The Minnesota Opera Company, in Alexandria, with the Central Lakes Symphony Orchestra, who’da thunk?
[My view of the festivities from my seat. Once planted, with a plate of hors d’oeuvres and a glass of wine in front of me, I tend not to move around much . . . ]
[Various members of the Opera Company were in town, off and on during the week, making presentations at several of our schools . . .
[Thanks again to Mahrie Ouray and the Garden Bar on 6th for hosting this event . . . ]
[No assembly required . . . ]
February 10
[Conductor Brad and the opera cast with “Conductor’s Notes” prior to commencement.]
[To be honest, I would not consider myself an opera fan. But I appreciate the abilities and skills of these performers. It’s too bad that the crowd may not have been what was expected, but again we were having a foul weather day. They missed these marvelous singers performing “unplugged” . . . ]
[To clear the stage for the opera cast, we stuck our orchestra in a hole in the stage. I thought they performed admirably insync with the opera singers. OK, I do admit I used to enjoy Tony Randall hosting “Live from the Met.” Randall noted that he became an avid opera fan when he discovered the genre was . . . well, the polite word would be “naughty.” For example, La Traviata was first performed in England on 24 May 1856 in Italian at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, where it was considered morally questionable, and “the heads of the Church did their best to put an injunction upon performance; the Queen refrained from visiting the theatre during the performances, though the music, words and all, were not unheard at the palace.” It was first performed in the United States by the Max Maretzek Italian Opera Company on 3 December 1856 in Italian at the Academy of Music in New York. George Templeton Strong noted in his diary: “People say the plot’s immoral, but I don’t see that it’s so much worse than many others, not to speak of “Don Giovanni,” which as put on the stage is little but rampant lechery,” while the “Evening Post” critic wrote: “Those who have quietly sat through the glaring improprieties of “Don Giovanni” will hardly blush or frown at anything in “La Traviata” (Wikipedia).]
Opera is where a guy gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings. ~ Robert Benchley
The Journey Begins
Thanks for joining me! This is the follow-up to the original, “alexandriacardinals.wordpress.com,” which overwhelmed the system’s ability to handle it any more. Thus, this is “Part 2.” As the original was initially described:
10-26-07-4
“It all began in a 5,000 watt radio station in Fresno, California” . . . wait a minute, that was Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show! Let’s see . . . oh yeah, it all began in 2003 when retirees, i.e., old people, in Alexandria, Minnesota, who had no desire to become snow birds, went looking for mid-winter entertainment here in the frozen tundra of West Central Minnesota. We discovered girls’ high school hockey, fell in love immediately, and it remains our favorite spectator sport to this day. Initially, and for several years, reports on these games were e-mailed to those who were actually snowbirds but wanted to keep abreast of things “back home.” It was ultimately decided a blog would be more efficient, and it evolved into a personal diary of many things that attracts tens of readers on occasion. It remains a source of personal mental therapy and has yet to elicit any lawsuits.
~ The Editor, May 9, 2014
p.s. The photo border around the blog is the Cardinal girls’ hockey team after just beating Breck for the state championship in 2008. It’s of the all-tournament team. The visible Breck player on the left is Milica McMillen, then an 8th-grader – she is now an All-American for the Gophers. The Roseau player in the stocking cap I believe is Mary Loken, who went on to play for UND; and the Cardinal player on the right, No. 3, is Abby Williams, the player we blame most for making us girls’ hockey fans who went on to play for Bemidji State.
***********************************************************************************
Photos contained herein are available for personal use. All you have to do is double click on any of the photos and they will become full screen size. You can then save them into your personal “My Pictures” file. They make lovely parting or hostess gifts, or holiday gifts for such as Uncle Ernie who wants to see how his grand niece is doing on the hockey team. If any are sold for personal profit, however, to, for example, the Audubon Society, National Geographic, Sven’s Home Workshop Monthly, Curling By The Numbers, or the World Wrestling Federation, I only request that you make a donation to the charitable organization of your choice. You have two hours and fifteen minutes. Pencils ready? Begin!
**********************************************************************************
View all posts by tomobert63
alexandriacardinals2.wordpress.com 