Summer Holidays are over and I am in pain

I loved my summer holidays. It was very hot but I was OK in Paris, Italy and Spain. My latest travel to Spain was via Frankfurt both ways. But on my travel i had to stay overnight in Frankfurt so I had to take one more day off. No problem usually, but on Monday I was not feeling too well. Then when I came to the airport I was in more pain  but not too bad. On the plane I feel pain in my stomach more and more. As we approached Gardermoen I was sitting bent down. This whole thing was not help by my plane being late. 1 hr later than expected we landed. I had to wait for my luggage in Gardermoen. I was so sick and it seemed that all aiplaines was using belt nr 6. It took an hour before my luggage was there. I was sitting there trying to see my luggge on the belt through all those layers of people. The luggage people was carrying was so much, it was extrordinary.

I vomited. Felt a bit better then. A person gave me aiport plastic bag. And as I was vomiting in the bag people was often trying to just walk over me. It was so filled with people, old, young, children. Happily the people was not loud. Loud would have been hell. Finally my luggage came, then I wondered If I would be ble to just walk with all my luggage. I was so tired that I almost cried when I bought my colas, i forgot that as I was sick and likely to vomit I should have bought the original red coca cola, the one tht helps when you are sick. I bought light og Zero, my brain was not completely on.

Then I sat down in a cafe/restaurant. They noticed I was not well and since Gardermoen does not have a nurs og doctor but they have police. So the policemn asked me question, then he made sure that a nurse in the amt centrl got my phone number and we could talk. Then ambulance was coming but instead it was a more normal emergency vehicle where I had to sit and be taken to the closest doctor center. Blood sample was taken, and then an ambulance came and I was sent to closest hospital, Akershus University Hospital. The next morning I was well enough to go home. Better, able to walk easily and pain almost over. Anyway, holidays was over, I had to go to work and if i needed Hospital Time it would be better if it was closer to home, with people who knows me. 

Bus from AHUS, then train to Gardernoen and flight home because 7 hrs from Oslo and homd would be more than I can take.

One night I had such and even with extra pain killer, no sleep. I am still in pain, just on and off. But it is hard. I have to talk to my doctor, should I continue with pain killers (need an upgrade), or do I need to go to hospital (again, and it is so boring).

Lacrymosa - Don Carlo in El Escorial, Spain 2015-07-25

2015-07-25 Don Carlo (Giuseppe Verdi), Teatro Auditorio San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Madrid)

Pelipe II. = John Relyea

Don Carlos = José Bros

Isabel de Valois, tercera esposa de Felipe II = Virginia Tola

Rodrigo, marqués de Posa, amigo y confidente de Don Carlo  = Ángel Ódena

Fraile = Simón Orfila

Gran Inquisidor de Espana = Luiz Ottavio Faria

Princesa de Eboli = Ketevan Kemoklidze

Tebaldo = Sonia de Munck

Voz de Cielo = Auxiliadora Toledano

Conde de Lerma = Gerardo Lopez

Maximiano Valdés, conductor

Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid

Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid

Coro de la Orquesta Sinfonica Verum

Banda Interna de a Orquesta Sinfonica Verum

Director de escena - Albert Boadella

Escenografía - Ricardo Sánchez Cuerda

Figurinista - Pedro Moreno

Iluminador - Bernat Jansà

Coreógrafo - Amauri Lebrun

Director del Coro - Pedro Teixeira

So the idea of Albert Boadella was create a more historical correct Don Carlo by Verdi. So he starts off with putting up the the opera in El Escorial. Escorial is after all mentioned in the opera but non of the action is set there. The places in opera is San Yuste monastery in Extremadura, the Royal Palace in Madrid and in the Queen's Garden there. Outdoors in.a Plaza in Madrid for the auto-da-fe and a prison. The opera is played in the hyper-modern Theatre Auditorio in San Lorenzo de El Escorial. The royal building and monastery called just Escorial in the opera is just some hundreds of meters of The Theatre. El Escorial is a big area with several villages and it an hour away from Madrid.

To make the opera or indeed Schillers play more historical is not easy. Historical correctness was not really something Schiller or later the librettist cared too much about. Schiller did try to get the History Right but in the en it was more important to get the drama right, a compelling story. Lucky as the drama was made into an opera it got a better structure and is much more compelling. Historical it is quite false especially the idea that Don Carlos, Infante of Spain and Elisabeth de Valois was ever in love with each other. But first it was Don Carlos who was going to marry Elisabeth. But then it became obvious that Don Carlos was not the right person and the alliance between France and Spain could only be strengthened by the French King's daughter marry the King of Spain, not just the heir of The Spanish throne.

One of the most interesting conflicts in the opera is between the throne and the altar. How long must the throne bend before the altar. In reality Philip 2 of Spain supported Inquisition fully. Assumed guilty was the King's idea of justice. There was conflict often between The king of Spain and the Pope. Philip believed himself closer to God than the Pope. The Pope was not just a religious leader at this time but a sovereign that often went to war and not always for religious reason. Philip made everything for God. The only acceptable faith was the Roman Catholic faith and that meant all Spaniards should follow Philips. Philip was King, Prophet and Priest, and naturally best pals with God. He often made decisions with the firm belief that God would perform the miracles Philip needed. Europe's history might have seen most different if Philip had been more of a realist than a fanatic.

Don Carlos and Elisabeth de Valois was the same age and died in the same year, a terrible year for poor Philip. The only woman that Don Carlos respected and never was uncivil towards Elisabeth. Maybe Boadella was right that Don Carlos loved Elisabeth with an infantile love. There was nothing in Don Carlos to compel Elisabeth to fall in love in, but there was reasons for compassion.  The marriage between Philip and Elisabeth was a happy one. She was his third wife, his second marriage with Maria Tudor of England had not been a happy one, so Philip was devastated when she died because of childbirth. To loose the heir of a kingdom is always a disaster and Philip never wanted Don Carlos dead even as difficult he was and in the end Philip could no longer delude himself that it would be a good idea to have this strange, dangerous person on the Throne of Spain.

The idea of Rodrigo of Rosa is a creation of the times of Schiller who wrote Don Carlo also as a commentary of new idea in politics in Germany. The idealism of Rodrigo does not belong to the century of Philip 2 of Spain. In El Escorial Don Carlos was played as a hunchback with a lame leg and with many nervous ticks. Still someone to trust to change the life of all in the Netherlands. Maybe it was then. The truth about Don Carlos is that he looked at Netherlands and wrote letters to leaders there as he was on the way to treason, and later he attacked his father with a knife or tried. It was popular to tell that Philip killed his son (it was a Protestant rumor). Later a former secretary of Philip, who had managed to run from Spain to England with Death sentence on him. This Secretary Perez had some underhanded affaire with the Princess of Eboli, so he started another rumor that Philip and had an adulterous affair with her. The Princess was dead by that time.

I had come to El Escorial to see an extraordinary Don Carlos but I had seen almost every new thing before. The singing was excellent and the orchestra too. It was a little too much to hint as Elisabeth and Carlos had been childhood friends in the figurines. Eboli looked like historical Eboli with her eye patch. Elisabeth de Valois looked like her historical portrait, same with Philip II but Don Carlos looked too mature but sounded young enough. Don Carlos was unattractive buy the voice was divine.

This was the 4 act Italian version played in the 3 pieces. I love this version but then Rodrigo dies, LACRYMOSA. Until Lacrymosa we have drama going on and working wonderful but then we have "the wonder father-son duet". But it is so illogical and it doesn't fit. Drama just stop up, hi belcanto for no reason, and the scene with fizzles away.

Last act and also the whole opera quietly fizzles away with unnecessary "Carlo il grande imperatore".

From cold Norway to hot Spain (Carmen, Barcelona 2015-07-20)

So after my Paris travel (July 3-13, 2015). That was Paris with a side travel to Siracusa, Sicily. I sort of got used to the heat so I was totally unprepared to Norway and it was cold there. 14 degrees Celsius are no joke after getting used to degrees never below 28... But it was nice relaxing at home before my Madrid travel (July 19-27).

So my flights from Oslo to Madrid was the cheapest I got being so late to the game of buying them. I used Momondo and then it was GoToGate that got my business. But that meant my flight from Oslo was not until 16 and via Frankfurt so I was in Madrid before midnight. Late as I was in planning my Madrid trip I failed to buy a plane from my place to Oslo. So I had to travel to Oslo the day before and stay at a hotel. I could have taken the night bus but the wait from 5 to 16 in an airport was nothing I would enjoy. So my trip started on Saturday and I was in Madrid Airport before midnight and it was already Monday when the taxi arrived at my hotel. 

It was hot in Madrid and the hotel room was hotter but when I opened the window it got better. I slept until 7 when I started my mini-trip to Barcelona. I used the Metro to go back to the airport and soon I arrived. It took 30-45 minutes to travel to the airport. Vueling flight to Barcelona. Soon I was there. Now I needed to get to the train station Sants. Terminal 1 is too far from the train station to walk so I take the free bus that goes between terminals. Then at Terminal 2b I find the train and buys ticket to Sants. It was a long, hot walk to the trains and queue for buying tickets. Still, I was soon off and then I arrived in Sants. I found my hotel, I love NH hotels.

Then in the evening I traveled to the Palau, got my ticket and waited for Carmen with Sergi Gimenez Carreras as Don Jose.

Lovely!!!

2015-07-20 Carmen (Bizet), Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelona)

Marta Valero, soprano

Sergi Giménez Carreras, tenor

Orquestra Terrassa 48

Xavier Puig, conductor

Jesús Fernández, stage direction

Yasmina Pulido, choreography

It was not the very different version of Carmen, it just had more cuts in the score. It was Carmen with orchestra on the stage with the stage area used to showcase Carmen as opera as opposed to just a concert. It had seemed to me that this was to be Carmen as 2 hrs continuous play. In that case the opera would have had serious cuts. In stead it was act 1+2 in 2 hrs and the rest as 30 minutes. We had real Flamenco dancers that danced to Bizets music. Carmen, Don Jose, Micaela, Escamillo, Mercedes, Franquita, Dancaire and Remendado was all there and Zuniga was there, too. 

It was beautiful and realistic staged. 

It started 2030 and ended 2310. It was as lovely as it could be, but no revolutionary vision.

Back to the hotel to sleep. I slept well and this time I took the train to Madrid. I took the AVE train with Preferente and it was just relaxing and the food was amazing. Best chicken I have ever had. The train left 12 in Barcelona and was in Madrid Atocha at 1510. So incredible hot in Madrid. A long walk from Train to Metro and then finally at my hotel and I just went straight to bed to sleep. The hotel room was so chilly but better when I took off the air-conditioning.

Verdi Puccini Opera Concert, Siracusa 2015-07-11

This was opera concert with piano. 3 sopranos, 2 tenors and 1 baritone. Or rather 2 sopranos and 1 mezzo (Antonella Arena!!!) with 2 tenors and 1 baritone (Salve Di Salvo). 

I love the voice of mezzo soprano and I loved ANTONELLA ARENA. The singing was superb and the acting, too. Of the 6 singers she seemed the one most ready for an opera carreer. I would like to see and hear her as Azucena in Il Trovatore, it was so wonderful her Stride la vampa. Then she also sang Amneris from Aida, would love to see her onstage as Amneris. The duet with Aida with Gonca Dogan as Aida, I think. She sang the veil song from Don Carlo. Excellentissima!

The sopranos was also wonderful. Maria Grazia Tringale and Gonca Dogan. Sognando La Scala!

The baritone Salve di Salvo was also very good. The 2 tenors, Dave Monaco and Filippi Micale was good, too. But who is who?

From Adriana Lecouvreur to Adriana Damato (NORMA, Teatro Greco Siracusa 2015-07-10)

2015-07-10 Norma (Bellini), Siracusa Teatro Greco

Norma = Chiara Taigi

Adalgisa = Adriana Damato

Clotilde = Anna Consolaro

Pollione = Piero Giuliacci

Flavio = Giuseppe di Stefano

Oroveso = Jose Antonio Garcia

Jacopo Sipari di Pescasseroli, conductor

Orchestra Sinfonica Bellini Opera Festival

Coro Lirico Siciliano (Francesco Costa)

Regia & Scene = Enrico Castiglione

Costumi = Sonia Cammarata

A wonderful location, a wonderful production. E la grande simplicita! 

To compare this Norma to the Norma of Bayerische Staatsoper Munich would be unfair. They are so different. Here we had the Norma of Chiara Taigi who clearly do love her children. That is the biggest difference so we have much more sympathy for this Norma. Chiara Taigi has a different approach in singing and acting this role than Sondra Radvanovsky. Both are great. Adriana Damato is still in my opinion very much a soprano even as her voice has always been dark and she is able to sing the mezzo part of Adalgisa very well. Of course both roles, Norma and Adalgisa, lays in between soprano/mezzo territory, so all is good. As usual Pollione is often sung by a tenor with more strength than belcanto. Here we have the Pollione of Piero Giuliacci and he can belt it out and in the end he still soars especially in the ending of the opera. As Flavio we have a well known name but it is not the Giuseppe Di Stefano, this is a young Italian tenor (http://www.reggiotv.it/notizie/cultura/25699/lirica-giuseppe-stefano-trionfa-al-concorso-spoleto). Anna Consolaro as Clotilde. Finally we have Jose Antonio Garcia as Oroveso. Bravi tutti!

And the evening ended with everybody singing Happy Birthday (in Italian) to Chiara Taigi!!!

Happy Birthday, Chiara Taigi!! Tanti auguri!!

Off to Sicily without having seen Fontainebleau

I wish I have stayed longer in Paris to see Fontainebleau and to eat some more great pizza.

But I left Paris on July 7th. Vueling flight to Catania. Then I stayed in Catania for 2 days.

Bellini statue in Catania.

Then traveling with train to Siracusa. I could (should) have stayed one night more in lovely Catania.

Pizza in Siracusa. It looks great, doesn't it? Mozarella bufala, tomatoes, ruccola and olive oil. But the good thing is that the tomato sauce was good, pizza bottom quite adequate, just so sorry about the other ingredients. Tomatoes to well cooked, too much olive oil, mozzarella buffala was hard to eat  with no taste, ruccola could not help. Don't ask for the buffala pizzas at La Pecora Nera Pizzeria. It is much harder to ruin a pizza with mozzarella cheese.

I got a good hotel in Siracusa or rather a good price via booking.com but the room they gave me was not at all a quiet room. I had a terrible night there. I had to have my noice-cancelling headphones on me, that was not comfortable and still the noice crept up again and again. I wanted to change hotel so badly. But no I can't, can I, not without still paying the whole 4 night fee. And now I got another room now, but I would have loved to be able to just switch hotel without losing money much. I feel duped. 

So I guess next time I will just book 1 night at a time. How to save money then?

Idiot hotels and booking fees.

July 6th, 2015: ADRIANA LECOUVREUR in Paris

2015-07-06 Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea),Opera National de Paris (Opera Bastille)

Adriana Lecouvreur = Angela Gheorghiu

Maurizio = Marcelo Alvarez

La Principessa di Bouillon = Luciana D’intino

Il Principe di Bouillon = Wojtek Smilek

L’Abate di Chazeuil = Raúl Giménez

Michonnet = Alessandro Corbelli

Quinault = Alexandre Duhamel

Poisson = Carlo Bosi

Daniel Oren, conductor 

Stage director - David McVicar

Sets - Charles Edwards

Costumes - Brigitte Reiffenstuel

Lighting - Adam Silverman

Choreography - Andrew George

Chorus master - José Luis Basso

Bravi, tutti! And I did not have head-ache this time. So this time I waited for the artists to come out. Ihad to give up waiting for Angela Gheorghiu.

I can only repeat myself that this was a wonderful, traditional production. I think Angela Gheorghiu was better this day. I think that since I am deaf on one ear it is hard to me get the right sound in my head and something was slightly off in the sound this day but I think it was probably just my deaf ear and that problem.

The audience was definetely different, they were laughing more something I do not like when I am in an opera house enjoying opera. Not that it was malicious the laughter I just found it out of place.