Peru Diary - Day 17, Sept. 12, 2013 - Home of the Archbishop of Cusco, walking and shopping
Peru Diary - Days 10 & 11, Sept. 5th and 6th, 2013 - Lazy days
Peru Diary - Day 16, Sept. 11th, 2013 - Huacarpay lagoons, Cusco Cathedral and a fabulous musician
Peru Day 16 Sept 11 - the Music with photos
Tito playing the waca-waca
Peru day 16, Sept 11 - Second Installment
Forgot to mention yesterday on the other memorable things about the figure of Our Lord of the Earthquakes. Each year important Cusco companies bid for the honor of supplying the guara for the figure, which by the way is Christ crucified with very dark brown skin due to the pollution from the burning of thousands of candles near the figure. The year, the honor was bestowed on PeruRail, so the PeruRail logo is large, front and center on the skirted figure. Oh, for the privilege of taking a picture of this. And, thankfully, the restoration of the Cathedral is being funded by the Peruvian national telephone company. I really expected when in the chapel of The Holy Family, to see Joseph handing Mary a cell phone, captioned, “Here, Dear, this one is for you.” But no, there is really no evidence that they are the $ behind the project.
At four in the afternoon, we were visited at our apartment by Tito Leon, a local architect and city planner whose avocation is Andean music. And what a collection he has and can he play and sing. We are swept away by his session. He took us back to the simplest instruments, various ocarinas, from tiny to mid size. These are instruments and works of art as most a decorated and they play lovely, simple music.
Then we moved various qenas (flutes) (Quechan should be an enabled language for Scrabble as many words contain “q” combined with any vowel, not limited to “u”.) These are made from a variety of materials: clay, bamboo, large bird feathers (traditionally Condor), producing a vast register of sound based on length. They are played like our piccolo or in some cases like our flute.
He then showed us the instrument we are most familiar with, the pipes or antara. Since these are easier to play than the quena, they are more frequently used and have become a “brand” for Peruvian music - fortunately or unfortunately. We see many men in traditional dress playing them, at restaurants, train stations, etc.
Then Tito played the waca-waca, whose name is a derivation of vaca, as it is curled instrument made from about 16 cow horns joined together in sequence to make a long spiral. Again he was able to produce remarkably varied tones from it, using lung power and holes on the bottom of the instrument. Sounded like a trumpet.
Next was percussion and Deb Quentel, did I think of you. Lots of chachas or hanging rattles made from hooves and seeds. Then drums from both clay and wood and bark with skin covers. He then work a chacha on his knee, drummed and played the pipes all at once and you had an Andean band of one man. Reminded me of cheap wedding where you hire an accordion player with a sideman, except his music was enchanting.
The very best were the stringed instruments made after the conquest by the Spaniards. The Indians took the Spanish mandolins and guitars and made them into the very special pachajahaki, or centipede. It has 16 or 20 strings, arranged in series of four over the fret board, with three out of four of the series having strings tuned an octave higher that the others in that series. So when you play, you create a minor symphony just by strumming, and even more variety of plucking. The sound transported us. We are surprised that this instrument hasn’t been “picked up” by the musical world outside Peru. The sound is amazing and very unique. We would like this to become the new symbol of Andean/Peruvian music.
For the finale, Tito played contemporary Peruvian music from the Andes and from the Coast (that would have featured the box, a percussion instrument from the blacks (10% of population of Peru) who live in rather isolated communities north and south of Lima. He has a wonderful voice, as well as being able to play all of these instruments.
Ocarina
Fortunately, we were able to purchase several disks he made with his friends. I would have recorded the session, but we are sans iPhone on this trip.
I finally steeled myself for a shower and did survive - it’s nice to have clean hair. And this morning, the 12th, we find that our heater is out of gas. Hope they don’t punish us for being pampered Americans and pop for a new can.
A beautiful clay drum and other instruments
Playing the pachajchaki
Peru Diary - Day 15, Sept. 10th, 2013 - San Blas, Plaza Mayor, cooking class
Peru Diary - Day 14, Sept. 9, 2013 - Out and about in Cusco
Peru Diary - Day 13, Sept. 8, 2013 - Machu Pichu to Cusco
Peru Diary - Day 12, Sept. 7, 2013 - Machu Pichu
Peru Diary - Day 9, Sept. 4, Drive Through Malaga Pass
Peru Diary - Day 8, Sept 3, Rafting the Urubamba River
Peru diary - Day 7, Sept. 2, Moray and Moras
Peru diary - Day 6 Sunday Sept 1 Urubamba Valley
Peru diary - Day 5 Saturday Aug. 31 Puno to Urubamba
Peru Diary - Day 4 Friday August 30 Lake Titicaca
Peru diary - Day 3 Thursday, August 29 – Juliaca and Puno (Lake Titicaca)
Peru diary - Day 2 Lima and Chez Wong, August 27, 2013
Peru diary - Intro and Day 1, August 26, 2013
Come to the Cabaret
How many times can you see Cabaret and still enjoy it? DBH and I still trying to find that out. Whether the movie version, or live, it is one of the great musicals of the 20th century. Last Sunday we fell in love all over again with the Chicago Light Opera Works production, starring their Artistic Director, Rudy Hogamiller as the Emcee. He was more than significantly malicious and a great singer and dancer. Rudy danced in the chorus of Cabaret on Broadway. The version of the show we saw was the original, with the secondary romance built around the older owner of the boarding house, Fraulein Schneider and the Jewish fruit shop owner, Herr Schultz.
I don't mean to slight Jenny Lamb who was a great Sally Bowles. And, without seeming like a fashionista, we wore the magnificent costumes designed by Jesus Perez with aplomb. Lots of mid 30's style flowing chiffon and bias cut dresses.
Manys the night we reach into our video collection (yes we keep a video player because we have so many) and pull out Cabaret with Joel Gray and Lisa Minnelli. It never grows old. Who could forget the gorgeous Marisa Berenson as Natalia Landauer and Michael York as Brian Roberts. In the movie, the secondary romance is changed to a German/Jewish conflict featuring a young couple, Natalia and Fritz Wandel, which is resolved with Fritz discovers he is Jewish - and they flee Germany together with her Daddy's millions. They are so beautiful to watch, but the romance of the older couple, which ends with them separating, is much more poignant and true to the Jewish/Nazi strife.
Where the movie triumphs over the stage is the rendering of Nazi anthem, Tomorrow Belongs to Me. In the CLOW version we saw, the song is first introduced by waiters at the Kit Kat Club. Then at the end of the first act, it is reprised with all the singers and dancers at the engagement party of Frau Kost and Herr Schultz, turning a happy time into tragedy. In the movie, a very blonde Hitler Youth member stands in bier garten and sings the anthem in a clear boy tenor voice, solo at first, but then with all the customers joining and tilting the emotional movement towards the coming tragedy, both for Sally and Brian and for Germany.
While enjoying Cabaret, thoughts flooded over me of how the current situation in Egypt is reflective of German history. How could the Egyptians elect ultra-conservative Muslims who then elected a member of the Muslim Brotherhood as president, and not expect that they would attempt to establish Sharia law? And how could they expect that people who give not a whit for the trials and tribulations of anyone except their conservative Muslim allies is going to pull Egypt out of its economic downward spiral? The fall-off in tourism alone has a domino effect throughout their fragile economy. And the Copts? It won't be long before this prosperous segment of the population has fled the country entirely, if they can get out. Like the Jews, they are a handy whipping-boy for whatever ails the Muslims. I've advocated before that the US should just open its borders to all Christians in the Middle East. They surely pass the persecution criteria we set for political asylum.
So, the next time you want to see a great movie/play about the decline and fall of a country while the citizens dance and sing it up, see Cabaret. You will leave the theater full of music and thoughtful sadness.
Santa Fe Daze
Open air stage at Santa Fe opera
Three operas in three nights for 2013. DBH drove over from Tucson and picked me at the Albuquerque airport on Monday. We've done Santa Fe and the opera three year running, so we know this drill. And because we're only here four nights and three days, it's the cheap and cheerful motel for us, not a lovely rented home like 2012. Actually though our room is small, there is a nice, tiny but deep pool where I can exercise alone at 7 am and a comfy lobby with cushy chairs where we go to read and chill.
Duchess and her regiment
First opera, operetta really, was The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein by Offenbach. Glad we saw it, would not pay to see it again. Like other Offenbach operettas, it's played broadly for comic effect. In the first act, since this is about the Duchess' regiment, the word "privates" is bantered about. Susan Graham, mezzo, is the Duchess. For such a star, the only reason you would give her an extra ovation is for the way she wore the gorgeous costumes. Not her fault, but there just wasn't music for her to sing. The stars was the chorus.
Duchess and one of her many loves
But like a good production of The Mikado , it was fun to laugh along. All the leads had good comic instincts and were not afraid to take it over the top. How can you not love a tap-dancing regiment and camp-followers who are can-can dancers?
It's Wednesday night, and this is Oscar. Oscar Wilde, that is. A world premier that focuses on the several years of Wilde's trial, imprisonment and release - all rather grim. But the first act, which begins with the criminal case against Wilde for indecent acts and ends with his sentence to two years in Reading Goal, is good opera. The second act, Wilde in prison and then released after two years, is strong in the first half and weak in the second. And the act ends with the apotheosis of Wilde to his place among the literary Immortals. All told, not bad for a premier. It remains to be seen if they will rework the second act.
Oscar and Bosie
Threaded throughout the opera is a solo ballet performer, Bosie, Wilde's lover. He never sings because he fled to France to escape the wrath of his father, the Marquis of Queensbury (yes, that Marquis of Queensbury) when Wilde was tried. When a fellow opera tourist, who had already seen Oscar, described this ethereal sprite to me, I steeled myself not to like it. Think same use of ethereal muse in Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice, which leaves you wanting to strangle the little twerp to get him off stage. But Bosie works and illustrates how consumed Wilde was with this homosexual relationship. And Reed Luplau danced his heart out. The hints of Stravinsky's Afternoon of a Faun, were in keeping with the late 19th century period of the opera.
Wilde is sung by countertenor, David Daniels. Not much is written for this high, high tenor voice, so we felt privileged to experience the vocal and dramatic talents of this endowed artist. My one criticism is that the role is written in the bel canto style, with lots of flourishes on a single syllable. None of the other roles were written with this affected manor. Yes, it showed off Daniels' vocal chops, but it interfered with the telling of the story.
Rossini's La Donna Del Lago, a co-production with the Met, completed our trio. This is bel canto to the max - tough roles for all the stars. Joyce DiDonato owned the starring role of Elena. We will likely not hear again soprano pyrotechnics like hers that climaxed the second act. Elena has three "lovers"; King Giocomo, who falls madly in love with her (even tries to molest her) under the assumed name Umberto; Rodrigo, Chief of the Highlanders, who is mercifully killed in battle, and her true love, Malcom, a Highland warrior, who wins Elena in the end. So, Elena is a soprano, Umberto a tenor, Rodrigo a tenor and Malcom a mezzo (trouser role). Throw in Elena's father, Duglas, a bass, and you have beautiful music - even if the story is preposterous.
Elena and Malcom
For me, opera is all about duets, trios, quartets and excellent choral music. Rossini provided them all. The duets between Malcom and Elena were heavenly, even though Malcom looked remarkably like Momma Cass in a kilt.
In between operas, Ed and I wandered up and down Canyon Road, visiting art galleries. Though there were some magnificent pieces, nothing we wanted to take home with us. We ate at our Santa Fe favorite, the Bumble Bee Baja Grill and discovered a new vegan restaurant, Body, which was delicious and will be visited again in the future. We're already planning next year. Possibly three or four operas in a row and maybe back to the big house if my southern cousins join us.
Here's the address so you can visit the Bumble Bee