01.14.04 - 12:37 p.m.

Joshua Bell was on Performance Today this morning, performing selections from his new CD, Romantic Violin, or something like that. Ordinarily, CDs with similar names end up on, say, late night infomercials, with snippets of some vaguely familiar something-or-other supposed to be evocative enough to make the viewers pull out their credit cards playing while video of silhouetted couples trolling - oops, I mean strolling - along the beach rolls across the screen. Generally, this means one of several things: 1. it's an ad for a classical "compilation" CD; 2. it's an ad for Viagra or herpes medication; 3. it's an ad for a diamond; or 4. it's an ad for the Lifetime movie of the week.

Of course, Performance Today is unlikely to feature such CDs, let alone pimp them out during the prime 9:00 a.m. hour, so I can therefore safely lust after this CD. Right? Right. It was Bell's performance of O mio babbino caro from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. I've never seen the opera, I don't know that I've ever heard the opera, but I know the aria they arranged for violin as well as I know the back of my hand. Yes, it's one of those evocative, provacative, lovely melodies and I want it now. So, it's on my wish list. Maybe at the end of February, maybe in March. The accompaniment was lovely, and the melody translated really, really well from voice to violin.

I went to look at the prices for the Cincinnati opera this summer. I'm currently planning to go to one show, but I think... I could afford to see all four productions if I were careful. The tickets aren't the expensive part, relatively, or rather, it's the combination of tickets and hotel. I wish I lived in Cincinnati. I suppose I could, of course. Who knows, maybe eventually. It'd be nice to live in a city that puts on operas. So, hmm.

Bleh, the real challenge is finding someone who wants to go to four productions and can go. D is willing to go to one, but not more than that. And Dad might want to go to one, but he never seems to be able to swing it in the summer, for whatever reason. So that would leave two performances, if I bought season tickets, but I could go by myself. I like doing things by myself, actually. There's no one else to worry about, no other expectations, and I wouldn't have to sit through a baseball game. Unless I wanted to sit through a baseball game. Which I wouldn't. Mostly. Baseball? is boring. Also, way expensive. I'm sorry: the opera is a much better deal.

That's then first question, and the second question is whether I should buy the cheapest tickets available, or splurge. The thing is: I'm trying to save money, right? With a house, and so on. And if I save money on the seats, I can justify buying CDs, or maybe some vintage opera posters that would last a really long time. I mean, it's not like the ballet, where you have to see everything. If you can see most of it, and if you can see the monitors w/the translation, and if you can hear, that's all you need.

I'm listening to my CD of Bellini's Norma, the opera I saw last summer at the Cincinnati Opera, and thinking about how much better I like it having seen it with the translation screens. Opera is an intense experience, it completely floods your senses, and that's how it's supposed to be. Fine, the story is nonsensical, melodramatic, and usually someone or other immolates him or herself or otherwise dies for love: not then usual way of things, where people just get annoyed and stop, you know, giving a fuck. But the emotions are raw and strong and soaring, the melody, the voices, the production. Heh: Norma is cheesy cheesy cheesy, if you just consider the plot, but there I was, sitting in the dark, crying during Norma's "Casta Diva" and again at the end, when she's about to accuse Adalgisa of her own crimes, when Pollione's love is reawakened by her courage and they march off toward the bonfire together and she's all daddy, don't blame my babies! to Oroveso. It sounds... really bad, the story, but within the bounds of the music and narrative, it's almost impossible to resist. It's not just the music, though: you need to know the meaning to really swoon as you watch, hence the brilliance of the little translation screens. Oh, man. Hee.

I found a poster from a production of Norma, and now I must have it: http://www.polishposter.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=2017. Maybe, you know, in a month. Now, Polish Posters? Who would have guessed - but that's an incredible poster for Norma. I want it. So, so perfect, the red and then mouth and the half-face.