for us.

You should see the square, oh, it is terrible. Weep for the damned eventualities this future brings.

The long afternoons rolling forward slowly on the ever-slick bottomless highball. Z says it’s no excuse to drink, but I just can’t seem to steady my hand.

In the distance, from my brooding perch, the shoreline is cloaked in a dull haze where I can discern an unremitting penance that has been heading this way for a long, long while. And yet, amongst the cracked cloudline of an evening’s cast, I focus on a single strain of light, calling me forth to believe in a better morrow.

Faithfully yours,

F. Scott Fitzgerald

A Night ( and a Morning) at the Opera

I am not a big opera buff, but I do enjoy many of the well-known operas such as "Aida" and "Carmen".  My exposure to live opera is very limited.  Back when I was a kid, back in the days when the Metropolitan Opera used to come on tour to Cleveland, my mother took me to a couple performances, and in college I saw a couple works staged by the music conservatory at my college.  Later the Metropolitan Opera began screening live performances at movie theaters.  I went to several of those with an older friend who was a fan.  (Sadly she has passed away.)

Yesterday I was looking at a blog called Countdown to Mexico.  The author's latest entry deals with activities to do at home now that so many of us are not leaving the house.  She included a link to the Metropolitan Opera's website.  Due to the fact that the Met has canceled the remainder of its season due to the pandemic, they are now offering free streams of operas from the past.  Each evening at 6:30 P.M. a new opera is available for twenty four hours.

Last night's opera was "La Fille du Régiment" ("The Daughter of the Regiment"), a comic opera written in French by the Italian composer Donizetti in 1840.

(image taken from the web)

   

The tale revolves around Marie, a young woman who, when she was an orphaned babe, was taken in and cared for by a regiment of French soldiers.  She vowed that one day she would marry one of the soldiers of the regiment, but then she falls in love with a young Swiss fellow named Tonio.  (Luciano Pavarotti first became a star playing the role of Tonio.)  The plot is a piece of fluff, and there is more slapstick comedy than you would expect from opera.  The lead singers were excellent.  Marie was played by French soprano Natalie Dessay, and Tonio was played by Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez.

(image taken from the web)

I watched the first act of the opera last night and the concluding second act this morning.

If you enjoy opera (or if you want to see if you might like opera) here is the link...

Metropolitan Opera

And by the way, there are English subtitles, so that you can follow along with the story.

Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to watch tonight´s offering, another Donizetti opera, "Lucia di Lammermoor".

Cancelled

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I take three or four trips to Mexico City each year, and that I spend four or five months down there.  Even though I returned home just a month ago, I was scheduled to return in April.  About a week ago, I wrote on this blog that, although I had some concerns, I was far from the point where I was planning to cancel my trip.  

Events have changed dramatically in that week.  Here in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where I live, we have gone from three confirmed cases to fifty three.  Schools, restaurants and bars have been closed in the entire state, and all large gatherings are prohibited.  I am in semi-isolation, leaving the house only when necessary.  

In the entire nation of Mexico there were only eight confirmed cases a week ago, and four of those had already recovered.  Now there are 113 active cases, and the country has recorded its first death.  Tomorrow all schools will be closed, and the Secretary of Health said that by the end of the month the virus will be an epidemic.  

Several days ago I had sadly resigned myself to the fact that the trip was not going to happen.  Finally, last night I went to the United Airlines website to cancel my flight.  I had already been notified by United that my itinerary had been changed.  You may remember that I was supposed to fly from Cleveland to Newark, but I suspected that the flight would be cancelled since there were only eleven seats booked on a large 737 jet.  They switched me instead to a flight to Houston.  But it didn't matter.  I cancelled my reservation.  Actually I should say that I changed my reservation.  Without any penalty I was able switch the April trip for reservations for my usual visit in October / November, and I still have my tickets for my trip in August.  (I certainly hope that this crisis has abated by then!  If not I will probably be ready for the looney bin!)

I am feeling quite depressed, but I suppose that is a feeling I share with much of the planet's population right now.  I had already packed my carry-on, filled with gifts to take to my friends in Mexico, including everything needed for an Easter egg hunt for Alejandro's nephew.

Well, my "Mexican family" will have to wait for their gifts, and I suppose we can have an Easter egg hunt even if it's not Easter.

Another Walk in the Park

Last week I wrote that since my local recreation center is closed due to the pandemic, I got some exercise by taking a long walk in the Cleveland Metroparks.  Last Friday I hiked a section of the Rocky River Reservation.  Just to the south of that is another reservation which forms another gem in the "Emerald Necklace" that encircles Cleveland.  On Monday I went to the Mill Stream Reservation for another walk in the park.

The Mill Stream Run Reservation, which continues to follow the course of the Rocky River, passes through the Cleveland suburbs of Berea, Middleburg Heights and Strongsville.  It is also a very short drive from my home.  I parked my car at the northern end of Baldwin Lake.  There is a small, man-made waterfall where a dam had been built.

Baldwin Lake was originally a stone quarry.  There is not much left of the lake as it has over the years filled in with sediments where grasses and reeds now grow.  But I can remember open lake here when I was a boy.

Across the road from Baldwin Lake is Wallace Lake.  This lake has not filled in.  At one end of the lake is an area where swimming is allowed in the summer.

Wallace Lake was also a stone quarry.  The town of Berea was once the center of an important sandstone quarrying industry.  The stone underlying this area is some of the best quality sandstone in the world.  Berea sandstone was used for making grindstones and for construction.  In the late 1800s, 93% of the grindstones in the world came from Berea, and buildings all over the world, including the Canadian Parliament, were built from Berea sandstone.  Four hundred tons of stone were shipped from here every day.  The quarries employed more than 500 men, including my great-great grandfather, who came here from Switzerland.  By 1934. because of diminishing demand, the last of the Berea quarries was closed.  In 1937 the Cleveland Metroparks purchased the property encompassing Baldwin and Wallace Lakes.

Canadian geese by Wallace Lake.

I continued along the reservation's all-purpose trail through the neighboring suburbs of Middleburg Height and Strongsville.  In a couple of months this will be the leafy, green forest that gives the park system its nickname of the "Emerald Necklace"

In Strongsville I came to this this covered bridge.  It was built in 1983, but it is in the style of the covered bridges that were popular in many parts of the U.S. in the nineteenth century.

This humorous sign on the bridge is something that you might have seen back in the 1800s.

"Five dollars fine for driving more than twelve horses, mules, or cattle at any one time or for leading any beast faster than a walk on or across this bridge."

At that point I turned back.  I could have gone farther, but the skies were growing cloudy, and I did not want to be caught in the rain.  I returned to my car after a round-trip walk of around four miles.

I Don't Have to Vote Today

I do not particularly care for the Republican Governor of Ohio, Michael DeWine, but I must give him kudos for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.  Even before Ohio had recorded its first confirmed case of the virus he had cancelled events that would have attracted visitors from across the country.  He ordered all public and private schools to shut down beginning this week, and Sunday he ordered all restaurants and bars to close their doors except for carryout orders.

Today the Ohio primary was scheduled to take place.  I had not voted early or filed an absentee ballot because I did not have any trips scheduled for March.  Now that Ohio has 50 confirmed cases with 24 of them in my county, I was debating whether or not I should vote today.  Then yesterday the governor asked for a delay of the primary.  I was happy to hear that.  But then the news came that a Court of Appeals judge in Columbus had denied the request.   

I went to bed wondering if I could time my trip to the polling place so that there would not be a crowd of voters.  I thought about setting the alarm to get up and vote when the polls open at 6:30, but I thought that many others might have the same idea and that many people on their way to work vote early in the morning.  I decided that the best time might be mid-morning.

I got up this morning at my usual time and checked the internet to see if their had been any developments through the night.  Indeed there had been.  Late last night the Director of the Department of Health declared a health emergency and stated that the polls must not open.  The Supreme Court of Ohio issued a last minute ruling upholding the postponement of the Ohio Primary.  Since senior citizens are the ones who are most likely to vote, and they are also the ones most vulnerable to the virus, it is a wise decision.

I can stay home today!

  

A New Recipe

I stumbled upon a recipe video on YouTube which sounded good and which I tried out yesterday.  Here is the link if you want to watch the video for making CREAMY AVOCADO TUNA SALAD.  This recipe is healthier than regular tuna salad because, instead of using mayonnaise, a ripe avocado is smashed and incorporated into the mixture.

The chef (who is also a dietician) gave some interesting nutritional information which I did not know.  She said that when you buy cans of tuna, you should always buy the chunk light tuna rather than the white albacore tuna.  Although albacore is more expensive, it is also a fish that lives longer.  Thus there is more mercury in its flesh than the other varieties of tuna which have shorter lives.

Also she said that cilantro is an excellent herb which clears toxins such as heavy metals out of the bloodstream.  Some people don't like cilantro, but I do.  However, I rarely buy it.  It's one of those things where the bunches they sell in the supermarket are too big for the small amount that you need, and it rots before you use it all.  However, I went ahead and bought a bunch the other day when I was shopping for the ingredients. 

Here is what the finished product looked like.  I admit that it doesn't look especially appetizing.

I tasted it, and it was just OK.  So I added an additional heavy squirt of Dijon mustard and a good sprinkling of hot paprika and mixed it in.  That gave it the extra oomph to make it tastier.  With that little addition it is something that I would make again.