Lucia and a Half

Well, my friends, as you know, last week I went to the WNO to see and review Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. But then of course, one can never see too many Lucias. So a couple of days later I took Troy to his first ever official opera: the WNO’s Lucia di Lammermoor. (That is to half of it. For an opera lover under three, half of Lucia makes it a whole lotta music!)


Our tickets were courtesy of the wonderful WNO press office manager who told me that she would always be happy to spare a couple of tickets for my son and I. Our seats were fabulous: crème de la crème of the opera house: two aisle seats in Row P, aka Row 9 in the orchestra.

As soon as we went up the escalator of the Kennedy Center, we heard the sounds of jazz music and immediately dove into the festive spirit of a free concert on one of the outer stages. Troy loved it and started “conducting” while still standing in the foyer. His most favorite thing was the blue stars projected onto the ceiling on the occasion of the concert. Troy loved the foyer with its mirrored walls and beautiful crystal chandeliers.

However, walking into the opera house and seeing it with his very own eyes was it for him. He was walking with his head up, without taking his eyes off the crystal chandeliers, the red velvet rows of chairs, the tiers and the boxes, the pit and the instruments and kept saying :Theater! theater! chandeliers! French horn! Violin! And where is the conductor? Then he talked to the concierge and told her all the names of the instruments he liked, having concluded his speech with a statement that he has a baton and that he wants to be a conductor.

He watched and listened to the opera with a lot of attention and told me that he loved the music, and “how the man sang”, but “not how the lady sang”. And right he was!!!!(Lubov Petrova’s high register was truly painful to hear).

Even though Troy would have stayed through the whole performance, we decided to go home after the intermission. After all, we still had a one-hour trip back ahead of us, and I did not want Troy to be exhausted.

However, having left the opera house, we took a little bit of time to hang out at the Kennedy Center, threw our pennies into its gorgeous fountain and embraced the always festive and inspiring spirit of this grand building.

As we drove back, along the banks of the Potomac, I pointed all the landmarks to Troy, beautifully lit and gorgeous by night.

All the way back home Troy was talking about the chandeliers, the music, the instruments, the theater, and most importantly about coming back.

Lucia: Trapped or Free?

How would you like to find yourselves trapped in a house that sinks into eternal twilight and resembles a living creature?

Before you know it, you are in a battle with an infinite force so powerful that you might have to be more than a human to stand up to it.

Is there a hope to win that battle?

Read my most recent review of the WNO’s opening night of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at www.bachtrack.com to find out.

Peabody: Overcoming the Fear

Dear Friends:

Allow me to share with you that his past Saturday Troy did wonderfully well in his music class. He was praised three times by his teacher for the way he did rhythmical and tonal exercises.

Before recently, Troy was reluctant to sing to his teacher. He feared he did not sound good enough, because someone, whose name I do not want to mention on this blog, told him he had a bad voice. Trust me, Troy has a very nice voice, clear and strong, and it took me a while to talk him into opening his mouth in class and sing a tonal pattern. It took me many examples too. We had to go all the way back to Handel himself as well as Handel’s little student Jamie from this wonderful movie, who would be probably washing the floors all his life if Handel did not hear him sing.
On a side note, great movie for both kids and parents!

So last Saturday, when Troy’s teacher suggested he sing, my son opened his mouth and sang!!! His teacher was very proud of him, praised him, shook his hand and said "You are very good Troy!"
This made Troy’s day or should I even say – week?
He just sat there smiling from ear to ear and blushing happily.
Rarely have I seen Troy happier than on this day of his little victory over fear, and consequently, over himself.

At night, still feeling happy and musical, Troy suddenly came up with the most musically complex sentence he has said so far: Orphee plays the harp, or rather the lyre.

An Opera Kid

Unlike most of my reviews and posts, this is sort of an exclusive one. It’s not that not everyone can read it. They sure can and are welcome to. However, its humor can be only appreciated by those of you, my friends, who know their opera, if you know what I mean.

As a matter of fact, it is about someone who is so much into opera that he is turning into a true opera kid.

Troy discovered many great operas long before he felt the urge to name everyone and everything around him with an opera word.

Having recently revisited his Misha-collection ( "Misha" stands for "Teddy bear" in Russian), he picked a tiny teddy, made of Japanese silk (which I got for him on my WNO/Madama Butterfly outing earlier this year) and named it Misha-Butterfly.

Now here comes my favorite one: Troy then picked a slightly bigger teddy and named it Misha-La-Donna-e -Mobile (in honor of his favorite opera hit of the moment).

Even though Troy knows all the names of his family members, every once in a while we ask him what our names are just to make sure he does not forget them.

And so that same day I casually asked him:

“Troy, what is mama’s name?”

Troy paused for a second as if waiting for a clue.

And so I said “Ra…”

Troy gave me a huge smile and instantly said:

“Ro-si-na!”