Messiah 2018 | 2018-12

I love it when I can catch Handel's Messiah and I was able to see it again in Newport News.  It was the second time (for me) at the Primera Iglesia Bautista First Baptist church in Newport News.  This year I took a friend from work - from my flying work.  It's nice to take someone who appreciates it and hadn't seen it.

Every orchestra and conductor try to put their spin on the Messiah - which is expected - and the outcome is hit or miss.  I would give this show about an 8 (out of 10).  It was good, but the soloists were a bit bland.  Definitely one, maybe two of the four showed some enthusiasm. The Messiah solos can be tough to begin with so any flare by the soloists is appreciated.  The other thing (for me) which brought it to an eight (Messiah starts with a 10) was the trumpets.  A bit undersold and when they did play, well, a bit too "flarey".  Too much flare.  For me, the trumpets in the Messiah should be, "I am here, I am a trumpet, you will hear me without question".  The trumpets in the 2018 show were more "I am a Christina Aguilera trumpet".  Personally, I don't want to hear a warbling trumpet.  I want to hear one that owns the moment.  Regardless, if you can ever see the Messiah...GO see it!  

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Handel's Messiah | 2017-12

Another event which was depending on some fortuitous timing.  I had a work engagement through the day of the even and in a different state.  Luckily, we ended two days early and I made it back the night before.  I try to see the Messiah whenever I can, and this one was only about 15 minutes from my house.  Perfect.  It was in a Baptist church, played by Virginia Symphony Orchestra (VSO), and conducted by Adam Turner.  Soloist were: Sarah Jane McMahon, soprano; Margaret Gawrysiak, mezzo soprano; David Blalock, tenor; and Levi Hernandez, baritone.  Someday I'd like to see it in Dublin where it was first performed in 1742.

This was a great show.  It's hard to rank order the shows I've seen...they all have their own sound.  One thing nice about this event was a two-page insert which simply walked you through the 53 parts with the 'lyrics' and their references  The lyrics are all from the bible.

Inside the First Baptist Church Newport News.

The VSO pamplet, not just for the Messiah, and my ticket.

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Nutcracker | 2017-12

Was able to see the Nutcracker written by Tchaikovsky in 1892, but played at the Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, 01 December 2017.  I hadn't seen it in awhile and it was good to get refreshed on the story. The Land of Sweets or Kingdom of Sweets or Confitenberg (Act II) is always memorable as the candy is from around the world.  I would also say the Russian dancers or Trepak (Russians and Bear) bringing candy canes are also popular.  In this particular showing, the Trepak killed it.  They were awesome and the crowd loved it.  I loved it.  This was my second show in the Chrysler Hall...it's nice.

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Irish Tenors | 2017-11-30

I scheduled this show and knew it would be close (based on another trip).  It worked out and I was glad I attending.  These three guys sang a great array of songs and my favorite part was the three, very distinct demeanor displayed by each tenor.  One just stood there, hands down.  One almost always kept his hands behind his back, and the third was very animated.  It's always amazing to hear sounds (good sounds) coming out of a person's mouth.  The incompatibility with expectations is what throws you.  Also, I love shows at the Ferguson Center because it's about 15 mins from my house.

 

On the right, my standard pic of the ticket.  On the left is a pic of the stage from my seat. I thought it might make a good subject of a painting...probably abstract.  "Three Tenors" would likely be the title.

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Messiah : 2015-12

I stumbled across a cassette of the Messiah in 1996 a couple of days before I drove home for Christmas break. I noticed "Alleluia" in the track list and thought that was familiar. I listened to that tape the entire way home and the rest was history. It is now a thing of mine to attend the Messiah live if it's ever a possibility. Luckily I found a performance in C Springs in a downtown Methodist church. And even better, Ashley met me there! It was a great afternoon! Ashley had never seen it and it had been two years for me. Also, Ashley looked beautiful that day and made it my best Messiah ever.

The venue was the First United Methodist Church and they actually had plenty of space for the orchestra, soloists and choir. By the way, there is no other way to see the Messiah without a full choir - it just gives you goosebumps.

This is the program and one of our tickets. I scanned the program since it listed all the lyrics. Handel wrote this in 24 days! The pics are small here, but if you click on them, they're high res.

Cover and Page 2 

Page 3 and 4

Page 5 and 6

Page 7 and back cover 

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Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott : 2014-04

I took my second visit to the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, this time to listen to Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott. I hadn't heard Yo-Yo Ma play but as he is certainly famous (performing since he was 5 years old), I couldn't miss the opportunity, and it fit perfectly between my trip to Athens and Geneva. Sadly, due to procrastinating, the ticket I could have purchased for 10€ jumped to 60€. But it was great to listen to him play and Ms Stott played the piano wonderfully.

The grand chandelier in the Théâtre - very nice venue.

Yo-Yo Ma

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Depeche Mode : round two

I went to another Depeche Mode concert - this time in Bercy. Bercy is kind of for indoor events while Stade de France is for outdoor events - at least as larger events are concerned. It's always tricky to take pictures at a concert (quality) but here are some shots.

Am constantly amazed with the panoramic ability of a smartphone.

I liked the hand against the lights in the picture on the left and on the right, it was one of the better quality shots and shows the lead singer, Dave Gahan, on all the screens. He's a pretty good performer and DM has some great songs so the concert was a good event. Funnily enough, on the way to Vienna I saw an ad for the DM show and it was called the "comeback of the year". Something might have been lost in translation, but it's far from a comeback since I had seen them before less than a year ago.

The ticket (of course). Oops! Appareils photos et cameras interdits! Oh well. There were hundreds of appareils photos and cameras. Better luck next time.

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Vienna : 2014-01

I took a trip with some classmates to Vienna for their annual Officer's Ball (or Ball der Offiziere). It was a quick trip but I'd never been to Vienna so it was a good opportunity to see the city and attend a rather large, annual event.

I don't normally like window seats (love the easy of exiting an aisle seat) but it was in an exit row and the scene was pretty nice - as you can see above left. On the right is the "best co-traveler ever". Being completely sarcastic of course, this guy didn't understand (or care) that the arm rest kind of makes an accepted separation of space. His leg and arm were all over the place and he repeatedly touched me - strange dude. And his wife/girlfriend told me I had to read the safety card since I was by the window. I would tell you which country they were from, but I'll leave that up to your imagination.

Another artsy shot of the wing as the sun starts to hide for the night and above right, is a shot of St. Stephen's Cathedral (Domkirche St. Stephan zu Wien) with it's grand steeple. It was neat that it is right by my hotel - which was the Hotel Royal. Great location, good breakfast and good rooms, but the WiFi and TV were a joke. Didn't care about TV in Vienna, but it's nice to have WiFi for the phone or to look stuff up on the web. Below is the building housing the Hotel Royal (among other things).

The Hotel Royal in Vienna on Singerstraße.

We arrived only a couple hours before the ball, but I loved that it was on Friday and not Saturday. I like events on Friday nights. Therefore, it was a quick turn from airport - hotel - change the clothes - go to the ball. Above is the grand building housing the event; the Hofburg Palace. It is a huge, and very nice building. Perfect for a ball. 

My official ticket for the event.

The ball is scheduled until 04:00, so Saturday had a late start which actually worked out since the weather wasn't very friendly (as you can see above left, which is another shot of St Stephen's Cathedral). Thanks to Cel, we had a reservation at a famous place to get a delicious schnitzel -  Figlmüller. If you go to the website, you'll see their schnitzels are somewhat unique - flat, round, and bigger than the plate.

A couple funny things happened here. Someone asked for a Diet Coke (or Coke Light) which was quickly rebuked as in Austria they drink juices instead. The second was when I asked for some senf (mustard). The waiter looked at me (and acted like) I ordered a rotten fish head to throw on my schnitzel. Also because we were in in Austria, and apparently they don't do that there. But I'm pretty sure they did it in Germany (who makes that delicious senf). And there were no fries on the menu. Quite amusing.

We had a few hours before our next event (another friend made a reservation for supper) so I tried to take in some sites. Above left is still another shot of St Stephen's cathedral. It's a panoramic and I was very impressed with the church and particularly the roof. Quite amazing. Above right is inside the church. Not what you might expect, but here's the story. Churches all over Europe (probably elsewhere) sell candles you can burn for any reason significant to you. But I don't remember seeing them in sand before and I thought it was a pretty good idea - really contains the wax. Also, I like experimenting with my smartphone's camera. It, too, is quite amazing.

Next, I visited St. Peter's Church (wiki) which is not even 300 meters away from St Stephen's. This is a very warm, welcoming church and looks fantastic both inside and out. There's an outside pic further below, but above is a shot inside (tricky lighting). One thing this church did which I don't know if I've seen before or not is place a sign close to the entry which reads "No Tourism". I think that is what made it so tranquil. A little in-your-face, but peaceful (and they did allow pics).

After a nap, I went to supper at the Stadt Park Bräu. Like many German / Austrian places, it's easy to get a massive table (or set of tables) so the 20+ of us were able to sit together which is nice. On the way out I took this picture of a cool camera in a display case. It's and Agfa Isola made in the 50s and this happens to be the Supinder 700-S model (don't bother searching - I couldn't find it, but I think it's named after this woman).

My last day, I went to a mass at the Wiener Hofmusikkapelle which is the home of the Home of the Vienna Boys' Choir. This was a very nice surprise since I didn't know (had forgotten) that my girl friends got a ticket for me, too. Very nice! So on the way (with a much different sky) I took some more pics - including panoramic shots of St Stephen's (above) and the Hofburg Palace (below).

Two more shots above; one of a nice clock tower simply because I really like the architecture (left) and the outside of St Peter's church. I think that dome looked fantastic against the blue sky.

Inside the church for the mass and the Vienna Boys Choir. Above left, trying to show that it's actually quite small, but that's tricky with a photo. Above right, my ticket showing that we heard some great Mozart with an orchestra and the Boys Choir. I had goosebumps several times throughout the service. Below is a panoramic that I thought turned out pretty well for the lighting. The choir and orchestra is directly above and can't be seen by most people - just heard. However, at the end, they (the choir) assembled near the alter for a final song. It was great to see them.

En fin, two more artsy shots of our Airbus 320 on the way home. This time I had my preferred aisle seat, but had the row to myself!!! Awesome! Below, the obligatory ticket which was a first with Austrian Air. By the way, Vienna has a great airport.

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theatre champs-elysees : robot!

My parents were visiting for Christmas so I planned to take them them to a show - randomly picked ROBOT! by Compagnie Blanca Li at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. Sadly, my mom was ill so she didn't make it. It was an interesting show - interpretive dance (which was a first for me) - but I was hoping for a bit more action. It did pick up from the initial scenes so I'm not really complaining too much. There were some cool little robots and the instruments were a cool addition. 

Earlier in the day, I took a picture of Santa's sleigh. I caught a glimpse in the Christmas market on Champs-Elysées and now I know how it works...cables.

I'd never been in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées so I took a couple of pics (couldn't take them during the show). I liked the rounded seating and the center light was impressive. If you can see a show there, it's a nice venue.

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