thoreau

Sep. 30th, 2008

Happy Birthday to my brother,

bootedintexas!

Happy Golden Natal Anniversary to

otterpop58 who shares the most illustrious of all birth dates!

It is also

starzinked's wonderful birthday! Happy birthday cute-stuff!

The Cast of San Francisco Opera's 'The Bonesetters Daughter': James Maddalena (Art Kamen), Rose Frazier (Fia Kamen), Zheng Cao (Ruth Young Kamen), Ning Liang (LuLing Liu Young), Madelaine Matej (Dory Kamen), Valery Portnov (Marty Kamen), Catherine Cook (Arlene Kamen), Qian Yi (Precious Auntie)

bibliocub and

sfleatherbear gave me a ticket to the San Francisco Opera for my birthday! The show is the world premiere opera 'THE BONESETTERS DAUGHTER' with libretto by AMY TAN (based on her novel of the same name) and music by STEWART WALLACE. (linky to a flash movie about the production here)

From the San Francisco Opera's website:

Adapted from the best-selling novel by beloved Bay Area author Amy Tan, this world premiere tells a resonant story of belated intergenerational understanding that leads to emotional healing. A troubled Chinese-American woman learns the horrible secrets of her immigrant mother’s past in this touching and terrifying tale, set in both modern-day San Francisco and the Chinese countryside during the tumultuous events surrounding World War II.

Composer Stewart Wallace (Harvey Milk) incorporates the timbres and textures of Chinese music into his highly expressive and lyrical score—an American opera with roots in China. Mezzo-soprano Zheng Cao, the splendid Suzuki in San Francisco Opera’s recent Madama Butterfly, heads the cast of this deeply personal work. Star of the Lincoln Center Festival’s historic production of The Peony Pavilion, Kunju singer Qian Yi has been acclaimed by the The New York Times Magazine as “China’s reigning opera princess.”

This production has been given tremendous reviews. The San Francisco Chronicle said this after the opening night performance,

The Bonesetter's Daughter, which had its world premiere Saturday night at the San Francisco Opera, explodes onto the stage in a burst of circus extravagance: acrobats flying through the air, the nasal squawk of Chinese reed instruments from the balcony, elaborate visuals centered around elemental images of fire and water.

Those effects signal to the audience that something new and strange is afoot, and the resultant air of excitement never entirely subsides. With its restless energy and its canny melding of Chinese and American artistic traditions, "Bonesetter" is a far cry from many an operatic premiere.

But for all the spectacle on display, the deepest pleasures in this beautiful and richly affecting new work are far more intimate and more familiar. The piece draws on the reliable themes of musical theater - love, family, fate and death - and does it with almost unerring precision."

I am so damned excited! YAY!³

so - I'm dressing up to go to the opera with Michael and Michael. I love dressing up. :) and I'll get two occasions to do so this week. Tonight - (see my last post) - is a trip to the opera with the Adorabears. and then this weekend is dinner out with David. David asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said "A dinner out with you that requires us both to wear a shirt and tie." David is famous for his sets of plaid shirts with his sweatshirt. :) He doesn't "get" the whole clothes thing. So it is a HUGE step for him to agree to a dinner out Saturday that requires a coat and tie. I'm glad I don't have to wear a tie for work - and that putting on a tie gives me that spiffified ultramuffiny feeling of being gussied up and ready to roll. I'll post pictures from the Opera pre-dinner and such later this evening.

WOW! The San Francisco Opera knocked my socks off with BONESETTERS DAUGHTER. Technically, Theatrically and Musically it was the most amazing opera I have ever seen. The use of multimedia splashes of fast moving animation and sudden stops filled with acrobats and a breathtaking score. Amy Tan's story of strong women across three generations was beautiful. The standout being the character "Precious Auntie" - who is a ghost - and who sings in a minor key even when the orchestra is not - her words sung across octave long precision slide/glissando always not quite resolving. It gave a musical match to her other-wordly appearance. The choreography of Precious Aunty gave her a VERY real specter quality. Honestly - the most amazing opera I've ever seen. Michael and Michael scored jaw dropping seats - eighth row center. A simply AMAZING night.