Attending the performing arts can take you on fascinating journeys through time, space and the imagination.
I watched the Met Opera's performance of Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites at a FACT matinée. It's an emotionally shattering work and Yannick Nézet-Séguin brought out the beauty, the religiosity, the passion and the terror of the score. Isabel Leonard gave Blanche more of a narrative arc than I have seen elsewhere: Karen Cargill was excellent as Mother Marie. Star casting went to Karitta Mattila as Madame de Croissy clearly unhinged but not bug-eyed and carpet-chewing.
My one complaint would have to be one that has been common throughout the years of attending these Met shows. The sound at the finale is supposed to diminish as the number of nuns singing diminish - it's part of the aural horror of the scene. There's none of the triumphant "Son io" of Andréa Chenier. Why then did the sound engineers on the cinecast insist on turning their volume control up to compensate for the dwindling singing? Pah!!
This was a concert with a lot of rambunctious music in it. Which is why I was disappointed when Kabalevsky's Overture Colas Breugnon fell a bit flat. I couldn't work out whether it had been over or under rehearsed but it just felt too scrupulous in its performance.
Two ballet suites - Shostakovich's The Age of Gold and Khachaturian's Spartacus - gave the orchestra more chances to sparkle and let rip and this they duly did but then maybe they were on more like home territory.
The final programmed piece was Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante with Alban Gerhardt as the cello soloist. He was absolutely stunning. I don't think that I have the measure of the work. I do find that with Prokofiev that he has sections which are simply tremendous and then episodes in which I can't make out what is going on. But I still think that the performance was awesome.
Needing no excuse to avoid Eurovision, I celebrated the end of my formal working life by attending Sweeney Todd at Liverpool Everyman.
It's an enjoyable piece of grand guignol and this presentation emphasised the dark side of the work and the economic realities of life among the Victorian underclasses. Personally, I could have done with a little more light to emphasise the shade. A little touch of Vincent Price would not have gone amiss.
No pies were consumed in the auditorium.
Off to the Phil for another of Opera North's staged concert performances - this time Verdi's Aïda. Passion and struggle in the sand - could easily be a description of Maspalomas as well. The music was in the capable hands of Sir Richard Armstrong, a Verdian of some note. And the whole thing swept along with the propulsion of an unleashed arrow.
Rafael Rojas gave us a big-voiced Radames and Alexandra Zabala gave a good account of the title role. On the whole, I think Amneris is the role that steals the show and Alessandra Volpe gave it her best shot.
A good evening out if not the greatest of all performances.