Ferrer, Rococo, and Tango

Greetings, everyone!

I am working on a few things while in Syracuse:

1) Maria de Buenos Aires. The music is really fun, enchanting, powerful, and spiritual. This operita (small opera in Spanish) is tango-based, but it also includes the milonga, habanera, and different kinds of waltzes. The poetry-libretto is by Horacio Ferrer, a Uruguayan poet-librettist who worked closely with the composer. In fact, he appeared as the role of the poet-speaker El Duende in the premiere of his own opera. 

What would I give to go back in time and see daPonte play, for example, Don Curzio in La nozze di Figaro? Or see Hoffmannstaal play a small role in one of his libretti for Richard Strauss? 

This piece was written in the 1960s. Piazzolla died in the 90s, but the librettist is still alive. 

The poetry is dark, surrealist-symbolist. Very evocative. It leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

2) Comps study for Eastman. Today's order - I'm through the Baroque Titans (Handel, J.S. Bach, Vivaldi) and the demi-Gods (Rameau, Couperin, de la Guerre, Steffani, Mattheson, Graupner, Telemann). On to the progeny of J.S. Bach, through the double-edged sword of stile galant and Empfindsamer stil. By day's end, I should be at the Eszterhazy palace.

3) Staying in touch with Zheng. He came and stayed over the night before last (he had the day off on Wednesday). He loves where I'm staying, especially with the king-sized bed and the HD Cable of Animal Planet. (My husband is happy with the simple things, one of the many reasons why he's wonderful). We trekked to Wegman's and picked up some essentials for hotel-microwave-refrigerator-healthy-eating-Paleo-Whole30. Since Syracuse is only 75 miles away, I am able to see him once or twice a week. The fact that it's winter here in the Finger-Great-Lakes and that my rehearsals go until 11pm means that I need to stay put, mostly. That being said, travel in the professional performing arts is a big deal, especially for newly married couples. The work is in the perfect location, at the perfect time.

PHOTO: A "special breakfast," which I did before leaving - with our youngest kitty trying to eat part of it ...