Happy leap week

I’ve been puttering around kind of wracking my brain over a jacket and making a skirt way more difficult than necessary.  I was just thinking that I needed to just take an hour or so and make a knit top to give my mind a break but still give my creativity a boost.  At that very moment, I came across Trena’s post about leap day and wearing yellow and blue (leap days’ official colors apparently) and inspiration struck.  I was not only inspired by her yellow, but by the opportunity to colorfully celebrate the 220th birthday of Rossini, who is in my top 5 of favorite opera composers.

I’ve had remnants of the Milly rayon jersey I used for this dress hanging about waiting for a project.  I thought about making pajama shorts and a cami, but I didn’t have quite enough.  My coral Jalie scarf collar top is getting a little threadbare, so I’ve been kicking around the idea of replacing it.  When I saw Trena’s lovely yellow dress, I knew what I had to do.  I had just enough to squeeze a cap-sleeved version of the scarf collar out of the scraps I had leftover from the dress.  I cut it out at 4 pm and had all but the hems and side seams finished by 5 when the kids woke up.

I came back after dinner to finish though only to find that the ceiling in the sewing room was leaking!  Quelle horreur!  You can imagine how excited I am about being a plumbing assistant.  We have a container in place under the pipe in the kitchen that’s the culprit until we have more time on the weekend, but needless to say, my quick top didn’t materialize as quickly as I would have hoped.

By the time I got back to it, I had very little time to wear it and “officially” celebrate leap day, so I decided to declare it leap week.  I leave you with some Beverly Sills and “Una Voce Poco Fa” from the Barber of Seville. (could this woman have been more brilliant?)

 

Not for socialites

I’ve been a casual watcher of Project Runway.  The designers are talented for sure, but there’s so much blah blah drama and the judges have some messed up judgment often.  How else can you explain awarding a win to such an ugly garment like this?:

But still I watch an episode or two every season hoping that someone will not be nasty and talented.  I got excited when I saw that this week’s episode was about the designers creating dresses for the opera.  I was hoping there would be lovely scenes of the Met and all of their amazingly inspirational costumes.  And while the winning garment is certainly beautiful,

I was saddened by the elitist mentality that everyone had surrounding the phrase “a night at the opera.”  One of the comments was that one of the dresses needed to be more “socialite”.  If there is one thing that angers and frustrates me more, it’s this notion that opera is only for wealthy people who can afford dresses like the one above.  Or that the opera is only a place to parade around like a peacock, not a place where beautiful music is made in the context of inspirational design.  I don’t care whatever patron history the opera has always been tied to.  The stories told through opera hit on the core of the entire human situation, and it takes people from all different disciplines to pull off any given opera.  It’s a lot of people doing things excellently together.  When I go to the opera, I am not unaware that I am among a handful of people my age.  If opera as an art is to continue, a newer younger generation has to be educated to see it as an art form and not a class ballet that ignorant people like the Project Runway judges seem to believe it is.  And music educators like myself need to fight against all of the negative stereotypes that keep young people from listening to opera in the first place.

So while I won’t be attending my next opera in jeans and a t-shirt, there’s a reason why people of all walks of life lined the streets of Milan when Verdi died.

So watch Natalie Dessay talk about making people dream at the opera ( at 15:40), and listen and watch her here in La Fille Du Regiment (notice how she puts tension in every muscle and manages such flawless fluidity in her voice) and be inspired, formal gown or not.

Poco a poco

This was a phrase that was the motto of my Junior Bible Quiz team way back when I was 8 (I still have the t-shirt–it has my name on it…I love how Elizabeth doesn’t quite fit across it–my favorite t-shirt EVER!!!).  The idea was that little by little we’d work our way towards learning all the stuff we needed to learn for competitions.  It’s been a long time since then, but those words have always stuck with me.

I’m glad they were etched in my mind because I need them!  This week I’m going to make a button-down shirt for my Mom.  It’s her Christmas gift (she knows about it, so it’s okay for me to write about it here).  I’m not sure why I’m so scared of it, I mean,  it’s a shirt…with buttons, but  the devil, I know is in the details.  I really want to do a nice job–I mean, it’s for my Mom.  Okay, freak out aside, I’m going to do things one step at a time, and though I don’t expect it to be totally 100% perfect, I know I’m going to learn a lot from this project.

To gear up for it, I checked out this book from the library: Shirtmaking by David Page Coffin.  I need to buy my own copy.  There is so much excellent information in it, plus Mr. Coffin has some rather strong opinions that make what could otherwise be a rather dry book much more interesting.  I am excited about working with this fabric too–it’s a nice shirting cotton floral print of green, purple, and Copenhagen blue on a nice French vanilla background.    I’m taking a break this morning from sewing to go see The Tales of Hoffmann with my opera buddy, Tamara, then off to the shirtmaking!  Wish me luck.

Rescue

Today, feeling rather motivated to go to the thrift store, what with it being half off all but white tags, I came across this beautiful find.

It’s an entire quilt top, stitched by hand by some amazing woman I don’t know.  I have no idea what this fabric is, but I do know that my great-grandma had hoards of it all around her house.  It has a crepe sort of feel to it.  I felt a little guilty that I purchased the whole thing for $4, knowing how much love and work went into making this, but I decided that it needed a place of honor.  So “in my spare time,” I guess I’m throwing a quilt onto the project pile. 

I think I shall listen to La Rondine while I work a little more on my yoyo quilt.  I haven’t heard it since the production I saw in college that was put on at my school  (the orchestra of which I was sadly not assigned to that semester–it is a great sadness in my life that I have not played any Puccini).

Two Things to Cool You Off

1.  A wee bit of smashing opera

My CD club was offering this album,

so I thought I’d give it a go.  I typically eschew anthologies, but listening to clips online, I decided it was far too excellent to pass up.  You MUST listen to Pavarotti’s rendition of Nessun Dorma from Turandot.  It’s my favorite Nessun Dorma of all time.  It’s very sad to me that people of my generation associate Pavarotti not with his younger days when he was really truly a powerhouse of a tenor, but with the cheesy opera lite 3 Tenors stuff (Okay, perhaps I should back up and lament that few people of my generation appreciate opera in the first place).  My students are in LOVE with his La Donna e Mobile from the 70′s (I use it to teach 3 beat meter).  Anyhow, what a marvelous album.  I think there should be fireworks going off when you listen to it. 

2.  Something icy to replace your afternoon tea

Strawberry Lassi–Gourmet had this recipe (I’ve since changed it to suit my tastes better) in the April 2005 issue and I’ve loved it ever since.  When it’s really hot outside–so hot that your cheeks are flushed and your head feels like it’s going to explode, this drink will cool you off from head to toe.  Plus it’s tasty.

 photo Romulo Yanes, Gourmet

1 cup strawberries, tops cut off

1/2 cup ice

1 cup plain yogurt (I love whole milk)

1/2 cup milk

pinch ground cardamom (not essential but good)

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Sugar to sweeten–I usually use about 2 T, but use more or less depending on your taste

Whiz everything in a blender until smooth.  Pour in a tall glass and enjoy the waves of coolness that will spread throughout you and the fact that you are drinking a milkshake that will not leave you with that–whoa-I-just-drank-a-milkshake tummyache.

The Met 2008-2009 season

I was reading about the 2008-2009 Met Opera season this afternoon.  It sounds pretty exciting.  I’m quite excited to see La Cenerentola again, which is the first opera I think I ever saw (on Great Performances with Cecilia Bartoli as Cinderella), and to see Natalie Dessay as the sleepwalking heroine of La Somnabula.  She was so amazing in La Fille du Regiment this season, and she seems so kind and down to earth and un-diva like, that I’m eagerly anticipating seeing her as a sleepwalker.

AP Photo/Jeff Geissler

New York, New York, a wonderful town…

I think NY’ers get a bad rap. Maybe it’s just the NY’ers that LEAVE NY that are giving NY a bad name. Everywhere Tamara and I went people were very kind and helpful. The general rundown of our trip goes like this:
1. We rode the rails like a couple of hobos. The subway is VERY VERY useful, and if you ignore the gazillions of people pressing into you in confined spaces, it’s not so bad, although it took 2 hours to get from JFK to our hotel. We wisely took a private car back to the airport.  We saw a rat and a poster saying that they laid rat poison back in 2002…clearly effective.  I liked this poster that we saw as we waited for a train.  I was struck too by the weirdness that every time each train started to leave, it produced the exact same 3 notes that start the song “Maria” from West Side Story.  Hmmm…maybe that’s where Leonard Bernstein got it.

2. We ate well. We started our day with breakfast at Balthazar–and after a delicious omelette, some good tea, the weirdness that occurs after trying to get a normal amount of sleep on a plane and then taking a very long subway ride with throngs of people started to dissapate. The best meal, hands down happened I think appropriately before the opera. We had reservations at a restaurant across the street from Lincoln Center and as we sat down, realized that this was going to be a less-than-stellar meal which was confirmed by the very stale bread that we were served. Tamara, wisely trucked it out around the corner to scope out our options. She saw a wee little purple awning by a building around the corner that had no indications of being a restaurant other than the nicely dressed couple that went in. She went in, and discovered that not only was it a restaurant, but a lovely one. She quickly gave a run down of our situation to the maitre’d. “Help,” she cried, “We’re at Josephina’s and it’s terrible!” He being very sympathetic, informed her that there was a couple who was 25 minutes late and if they were not there in 5 minutes, their reservation would expire and we could have their table. So she trucked it on back to me at the other restaurant and we promptly left and were treated to perhaps the best meal I’ve ever had at Picholine, which we discovered later was a 2 star Michelin restaurant. The service was so kind–everyone had so much pride in what they served–and it was good. Really really good. So really–if you’re in NY–go to Picholine. It’s amazing.

3.  The opera was FANTASTIC!  I have heard La Boheme more times than I care to admit, but this is the first time I have seen it staged.  The sets were so beautiful.  In the 2nd act, there was a working city onstage–with probably 200 people milling around the town in shops, taverns, on the street–there were street performers, a horse and a donkey…it was so cool, and in the 3rd act when they opened the curtain, you could feel the cold from the snow that they had blown onto the set.  Very appropriate.  And the cast was spectacular.  All of the ensembles were so well done–I love the interplay between all of the Bohemians–very fun and quite touching in places.  I missed seeing Angela Gheorghiu in Milan by one day, so I was very glad to see her at the Met.  Such a beautiful Mimi she was.  I was really struck too with how beautiful the text is–you don’t always see that in operas, but Puccini’s librettist was clearly very gifted.

4.  The Met itself is really cool.  It’s so HUGE!!!  Those chandeliers are something to behold in person. 

There was one of Pavarotti’s costumes on display, and by the bar area, there were 2 ENORMOUS Marc Chagall paintings I assume that the Met commissioned (they must have been 30′X30′!).  I got really excited that we were sitting on the same level where the booth is for the radio broadcasts (I sometimes hear Margaret Juntwait narrating my dreams–no lie–I love her voice, and I’ve learned so much about opera due to her commentary the past couple of years).  I saw the little boy who played Peter Grimes’ apprentice so well earlier this season–he was just coming to the show with his Dad.  We bought tacky souvenirs–okay, so they’re a little classier at the Met, but souvenirs none the less.  I got a hooded sweatshirt, a t-shirt, and some cards with the chandeliers embossed on them, and Tamara got two prints of the Chagall paintings and some of the cards too.  The only sad thing was that the iconic fountain in front of the Met was not there!  I guess they’re redoing it.  Very tragic.

 Aren’t we cute…even though the lady taking the picture had no idea how to use my camera.  She was very sweet and very funny and sporting the prettiest diamond ring I think I’ve ever seen.

 

5.  We went to Mood!  I finally watched Project Runway this season, and knowing that we were going to NY, I knew I wanted to go…there is such a dearth of good stores with garment fabrics, and it was so cool to touch and feel the real things.  I bought some lilac wool herringbone fabric.  It’s beautiful.  I don’t know what to do with it yet, but I love it.  There was a lot of really beautiful wools–I wish I had enough sewing experience to make my own coat–there was a really pretty light emerald coating that I loved.  Someday…

6.  We went to the Metropoliatan Museum of Art and another small museum whose name I’m blanking on at the moment.  I liked this painting.  After seeing an entire exhibit on the gray paintings of Jasper Johns (such cool textures he created–but still gray?), I was very greatful to see some color.

7.  Central Park was SO nice on Saturday.  Just a beautiful day to be out.  I loved these trees.

8.  We had a $26 bowl of oatmeal (each–not total–seriously)here on Sunday before church here.  The oatmeal was $7.50 which was already pricey, and I had tea and Tamara had coffee.  We made the mistake of asking for some fruit on the side which they promptly charged us $9 for.  So, if you’re in NY don’t go to Sarabeth’s.  I’m not sure who they think they are charging that much money for anything.

9.  We went on a search for a good cannoli in Little Italy with Tamara’s cousin and his wife.  We found some–they were good.

10.  While it was a lovely place to visit–it’s good to be home.  And driving in my car by myself certainly seems like a luxury.

1 Day until New York!!!!!

1 more day and I’m going on a trip for the weekend to New York.  My friend Tamara and I like to travel periodically to see operas.  Why opera?  Because I loved every time I’ve been a pit musician since my freshman year in high school and when I played in operas in college I just got hooked…a lot of the stories are ridiculous, but the music is so extraordinary in all of them. 

This time we’re going to the Metropolitan Opera in NY (I’m bringing back lots of tacky souvenirs and I’m not a tacky souvenir kind of girl–I’m just that jazzed about finally going to the Met) and seeing La Boheme–which is the same opera that Nicholas Cage and Cher go to see in Moonstruck (I love that movie).  So we will relive Moonstruck to an extent minus the big hair.  I’m excited.  And I’m really glad that I’ve been blessed with a sweet husband that lets me do crazy things like this from time to time. 

 Does an opera about tragic love make you this excited?  I would have to answer yes.  Go watch Pavarotti/Renata Scotto’s version of Boheme–it’s my favorite.

Don’t forget to enter to win the grocery bag I made in honor of my Etsy shop opening this week.  I’m still collecting entries until midnight Sunday.  I won’t be back from NY until late Sunday night, so I will post the winner on Monday. 

Opera and quilts

Happy New Year!

Yesterday I was able to see the HD live broadcast of Hansel and Gretel from the Metropolitan Opera.  Short of being there, it was a wonderful experience.  There were such amazing sets and pretty pastries!  And the music is superb.  Hansel (Alice Coote)and Gretel (Christine Schafer)both are marvelous singers as is Philip Langridge as a deliciously evil witch.  I had no idea the story was so touching.  The dream scene after the Sandman visits is visually stunning and every kind of dream you could wish for or hope for for a couple of hungry children.  There is another broadcast this Sunday, January 6th at movie theaters around the country.  Treat yourself to a wonderful show.  You can get tickets here.  Also check out the Hansel and Gretel blog which has some fantastic pictures from rehearsals.

I finally finished the quilt for my Dad for Christmas after Christmas.  This too is from Amy Karol’s book, Bend the Rules Sewing. 

I think I will take a break from quilting with my machine for a while.  I have a portion of a yoyo quilt in a closet that has been on the back burner for too long.  I love seeing all of the yoyo’s joined into a full quilt.  It’s a lot of work, but mondo gratifying to see all these little bursts of color gracing a bed or a couch.  I need a good cup of tea before I start thinking about wee fabric circles.