# So Predictable ...



## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

So predictable ...

one good experience (Romeo & Juliet) and Greg runs out and blows a bundle on future tickets that will probably be awful ... but on the bright side, the summer's entertainment is pretty well set:
6/22	Firebird (ABT)
6/24	Raymonda (Bolshoi, opera in cinema)
6/26	Swan Lake (ABT)
7/2	Corsaire (ABT)
7/8-9	go to SF to get tickets for next June's Tales of Hoffmann there
7/11	Tales of Hoffmann (Met HD re-broadcast)
7/12	Suite en Blanc/l'Arlesienne/Bolero (Paris Opera Ballet)
7/15	Sleeping Beauty (opera in cinema)
7/17	Giselle (Paris Opera Ballet)
7/18	Lucia di Lammermoor (Met HD re-broadcast)
7/20	Orpheus et Eurydice (Paris Opera Ballet)
7/25	Rosenkavalier (Met HD re-broadcast)
8/12	Norma (Taormina, opera in cinema)
I suppose what I'm really looking forward to with the most pleasure is actually the Met re-broadcast of their Tales of Hoffmann (which was new in 2009). When it first came out I hadn't yet learned how good the cheap seats are, at the Met, and I only got one ticket. However, that show was really quite ... amazing ... I mean, Offenbach was a friggin' genius, and Bartlett Sher is a genius right now. Part of what helped him pull it off, I'm sure, is that ToH is traditionally much more malleable than most other operas - you wouldn't catch any one saying, hey, let's have the funeral pyre scene in Norma BEFORE she catches Pollione in the women's quarters ... and it's not just that it wouldn't make sense; it's just not done. The point is, you can do a lot with ToH that you can't do with other operas. And the way he or they worked it is Giulietta was the third episode, and they split up Klein Zack so the last verse comes at the end, after Hoffmann has murdered his rival. Now Klein Zack refers to Hoffmann, and is kind of an expression of understanding of who he is (le monstre, le monstre). Follow that with the amazing ? sextet (not sure how many sing in it) about how much better poetry is than love (lol) and it's just an ever-increasing series of blows to the heart that are pretty unforgettable. I went to every performance of the comparatively starless version they did the very next season and it was WONDERFUL. Kate Lindsey. Ildar Abdrazakov. Giuseppe Filianoti (I think).


----------

