The Chicago Report

Some Spo-fans asked me to write how was the trip to Chicago. 

It was comforting to be back in Chicago. I lived there between 1988 and 2000. It was nice to be in a city in which you can easily walk around or use public transport, and there are so many things to do downtown. Like most people who move away from a place that evokes fond memories, I want it to remain the same and not change an iota. I am conscious of this, but I still reacted with dismay to see shops closed and new buildings going up on old favorites. White Hen Pantry convenience stores are closing down. The Reader shrunk. Even the gay rags seem tinier.  I did not recognize Midway airport. It used to resemble something out of a 3^rd world nation.  

The two operas were fabulous. I’ve waited years for “Die Frau Ohne Schatten’, an opera by Richard Strauss. Thanks to half a cup of Starbuck’s coffee I stayed awake for it (by the way, it was nasty; how do folks drink this stuff?)  I was not disappointed in “Frau”. It is a sort of fairy tale, a mini-Ring cycle with a domestic setting. Everyone sang well, including the substitute mezzo and the tenor who had a reported cold. The music is brilliant and very chromatic: the duet in Act III is now one of my favorite tunes. Perhaps it was a little too over the top in production. The stage was the most lavish thing I have ever seen in a theatre, after “O” in Las Vegas.

The next night’s performance of “Julius Caesar” by Handel was also brilliant. What a different cup of tea that was. The soprano who sang the role of Cleopatra did so brilliantly and had a lot of choreography. Someone thought she resembled Thelma in “Chicago’. And of course there was that cute Mr. David Daniels, doing a fine job as Caesar, all dressed in British Imperial military garb. Yum.

Although the two operas are separated by nearly 200 years, they were both over 4 hours long. Long nights! 

I got my wish ‘to see some winter’. Saturday had a Midwest blizzard and it was a nasty one – snow, sleet, rain, and a howling wind so strong it blew us down the icy street. We are no longer used to such weather! It was very cold. 

We had a lovely lunch with DougT from Gossamer Tapestry and his partner Leon. The poor sods had to drive into town in all that wintry weather, but they are used to it I suppose. We four decided to go on a cruise this next winter in lieu of the annual trek to Key West. They have never been on a cruise.