An evening with George Crumb

Well, only part of an evening. And, an evening that was actually about a flautist earning her Master's degree. Whom I had never met.

Melisser and Daddo drove the 13-hours from Columbus so that she could make a guest appearance tonight at a friend's graduate recital, lending her signature avant garde George Crumb awesomeness to accompany said friend's (frankly) spectacular flute-playing. I'm so proud of my preetty seester and her beautiful, crystalline voice!

 

Honestly, I never thought flute would be so entertaining! Not only did Sara play lightning-fast, she also trilled her tongue while playing in some parts of the music, or buzzed the flute like a kazoo WHILE pulling a melody out of it. Insane. I actually started giggling with mirth and amazement at the kazoo part because I am eternally inappropriate and love it when people think I am being disrespectful. Speaking of disrespectful, there was SOME girl in the southwest corner of the room who kept making odd "mmm! hmm!" sounds only during the performance....I was so confused and annoyed at her interruption of the flute-nirvana that in trying to figure out what the hell it was, I actually convinced myself it must just be a woman breastfeeding and the baby was making satisfied grunting noises. Yes, THAT is how I made this strange noise acceptable to myself.

 

Very impressive. I talked to Sara afterward about how much I'd liked her recital, and she said she and Melissa have tentative plans to put together another performance sometime in the future. Yay!

 

Scene change. On Friday night, Meliseester and I went to see Marriage of Figaro at the Orpheum. It was gorgeous! I love the opera. I wish I could remember how many I've seen. This one in particular I kind of had to strain to see, because a dude with the widest head in existence sat in front of me. You never would guess from his narrow face either. Maybe it was just the hair at the back of his head. So I got to invade some personal space on either side of my seat, at least until I figured out I could sit on my coat. There was also a group of students that came in late, traipsed in front of a whole row of people, and then half of then decided they had to go to the bathroom or something....twice. To end the night, here is a conversation I had with Melisser:

Me: "Where's the 'Fiiiigaro, Figaro, Figaro, Fi-ga-ro!' ?"

Melissa: "Actually, that's Barber of Seville."

Captain Obvious: "...but this opera has 'Figaro" in the title."

More Knowledgeable Opera Buff: "Indeed, but the part you're talking about is in Barber of Seville."

Argumentative: "Are you sure? I don't remember any Figaro in that one."

Singer with Operatic Range: "Did you see Barber of Seville?"

Me: "...no."

She: *raises brows*

But despite all this silliness, I had a wonderful time with my beautiful seester!