Wait, where did October go?

Somehow I missed out on writing anything the entire month of October and (almost) November as well... The last six weeks have been filled with music and food and travel, basically my three favorite things, so I have very few complaints.

It's Johannes Brahms Platz in Hamburg!

Earlier this month, I saw Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci in Düsseldorf at Opera on the Rhine. Both were relatively traditional productions (which I'm beginning to value quite a lot) with really wonderful singing. I preferred Cavalleria Rusticana, even if it seemed a little melodramatic compared to the sparse production that we did at USM this past spring. Pagliacci was even *more* melodramatic, if possible. I really am not certain whose idea it was to put opera and clowns together; I would not ever have made such a decision.

I also saw Salome by Richard Strauss in Düsseldorf, an opera that I had wanted to see for quite a long time. While the singing was just incredible, the production was modernized and seemed to me as though it were in the bedroom of a teenage girl (Salome...awkward... the part where John is in captivity in a secret hatch under your bedroom rug?). Also, Salome might have been a succubus and there was some very bizarre puppetry taking the place of the Dance of the Seven Veils, and then she went all Quentin-Tarantino-film on everybody, even the people who were supposed to make it out alive.

Sometime, somehow, I managed to see Le Nozze di Figaro in Köln, even though the opera house was in the middle of nowhere and it was a sort of black-box theatre...very strange. Even though I love the Countess and her arias, I actually kind of dislike this opera. A lot. This particular production was 3.5 hours long and it felt like longer. Some beautiful singing, but heavens! Also, the set of this production was a sort of chalkboard, and at one point, there were blow-up dolls suspended from the ceiling... I don't even know what happened.

Tonight, I saw perhaps the strangest production of Norma I could have imagined at Theater Bonn. It had a narrator who spoke German SO FAST. And the audience was participating? It was sort of like Norma meets Our Town, but not in a way Bellini, Thornton Wilder, or I could possibly appreciate. And it was set in present day, but also not? Adalgisa was AMAZING and Norma was very good, but all in all, I think the production lacked some bel canto grace. It was like the movements and the music didn't match, if that makes any sense.

I've noticed a few things about German opera productions in general: Firstly, they seem to all be modernized at least a bit. Sometimes it works, often there's something slightly lacking. I think I might... be closer to an opera 'purist' than I originally thought I was. Secondly, unnecessary nudity--Salome, no Dance of the Seven Veils, just takes off her clothes with no pomp or circumstance? Nedda in Pagliacci, how about you just change costumes on stage? Norma and Adalgisa both without a shirt on? Um, okay. Thirdly, I'm hearing an abnormal amount of straight-tone singing. The Figaro in Köln was sung at least 50% without vibrato. Norma as well. Weird, Deutschland, so weird.

Other than my opera-related travel this month, I took a little trip with some friends to Hamburg. 18-ish total hours of transit, about 10 trains? Worth it. Hamburg is a port city, and after this trip, I will readily acknowledge that I'm obsessed with water. Having hot chocolate or tea next to the river is so lovely--definitely a happy place of mine. After spending a few weeks in Natchez, MS this summer, I should have known how relaxing life in view of a body of water is when one actually has time to appreciate it. I really could have done nothing else in Hamburg other than sit next to a harbor and would have been completely satisfied.

Some days hair is stupid. 

On the return journey from Hamburg, our group ended up in Bielefeld, a place that apparently does not exist...  I can say no more. 

Bielefeld gibt es doch!...?

At the first of October, I finished reading Anna Karenina... spoiler alert--perhaps not the greatest of novels to choose to read considering how much time lately that I'm spending on trains/in train stations. I get a little jumpy when anyone stands too close to the tracks and on one instance even jokingly shouted, "Anna, don't!" I've now started reading Harry Potter in German. Heaven help us all. 

I'm also now singing the Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Collegium Musicum here. The director pulled out a tuning fork and I felt completely at home. Somehow, I'm singing Soprano 1... I don't know what I was thinking, but oh well--proving that I have high B's for days, one rehearsal at a time. I'm pretty sure the people on my floor hear me singing 'Casta Diva', 'Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix', and Elton John songs in the shower, and that's 100% okay. 

I took this photo walking to class on Thursday.
Yeah, I go to school there.
That is all.