nocturnal sounds (the awakening)
Apr. 22nd, 2018 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yamamanamaLater That Same Evening is an opera by John Musto inspired by five Edward Hopper paintings. A young married couple, Elaine and Gus (Room in New York) play the piano and read the newspaper and talk about going to a play in order to stave off estrangement. Gus declines to go. Meanwhile (Hotel Window), a recently widowed woman, Estelle, awaits her date Ronaldo, who is a Portuguese piano salesman. Meanwhile (Hotel Room), the failed dancer Ruth writes a letter to her boyfriend back in Indianapolis. The three women sing a trio to finish the act. At the theater,(Two on the Aisle), an older Jewish couple playfully bicker, a woman from Italy finds herself confounded, a young man puts an engagement ring on a seat for a dancer from Indianapolis who never comes, a young man from Lynchburg finds himself enraptured by a play we never actually see. They leave, and the rain pours on them. In the Automat, the usher, Thelma, says that the word Tamotua sounds like a village in Italy, while I think it sounds Maori, and, in fact, Google Translate says it's and the young man with the ring have a conversation and leave together.
Parts of it remind me of the theme from Catch Me If You Can, parts of it reminds me of Rachel's take on Samuel Barber, even if Rachel's Systems/Layers is music written specifically for the 21st century. The composer was inspired by Bernstein and Adams, while the music in the play is pure Sondheim.
The scenes on the surface world are inspired by Edward Hopper as well.
Afterward, the librettist held a question and answer session. Here are some points of importance. He wrote in a week in Provincetown, going through Hopper paintings and looking for ones he could put together by location and time. They're all in New York and they're all in the evening. He didn't want to include Nighthawks because that's too cliché, but one of the characters's outfits uses Nighthawks' palette. The Italian woman isn’t specifically a surrogate for the audience during the play within the opera; they all are. His boyfriend at the time was Italian and provided the translations. People have asked him about the play and it doesn't actually exist. He started out as a musical theatre librettist. He has some very harsh words to say about the Metropolitan Opera. The words in the rain scene were repetitive in order to take us out of the story for a moment and immerse us in sound.
Someone on the Chud forums said we’re fast approaching a fixed canon and I said it’s the same in rock music but for different reasons, and I don’t think the stagnation in rock radio will cease even when the boomers and generation x die off or become too old and irrelevant for advertisers because they’ve pushed the idea that music was better in the old days so hard.
Emma’s (no, not that Emma) friend has an owl tattoo. Not Lacie, I mean. It’s not Laci. The only people who should be named Laci are the ones using at as a diminutive of László. I tried to draw Emma from every angle.
Hannah is not an artist but she plays trumpet and writes. Hannah has electric blue streaks in her black hair.
The woman with gecko earrings is a photographer.
There was a man so wizened he looked fey.
The people seated near me had obviously never had Ethiopian food because one of them asked about utensils.
Yesom Fit Fit (ፍትፍት) is an Ethiopian stew of sauteed onions, tomatoes, and a few slices of jalapeño peppers on top. Typically it’s served for breakfast, says Wikipedia. If you’re wondering just how they eat stew in Ethiopia, they stick rolled up strips of injera in there to absorb it and then wrap it in even more injera.
Most of the conversation I had with Gabriella have already been posted in previous entries.
Burning Question: Say, did somebody say "box kites"?
Parts of it remind me of the theme from Catch Me If You Can, parts of it reminds me of Rachel's take on Samuel Barber, even if Rachel's Systems/Layers is music written specifically for the 21st century. The composer was inspired by Bernstein and Adams, while the music in the play is pure Sondheim.
Afterward, the librettist held a question and answer session. Here are some points of importance. He wrote in a week in Provincetown, going through Hopper paintings and looking for ones he could put together by location and time. They're all in New York and they're all in the evening. He didn't want to include Nighthawks because that's too cliché, but one of the characters's outfits uses Nighthawks' palette. The Italian woman isn’t specifically a surrogate for the audience during the play within the opera; they all are. His boyfriend at the time was Italian and provided the translations. People have asked him about the play and it doesn't actually exist. He started out as a musical theatre librettist. He has some very harsh words to say about the Metropolitan Opera. The words in the rain scene were repetitive in order to take us out of the story for a moment and immerse us in sound.
Someone on the Chud forums said we’re fast approaching a fixed canon and I said it’s the same in rock music but for different reasons, and I don’t think the stagnation in rock radio will cease even when the boomers and generation x die off or become too old and irrelevant for advertisers because they’ve pushed the idea that music was better in the old days so hard.
Emma’s (no, not that Emma) friend has an owl tattoo. Not Lacie, I mean. It’s not Laci. The only people who should be named Laci are the ones using at as a diminutive of László. I tried to draw Emma from every angle.
Hannah is not an artist but she plays trumpet and writes. Hannah has electric blue streaks in her black hair.
The woman with gecko earrings is a photographer.
There was a man so wizened he looked fey.
The people seated near me had obviously never had Ethiopian food because one of them asked about utensils.
Yesom Fit Fit (ፍትፍት) is an Ethiopian stew of sauteed onions, tomatoes, and a few slices of jalapeño peppers on top. Typically it’s served for breakfast, says Wikipedia. If you’re wondering just how they eat stew in Ethiopia, they stick rolled up strips of injera in there to absorb it and then wrap it in even more injera.
Most of the conversation I had with Gabriella have already been posted in previous entries.
Burning Question: Say, did somebody say "box kites"?
