I have met an elderly Venezualan woman
[My computer is fixed. Hooray.]
So, tonight I got a rush ticket to see the Ballet Nacionál de Cuba perform Giselle at Sadler's Wells. I've seen them once before, doing Coppélia in Zellerbach, and I remember them being... well, fairly astonishing, actually. And they continue to be. The dancing was just amazing. And they were in these incredibly naff (sorry, there really isn't a better word) costumes, on these cheap-ola sets. And even so.... I'm sort of dumbstruck.
Some of you know that I'm prone to crying at the "wrong time" at operas and movies. It's a long-term pathology that I'd rather not go into right now. In any case, at this one moment during the big pas de deux in the second act of Giselle I just lost it. Something about the lifts, and her hands.... I don't know. At this moment I notice that the elderly hispanic woman next to me is also crying. She give me a tissue.
So she walks with me back to the tube, and we talk about the performance, and ourselves. She said I seemed "sensitive." She told me about losing her husband, and how she was paralyzed with grief for three years, until she heard her husband's voice tell her that she wasn't happy, he couldn't rest in peace. She ended the story with a kind of lesson which, even if I were to type it here, and certainly if most people were to say it out loud, would sound trite and stupid. But coming out of the mouth of a happy, if clearly lonely, sixty-year-old Venezeulan woman, it was really moving.
She has my phone number. This could result in a book: Tuesdays with Señora S—.
Soon: My ten things I'm groovin' to. Pictures of my shoes. A photo essay of my running route. I have to vent about the horrible, self-righteous prommers. Maybe quick thoughts about the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir Concert? (It was good, but also bad.) And... oh has everyone seen The Power of Nightmares? No, not perfect, but essential viewing. At the very least, avoids the mile-wide pitfalls of Farenheit 911. Am I correct in saying it still hasn't been shown in the US?
So, tonight I got a rush ticket to see the Ballet Nacionál de Cuba perform Giselle at Sadler's Wells. I've seen them once before, doing Coppélia in Zellerbach, and I remember them being... well, fairly astonishing, actually. And they continue to be. The dancing was just amazing. And they were in these incredibly naff (sorry, there really isn't a better word) costumes, on these cheap-ola sets. And even so.... I'm sort of dumbstruck.
Some of you know that I'm prone to crying at the "wrong time" at operas and movies. It's a long-term pathology that I'd rather not go into right now. In any case, at this one moment during the big pas de deux in the second act of Giselle I just lost it. Something about the lifts, and her hands.... I don't know. At this moment I notice that the elderly hispanic woman next to me is also crying. She give me a tissue.
So she walks with me back to the tube, and we talk about the performance, and ourselves. She said I seemed "sensitive." She told me about losing her husband, and how she was paralyzed with grief for three years, until she heard her husband's voice tell her that she wasn't happy, he couldn't rest in peace. She ended the story with a kind of lesson which, even if I were to type it here, and certainly if most people were to say it out loud, would sound trite and stupid. But coming out of the mouth of a happy, if clearly lonely, sixty-year-old Venezeulan woman, it was really moving.
She has my phone number. This could result in a book: Tuesdays with Señora S—.
Soon: My ten things I'm groovin' to. Pictures of my shoes. A photo essay of my running route. I have to vent about the horrible, self-righteous prommers. Maybe quick thoughts about the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir Concert? (It was good, but also bad.) And... oh has everyone seen The Power of Nightmares? No, not perfect, but essential viewing. At the very least, avoids the mile-wide pitfalls of Farenheit 911. Am I correct in saying it still hasn't been shown in the US?
posted by Grrg at 11:08 PM
1 Comments:
"The Power Of Nightmares" has been showing at The Roxie in SF...I saw it there a couple months ago, and I think it's still playing in the small theater. I agree with your assessment--not perfect, but quite excellent, and necessary viewing. The British do this sort of thing better.
Jon G.
Post a Comment
<< Home