Horszowski Trio. June 23, 2023.

Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University.  Orchestra (Free).

Great musicians, lovely program.  A couple of questions.  How does one keep a 300-year old cello that shiny?  And is the dress made from plastic?

Artists

Jesse Mills, violin; Ole Akahoshi, cello; Rieko Aizawa piano.

Program

Trio (1937) by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990).

Phantasiestucke Project

- Remembrance (2022) by Derek Bermel (b. 1967).

- Eldorado (2022) by David Fulmer (b. 1981).

- Fantasy "Little Dragonfly" (2020) by Paul Chihara (b. 1938).

Trio No. 2 in E-flat major, D.929 (1827) by Franz Schubert (1797-1828).

This was the first of four Princeton University Summer Chamber Concerts.  Richardson Auditorium will be closed later in the summer for repairs, so this would be the only concert held at that place.  Subsequent ones will be in the Presbyterian Church on Nassau Street.

It was a delightful program.  A bit on the long side.  We started a little after 7:30 pm, and didn't end until 9:30 pm.  There was a 20-or-so minute intermission, and Jesse Mills talked a little about the first pieces in the program.

Leonard Bernstein wrote the Trio when he was 18 or 19, while a student at Harvard.  The musicologist probably can hear the beginnings of the musical idioms that would set him apart.  To me it was "wow, I didn't know he could wrote this as a teenager."  The three movements are (1) Adagio non troppo - Piu mosso - Allegro vivace; (2) Tempo di marcia; and (3) Largo - Allegro vivo et molto ritmico.  Equally impressive was how well the three musicians work together.  Part of the joy of listening to chamber music is to appreciate the give-and-take, and the three blended very well.

The "Fantasies Pieces" project (no idea why they needed German names) was a collection of three short pieces by living composers, written in tribute to Schuman.  The "Remembrance" piece started with a simple tune of Schumann, and went from there.  Eldorado was more abstract.  "Little Dragonfly" has an interesting story behind it.  Chihara is second generation Japanese American, and was sent to internment camp in Ohio during the war.  When he went back to Japan he heard this tune "Red Dragonfly" which was appropriated from a tune by Schumann.  So the tune in a way came full circle when it got incorporated into this piece.

It was surprising that I found all three pieces quite accessible.  There may be modern writing, but the romantic (or classical) roots were the anchor throughout.  It is somewhat unfortunate that the compelling story behind the Chihara piece isn't quite reflected in the music.  Given the story behind it, I expected it would elicit more emotion from me, but the tune quickly faded into the "fantasy" part of the composition; even though it came back a couple of times, the magic was already lost.

When someone looks at a modern painting, he won't simply scan it once and walk away.  Even better if there is a docent pointing out different aspects of the painting that hold special significance (either to the painter or the critic).  With most modern music, the listener gets to hear it once, probably not enough for him to grasp the "story," especially if he hears the composer for the first time.

The Schubert trio exhibits all the characteristics I come to expect of Schubert's chamber music.  The good aspects are all there: tunes, balance, harmony, structure, drama.  One not-so-appreciated characteristic, alas, is the amount of repetition and the resulting length.  I suppose the listener's mindset has a lot to do with it - see my comments on his "Great" symphony.  Perhaps this was my first encounter, or perhaps the repetitions were not that many, it didn't feel as long as a 45-miunte piece could be.  The movements are Allegro; Andante con moto; Scherzando: Allegro moderato; and Allegro moderato.

The pianist Aizawa got a real work out in the Schubert piece (not to say the other pieces were easy).  In general the piano sounded louder than the other two instruments.  Akahoshi produced a great sound with the Matteo Goffriller cello (c. 1707), but sounded weaker than the other two.  I wonder how much they rehearsed in the auditorium.  The placement of the two string players also crowded out our view of the pianist, thus I couldn't get to see how she tackled the instrument.

All in all a great concert.  I mentally noted down quite a few things while listening to the music, but have forgotten most of the specifics a day later.  That's too bad.

Horszowski was a well-known piano teacher at Curtis, and Aizawa was a student of his.  They have performed at Princeton several times before.  This was our first encounter.

This weekend was supposed to be rainy, but we managed to dodge the rain drops, which didn't turn out to be too bad anyway.

Leipzig Opera. Handel's Giulio Cesare. June 11, 2023.

Leipzig Oper.  Opernhaus Saal, Leipzig.  Parkett links (Row 14-33, 56 euros).

Selfie taken at intermission.  We have know David and Vivian since our Cornell days in the 1970s.

Story.  See previous post.

Ruben Dubrovsky - Conductor.  Giulio Cesare - Yuriy Mynenko, Cornelia - Ulrike Schneider, Sesto - Kathrin Goring, Cleopetra - Olga Jelinkova, Tolomeo - Remy Bres, Achilla - Franz Xavier Schlecht/Matthias Hoffmann.

While Bach Fest continues in Leipzig, Handel Festival is happening in the nearby town of Halle.  Tonight's opera was also part of the Handel Festival.  We enjoyed very much our encounter with the opera about 10 years ago at the Met, so were looking forward to this event.

Unfortunately the performance didn't have English surtitles, and despite having read the synopsis, having seen the opera before, and having David explain to us the plot, we were quite lost during the close-to-three hours of music and acting. Things on stage do not unfold at a uniform speed (nor are they expected to), and once you lose you place, it takes a while to get back on track.  And we are sure the Leipzig production is edited differently than described in the synopsis.  The chorus sang at the beginning of the opera we saw at the Met, that wasn't the case today.  It wasn't clear when Caesar appeared to die.  The use of countertenors and Sesto's being a trouser role did not help, although I was less confused today than I remember from the Met performance.

Tolomeo was played by a young (at least youngish-looking) Remy Bres, which added to the already considerable cognitive dissonances.  I had to constantly remind myself what role he had.  For effect (visual and philosophical) the dead Pompey appeared on stage often, and he bore some resemblance to Tolomeo; which didn't help.

Nonetheless, the singers were all quite impressive.  The rapid runs - especially ones sung by Cleopatra - were all done crisply; I wonder how they manage to find places to breathe.  A few arias/duets were particularly enjoyable, even moving in the case of Sesto and Cornelia.  The singer for Achilla couldn't sing today, so when he was on stage some singer would stand off stage and sing his lines.  After a while I got used to it. The announcement before the opera began seemed to indicate another substitution, but I didn't catch it.

The set is quite simple.  Most of the time it can be described as a room with two walls that can move up and down.  There were all these red threads which I at first took to be laser beams, but turned out to be threads of fate as David explained.  The three Fates (to weave, pull, and cut the threads) were represented by naked women (or in good body suits, I couldn't tell) who walked slowly.  (Think the three norns in Wagner's Gotterdammerung.)  Ptolemy also walked slowly - he was dead after all - most often bare feet but in a suit.  At one point he poured out his ashes as ashes landed on him; towards the end he got white paint all over himself and turned into a statue.  He managed to stay motionless on a pedestal for an impressive amount of time, more than those "live stationary statues" one sees at many public squares.

There was not a lot of violence in this production.  People used guns, but no one was killed by a gun.  The only killing on stage was Sesto killing Tolomeo by suffocating him with this huge plastic sheet.  I was quite relieved when he got up at some point.  That plastic sheet was also used to good effect when the Roman senators tried to stab Caesar; not quite correct chronologically, but that probably didn't matter to the production people.  (Achilla also died by gunshot, but I don't remember the moment - perhaps off stage?)

Curtain Call.  From the left: Pompey (who didn't have a voice role), ?, Achilla, Achilla's voice, Tolomeo, Cleopatra, maestro, Cesare, Sesto, Cornelia, ?, three women of fate.

The following are screen shots from the opera's website.  Interestingly Cesare doesn't make an appearance (except perhaps the first photo).

At first I had no idea what this meant.  It was explained to me these are the thread woven, pulled, and cut by the three women of fate.  That this person (Pompey?) was all tied up meant he had no control over his life.

Cleopatra.  Not sure who the lover is.

Tolomeo.

Sesto and Cornelia.  They sang a moving duet.

Pompey pouring out ashes from an urn, while ashes fall from the opening in the ceiling.

Cleopatra and Tolomeo.

There are a couple of scenes I remember well from the Met performance.  One was Cleopatra taking a bath in preparation to meet Caesar, there it was done cleverly with the use of panels to shield the bathing/changing Cleopatra.  Here the scene is substituted by Cleopatra picking out a wardrobe.  More straightforward, but worked.  The other scene was the Met orchestra's concertmaster actually went on stage to play as Caesar was thinking about professing his love (per David).  It was comical.  Here the solo part was played in the pit, the music seemed a bit shorter, and didn't generate a chuckle in the audience.

Overall, I am still glad we got to see this opera.  But I do wish they do more English surtitles at Leipzig.  Fortunately, David was there to point out some aspects of the production, so I got a lot more out of the opera than I otherwise would have.

We all went to the train station to grab something to eat afterwards.  Being a Sunday, many places closed by 8 pm (about when we showed up).  Anne and I then walked about 10 minutes to this Wagner Monument, and found the plaque saying "Wagner was born here."  We couldn't find it last time we looked.

Leipzig Bach Fest 2023 No. 36. "Excellent" Olga Davnis, piano recital. June 11, 2023.

Alte Borse, Leipzig, Germany.  (25 euros)

J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

Sinfonia C-Dur, BWV 787

Sinfonia c_Moll, BWV 768

Sinfonia D-Dur, BWV 789

Sinfonia d-Moll, BWV 790

Sinfonia Es-Dur, BWV 791

Italienisches Konzert F-Dur, BWV 971

Sinfonia E-Dur, BWV 792

Sinfonia e-Moll, BWV 793

Sinfonia F-Dur, BWV 794

Sinfonia f-Moll, BWV 795

Sinfonia G-Dur, BWV 796

Toccata d-Moll, BWV 913

Sinfonia g-Moll, BWV 797

Sinfonia A-Dur, BWV 798

Sinfonia a-Moll, BWV 799

Sinfonia B-Dur, BWV 800

Sinfonia h-Moll, BWV 801

Ouverture h-Moll nach franzosischer Art, BWV 831

Davnis is barely visible in the photo, standing in front of the piano.

Olga Davnis is the winner of the prior year's International Bach Competition at Leipzig.  She was born in 2003.

The program was a mix of 3 groups of 3-part sinfonia, and interspersed between them are the more well-known virtuoso pieces by Bach.  I have to admit I often had trouble identifying the three voices in the sinfonias.

The Alte Borse sits about 300 people, and it was packed.

She played an encore, by Bach, no doubt.  As to why the program is title "Excellent," I have no idea.

Leipzig Bach Fest No. 27. Organ Concert. Michael Schonheit, conductor and organ.

Gewandhaus, Great Hall, Leipzig, Germany.  Parkette Mitte (Seat 14-1, 17 euros).

All the artists came out at the conclusion of the concert.

Program

"O I wretched man, who will redeem me" by Georg Friedrich Kauffmann (1679-1714).

"Arm yourselves, ye heavenly choirs" by Kauffmann.

"The love of God is poured out" by Kauffmann.

"Come, Holy Spirit, Lord God" BWV 652 by J. S. Bach (1685-1750).

Cantata "Erschallet, ihr Lieder" BWV 172.3 by Bach.

Bach Fest has a English version of the website, from which I type the titles in the "Program" section.  No idea why the last piece is not translatable by Google Translate.  Microsoft translates it as "Do you sing songs?"  More along the lines of "Resounding songs."

Artists

Collegium Vocale Leipzig

Merseburger Hofmusik

Isabel Schicketanz - soprano; Britta Schwarz - alto; Tobias Hunger - Tenor I; Christoph Pfaller Tenor II; Tobias Berndt - Bass.

Well, it turns out the first ever Leipzig Bach Fest event we attended was not even "Mostly Bach."  The whole concert lasted 2 1/2 hours, with a 30-minute intermission.  Of the two hours of music, perhaps 1:20 hours was for works by Kauffmann.

Who is Kauffmann, you ask?  From our friend David, I learned that Bach wasn't actually the first choice for the Thomas Church "cantorship."  It was first offered to Telemann, who used the offer to leverage a higher pay from his then current sponsor.  Then it was offered to another person (I am sure his name is well-known to Bach historians, I simply forget), but his then sponsor wouldn't let him leave.  Bach was actually the third choice ... and the rest - as they say - is history.  There were many other contenders for the job, and Kauffmann was one of them.

There is some organization to today's program that is not obvious from the titles of the pieces performed.  The first piece is about man's sinful condition, the second piece about Jesus's ascension to heaven, the third about the holy spirit of the Pentecost.  After an organ interlude (performed by the conductor Schonheit), we heard Bach's cantata on rejoicing before and adoration of the Trinity.

The musicians after performing the second Kauffmann piece, just before the intermission.

The event is title "Organ Concert." Schonheit played one rather short piece of organ music on the auditorium's main organ.  There was an organ continuo for the other pieces.

The concert is titled "Organ Concert" on line.

I am not a fan of baroque music, and tonight's concert did nothing to convince me otherwise.  The extra 45 minutes of music didn't help.  Although Anne pointed out Bach was more enjoyable than Kauffmann, and I agree.  The organ piece sounded "simple" enough, and I tried my best to follow the lines, understand the structure, and map out the harmony as the playing progressed.  Didn't get much of that.

The ensemble used period instruments, and spent a lot of time tuning before each piece.  It started with the lead violin getting an a from the organ, then bring that to the string section, and all the players then went through all the strings.  That's followed by the "continuo organ" playing chords to make sure.  I didn't see the cello and bass working so diligently at it, though.  A bit much for me, even knowing the strings they use tend to relax more than modern strings.

Period instruments study is a huge subject.  I am fine with historical authenticity.  I do wonder, however, if singers techniques have changed over the centuries.  Do people try to research what they were, and try to replicate them?  I was under the impression most high voices were sung by countertenors and castratos, but those parts are now routinely sung by women.  So changes are accepted, after all.

This was my first visit to the legendary Gewandhaus, at least in terms of its succession of distinguished conductors.  Mendelssohn about 200 years ago, and Masur more recently.  (Right now it is Andris Nelsons, who also leads the Boston Symphony.)  And reality didn't meet expectations, at all.

View from Gewandhaus.  The building across Augustusplatz is Leipzig Opera.

One can see these huge wall paintings inside the concert hall.  The Gewandhaus website has a section dedicated to the story behind the building of the hall, and describes this as "a striking mural encompassing a vast area of the main foyer's sloping ceiling and the largest contemporary painting of its kind in Europe," called Song of Life, by Sighard Gille.

On closer examination they seem crudely done.

The organ has some pipes pointing outward, instead of all upward.

The hall is functional, quite austere, and feels even more "eastern European" than Kulturpalast.  It's seating capacity is 1900, today there were may be 500 people.

It was about 10:30 pm that we left the auditorium.  It was a short walk back to the hotel.

Leipzig Opera. Bizet's Carmen. June 9, 2023.

Leipzig Oper.  Opernhaus Saal, Leipzig.  Rang rechs (Row 5, Seat 14, 51 euros).

Curtain Call.  Carmen and Micaela to the leftt of the conductor, Don Jose and Escamillo to the right.  The two walls form the basis for the sets in all 4 acts.

Story.  See previous post.

Conductor - Matthias Foremny.  Don Jose - Andrea Shin, Escamillio - Tuomas Pursio, Zuniga - Sejong Chang, Carmen - Khartuna Mikaberidze, Micaela - Olena Tokar, Lillas Pastia - Alexander Range.

View from the Opera House into the square Augustusplatz.  Again a lot of construction.

We are in Leipzig for a few days with the objective of going to a few of the Bach Fest 2023 events.  This clearly isn't part of that "program."

For last year's Wagner Festival, English surtitles were provided.  When I looked into the situation this year, I found out English is provided for a limited number of performances.  Since Leipzig is becoming an international city, I imagine that would mean many in the audience will be lost, or choose not to go altogether.  Since Carmen's story line is pretty straightforward (if one had seen it before, or takes the time to read up on the synopsis), we decided to give it a go.  To underline my point, the opera Udine by Lortzing is on tonight (typing this on June 10), we decided to skip it as we don't want to feel lost in a new (to us) opera.  Which is too bad.  The logic behind the decision escapes me, English is widely spoken in Germany, and they already have the English surtitles ready to go.

Bottom line, however, is that we enjoyed the performance.  We have remarked how German operas tend to emphasize violence, and was ready for it as we are talking about smugglers, soldiers, and Carmen being murdered, after all.  The show turned out not to be macabre at all.  Carmen was shot, and we see a blood-stained wall behind her, but that was as violent as it gets.

The singing is splendid.  Acoustics in the small auditorium is always excellent.  Bizet's music is simply lovely.  Past performances of Carmen I have seen have her playing castanets in the tavern song.  Here that sound came out of the orchestra.  The conductor had a tendency to emphasize the down beats, a bit too much for my taste.  Carmen also ended her phrases a bit abruptly.  Either I got used to it, or things improved as the performance unfolded.

The set is as simple as it can get, even for Leipzig.  There are basically two walls that can be configured as a town square, as the cigarette factory, as the smugglers' cave, and as the bullfighting stadium.  Sometimes movable stairs are used so singers can reach different levels.  The overall effect is on the amateurish end of the spectrum.  The music made up for it.

Our seats in the middle section of the balcony gave us a good view of the stage, use of binoculars is not really needed as the auditorium is small.  We could only see the far sections of the orchestra, though.

Having had some snacks at the hotel, we decided to skip dinner.

Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini. Omer Meir Wellber, conductor; Jan Vogler, violoncello. June 8, 2023.

Kulturpalast, Dresden, Germany.  1. Rang links, J (Seat 1-10, 55 euros).

Program

Overture to Macbeth by Verdi (1813-1901).

Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major by Shostakovich (1906-1975).

Overture to Lohengrin by Wagner (1813-1883).

Symphony No. 6 in E minor op. 74 Pathetique by Tchaikovsky (1840-1893).

Vogel and Wellber after the performance of the Shostakovich Cello Concerto.

We are stopping for a couple of days in Dresden during our trip in Europe, and thus able to attend this concert.  The pieces are familiar to various extent, and this would be my first encounter with all the performers (I thought, wrongly, that I had heard Vogler before).

While one could point out miscues here and there - one violinist clearly jumped the gun at one point - this was overall a very enjoyable concert.

For the two overtures, both reflecting the less well-known styles of the respective composers, the orchestra did an excellent job of bringing out the nuances of the pieces.  "Ethereal" is a term that comes to mind, for both pieces.  Having seen Lohengrin at the Met recently, I can still imagine the projection of the moon in the background as the rather long overture was played.

This was the third time I heard the Shostakovich cello concerto, and unfortunately I have to rank it number three.  While I can't recall the specifics, Alisa Weilerstein's rendition brought with it an excitement that could not be matched with subsequent performances I heard live.  Vogler's cello sounded quite weak in comparison to the orchestra, that was especially evident when the horn was playing a duet (the orchestra sometimes chimed in).  Either the cello should be louder, or the horn softer.  Similar passages with other instruments were better balanced.  I also also noticed in the Cadenza there was a lot of harmonics, and Vogler managed to do substantial vibrato.  That would be quite impossible with a violin.  So, I am at least learning some new things about the piece each time I listen to it.

Jan Vogler's name sounded very familiar, but I couldn't find any reference to him in this blog.  I later found out he has been the director of the Dresden Music Festival for several years.

To be clear, this was still an enjoyable, and impressive, performance.  Despite being too loud, the horn's duet with the cello was charming; and the horn got to play many solo passages. It's shortcomings are only evident when pitted against other performances I have heard.  Interestingly, for me Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique gets more enjoyable each time, the latest I heard was New Jersey Symphony in late April this year.

Vogler played a Bach solo that really brought out how a simple sounding piece can have so many aspects to it.  And, who needs a Bach Festival to hear Bach performed.

The Pathetique was the last piece Tchaikovsky premiered.  He died within a couple of weeks of conducting that concert.  I imagine (and I am sure I have heard) there are interpretations that leave the audience less despondent after listening to them, but I prefer those that leave them without much hope.  Today's was that kind of performance.  The mood changes are so many, some of the passages are so fast, that there are inevitable miscues and problems with imprecision.  Today's was no exception, but forgivable in light of the overall effect, and perhaps inevitable to the listener who doesn't know the music well.

The Tchaikovsky piece didn't start auspiciously.  Not a problem with the orchestra, but with stage lighting which cut in and out several times.  Indeed the orchestra restarted after the first "incident."  The problem continued for a while, but to the orchestra's credit that was probably the last thing on anyone's mind after they finished.

After the Tchaikovsky.  Our seats were in the first row in the balcony, but we had to strain somewhat to see past the railing in front of us.

The harpist came out (standing behind the harp on the left) for the encore.  The harp was critical to the Intermezzo by Macagni, and it sounded beautiful.

As encore we heard the Intermezzo from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.  Anne said she could imagine the woman walking up the steps of the church as the music wistfully played on.

Reading up on Wellber's biography, it seems he is an up and coming young conductor; or perhaps he's there already, just not a household name in America yet.  Born, trained, and started his career in Israel, he has been active in many concert halls and opera houses around the world.  His latest appointment was as music director of Volkoper Wien.  He conducted with a great deal of energy, and the orchestra responded well.  Sometimes I did feel his exuberance may lead to some miscues with an orchestra that's not very familiar with his style.

Kulturpalast is a few minute walk from the hotel we are staying at, so we were back in our room 10 minutes after it concluded.  The McDonald's burgers we had as snack would have to tide us over the evening.  (We did buy a piece of pastry.)

Some shots from inside the Kulturpalast, first completed in 1969, although renovated multiple times since.  There is a very utilitarian feel to it.  This is the lobby/ground level.

One floor up.  A small cafe is located here, mostly blocked from view in this photo.

Part of the mural on the wall (upper left corner of previous photo).  Evidently the tribute to the proletariat survived all the changes that have happened.

This is the home to Dresden Philharmonic.  Seats a little over 2400 people.  The organ was installed in 2019.

View from the venue.  Much construction is going on around the city.

I walked by the Kulturpalast the next day and took this picture.  It's difficult to get a full view of the front of the building.

Teatro Real. Rossini's Il turco in Italia. June 3, 2023.

Teatro Real, Madrid, Spain.  Butaca Paraiso (Seat 13-13, 90 euros).

Inside of the Teatro Real as viewed from our seat at the back of the "paradise" section.  The auditorium seats 1746, per their website.

Story.  The story is quite simple.  Zaida, a favorite slave of Prince Selim, left Turkey for Italy after being falsely accused of infidelity.  She is now with a group of Gypsies.  Fiorella, meanwhile, is a housewife bored with her marriage to Geronio.  When the Turk visits Italy, sparks fly between him and Fiorella, Selim first offers to buy Fiorilla from Geronio, then threatens to kidnap her.  At the end, Selim offers Fiorilla to elope to Turkey together.  At the end, Selim recognizes and reconciles with Zaida, Fiorilla decides to stay with Geronio.

The simple story is complicated by the role of poet Prosdocimo who is trying to write a story using the events that unfold, Narciso - Fiorilla's servant - who is in love with her, and this costume party where everyone is disguised so it's difficult to tell what is happening.

Conductor - Giacomo Sagripanti.  Selim - Adrian Sampetrean; Fiorilla - Sabina Puertolas; Don Geronio - Pietro Spagnoli; Don Narciso - Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani; Poeta Prosdocimo - Mattia Olivieri; Zaida - Chiara Amaru; Albazar - Pablo Garcia-Lopez. 

The primary reason for us to be in Madrid was to visit the many museums in town. However, this run of The Turk in Italy coincides with our visit, so it was some sort of a bonus event for us.

I had no idea what to expect, but surprised by several things.  One is that tickets are very expensive, ranging from a low of 90 euros to a high of close to 300 euros.  Two is that at least for today and tomorrow's performance, most seats were gone.  (The website said some more expensive seats were still available, although I couldn't buy them.)  Third is the concert hall, with a capacity of just under 2000, has very good acoustics, at least for the nose-bleed seats we had (the section is ironically called "paradise.")  They do have two dimly illuminated TVs on both sides of the section, but it wasn't easy to see what's happening.  The final surprise was surtitles were in Spanish and English.  Unfortunately we didn't bring our binoculars with us, which would have greatly added to our enjoyment.

Front of Teatro Real.  Taken at the conclusion of the performance.

One sees the back of the theater coming out of the metro station.

I assume this is a model of the staging setup for the theater, showing how the different sets that can be brought on stage are stationed.

As I write this, I already have another two events (just before midnight June 9) that took place, so I have to brief.  In any case, I have forgotten a lot of it.

All the singers came through strongly.  From the first note on I was impressed with how great things sounded.  That would include the orchestra as well.

Curtain Call.  The two gentlemen in black in the middle are the choir director (left in photo) and the conductor.  To their left is Selim, the their right are Fiorilla and Geronio.  The woman at the right end (as seen in photo) is Zaida.

The set is on the simple side.  Basically we have two houses, one belongs to Geronio and Fiorilla, and another "general purpose" building.  They move as the situations requires.  Hedges in front also serve as props for the singers.  For the boat scene they used what I can only describe as partially open books; if there is a hidden meaning, it escapes me.

Nonetheless, we found the opera enjoyable.  The availability of English surtitle certainly made things more understandable for us.  The complex intertwining of the story lines would have otherwise not been able to sort out.

I wasn't sure what Madrid would be like late at night.  Turns out there were still lots of people out and about in the area at around 11 pm.  It was quiet where our hotel was.  We were either naive, or we felt very safe getting back.