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Feb 2, 2001__ "A Skull in Connemara" at the Roundabout Theatre: We had a grand auld time at the Roundabout, drinkin'
and drivin', diggin' up the wife's skeleton, bashin' her skull bones into the audience. With a few more jars, it would have
been a real hooley. Laughed like a lunatic as the drunken gravedigger and his assistant discussed in very erudite manner whether
it was better to die in whee (urine) or vomit. Woman in front turned around and made a face. Absolutely no sense of humor.*
* * * Feb 17__Sol Lewitt at the Whitney. Acres of color, straight black lines, wiggly lines and boxes on walls 20 feet high.
You want to rush back home, throw everything out of the house, and start splattering color everywhere. * * * * Feb 25__ School
for Scandal at McCarter: Backbiting and slander for pros, via Sheridan, from the 18th century * * * * Mar 3__ Recital at Westminister:
Izumi played the organ for Missa Brevis (ah, that Latin from my youth) and the piano for Happy Birthday to You for the conductor.
* * * * Mar 16--Nabucco at the Met: Hebrews versus the Assyrians. According to Verdi the clashes were driven only by frustrated
love. Everyone dwarfed by the humongous golden idol of Baal. M said she would rule the world, too, if she had Abigail's glorious
gold cloak. I would have settled for one of the equally great gowns of the high priests. Felt sorry for poor old Nebucadnezar,
wandering about in a stupor when Abigail took away his crown. Reminds me of some of my retired pals. * * * * April 7: Five
and a half hours of Placido Domingo at the Met in Parsival. Story line: Klingsor, a highly skilled sorcerer, is denied entry
into the Knights of the Holy Grail because of his dirty mouth. He retreats to a cool castle in the mountains, but broods over
his rebuff. He sends Kundry, a beautiful woman, to entrap Amfortas, the reigning monarch, then steals his magic spear (the
one used to pierce the side of Christ), and wounds Amfortas as he dallies with Kundry. Parsifal, an innocent fool, kills a
swan and is roundly upbraided by the knights, but later visits them in their castle, where he watches them eat their last
supper. Klingsor decides that Parsifal is the savior whom the knights are awaiting, so he decides to destroy him. How? Send
in Kundry once again to seduce him, take away his powers; then the stolen spear will be useful once again. Unfortunately for
Klingsor, Parsifal has gained understanding and magical powers of his own. He rejects Kundry, then catches the holy spear
that Klingsor throws in anger. As Parsifal makes the sign of the cross, Klingsor's great castle perishes. * * * * Apr 14__
Arthur Kopit's 'Because He Can', directed by Emily Mann at McCarter. A couple's torent of f-, s-, p-, and c- words are cut
short by a vicious hacker, who breaks into their computers (and their lives). Served them right for all their boring, self-centered
conversations. Yuk! * * * * Apr 26 Stoppard's The Invention of Love at the Lyceum. AE Housman's dissertation on love, esp
in Rome and Athens, much more appropriate for the NY Review of Books than the Broadway theatre. * * * * Apr 28__ Verdi's A
Masked Ball at the Met: What you learn at this performance: If all your advisers, your lover, and a local gypsy fortuneteller,
tell you that an assasin is about to knife you, it is prudent to take precautionary measures. Also, you should avoid spending
your evenings messing about the local gallows. * * * * May 4 __ The Tailor of Panama: A John Le Carre thriller transposed
to film. The MI6 man (Brosnan) is cut right out of James Bond, but the dialog is great. Le Carre himself was one of the script
writers. * * * * May 19. A Russian Hamlet, Eifman Ballet of St Petersburg at the City Center. Prince Paul tries to maintain
his sanity as his mother Catherine kills his father. Elena Kuzmina, dancing Catherine, flexed her body like a kitten. * *
* * Jun 3__ Mongolian dancers and singers at the Wintergarden. Loved the weird throat singing and the contortionist, who could
twist her body into a pretzel while she stood on her head over a stake. (Sadly, damaged in the attack on Sept 11. Probably
won't be restored for years) * * * * Jun 8__ Lecture by Sighle Breanacht-Lynch on Irish Art at the National Gallery in Dublin.
Dinner later at the Met. Late June __ My story, "A Husband..." will be published in the Kelsey Review in Sept. *
* * * Oct 2 __ Moonwatchers at the Met. A small show of works by Caspar David Friedrich, including Two Men Contemplating the
Moon, a recent Met purchase. The two men, wearing floppy medieval berets, perch on the brow of a hill watching the moon. Marvelous
color and mood. * * * * Oct 12 __ Judith Davidoff on the viola da gamba at the Patrons Lounge in the Met. The viola is a relative
of the violin. Good selections interlaced with discussions of her travels. * * * * Oct 23 __ Jeweled Arts of India in the
ge of the Mughals (1526-1858) shown at the Met. Jewelry from the National Museum of Kuwait, including the most beautiful daggers
in the world. How appropriate for the present age. * * * * Dec 8 __ Meistersinger--six hours of Wagner at the Met! James Morris
as Sachs the cobbler, Ben Hepner as the Knight, James Levine conducting. Great production: the last act, when the Knight
outsings Beckmesser, positively Verdian. * * * * Dec 15 __ Arabella by Richard Strauss at the Met. You're from the sticks,
but are heavily loaded wth cash. What to do for a wife? First, wrestle a bear or two in your forest, then sell the forest,
then head off to Vienna to spend the money to get the most beautiful woman in the empire. Lots of pain and suffering ensue,
but in the end who can resist a dashing young nobleman Mandryka and his bear hugs? * * * * Dec 20 __ A visit to the new Prada
at Prince and Broadway (N or R line) Everything is so discreet! Above the door is the sign 'Guggenheim Museum' rather than
Prada. Inside, past the nude, larger than life male and female dummies is a vast, brightly lighted enclosure with a few sales
items displayed in an offhanded manner, as if the sales people, all wandering about in black raiment, cool as all get-out,
were present merely to enhance your enjoyment, rather than to tend to the oh so grubby details of selling handbags, scarves,
and shoes. What struck me most impressively? An operating flat screen TV monitor, hung on a rack along with a few blouses,
as if it were one of the sales items. * * * * Dec 20 __ The Lion King, courtesy of Dan at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Wonderful
extravaganza of African animals wound around a quest story of a small boy-lion. Best sequence: the opening scene, when all
the animals, including an elephant, come to the stage through the audience. Critically, I was put off by the treatment of
the animals--the 'good' animals, like the spring bok, were just silly. The bad animals, especially the hyenas, were just stupid
and asinine. The producers could have turned the hyena scene into a riot of terror, but I guess the kids could not take it??
2002: Jan 5. Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Met. The empress (Deborah Voight) wiles away her days in never-never
land (mirrors everywhere that show images of oneself upright and upside down), a place above the earth but below the heavens.
Her nurse brings the frightening news that her husband, the emperor, the delight of her nightime hours, will be turned to
stone unless she gets a shadow within three days. Where else to turn but earth, where, just by chance, the wife of a dyer,
a hard edge feminist, frightened by the thought of raising a passel of brats, rejects her husband's advances. Surely she would
sell her shadow cheap. Apparently, you must have a shadow to produce a child. No space to detail what happens next (lots),
so go to the opera.
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