Theodora Elucubrare

First, because now that I've read your post I feel vaguely guilty for not doing this yesterday, but um, I forgot, Happy Birthday, Dolique dear! Je t'aime.

And second, I saw Traviata and Rigoletto in the park on my birthday and the day after. Thank you, Met direction! The only problem was that Rigoletto kind of, well, sucked.

Traviata was very good - Violetta was a Korean, whose name I totally forget, but I really liked her, although the Times critic said she had technical difficulties in the end of the first act. I think he was hallucinating, or he was really at Rigoletto.

So, Rigoletto. She was the same soprano I saw at the Met, who I thought was decent then, with a few Issues on high notes. Here she was totally not decent. I spent all of 'Caro nome' wincing at her strident upper register, and I'm pretty sure they transposed her aria in the second act down. Rigoletto was off a lot, and the Duke was o.k. He rallied a bit for The Aria. My favorite was Maddelena, who was definately having much too much fun and getting into character. And the orchestra fell apart in the second act.

But, um, it was free?

A bit later: The main character of French Lieutenant's Woman is named Charles Algernon Smithson. About 10000 points to John Fowles!