Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The mark of the true fan...

...Ms. Baranski, is showing up not just for the red carpeted season opener, but for a Tuesday night Rosenkavalier prima!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought I saw her last night! I saw her at PETER GRIMES two seasons ago, too, although she left after the first act.

squirrel said...

who?

Maury, such a great blog sometimes, but what are these ephemeral posts?

Well it's not like you try very hard (which was your appeal all along.. i mean is)

(right?)

Jack Johnson said...

Funny how much more I like an actor when I see him/her at concert or opera performance --although it's hard for me to like Baranski any more than I already did, pre-Strauss. This musical "halo effect" also helps to explain my uncritical adoration of Alec Baldwin, who -- on the evidence of some very public examples -- must also be kind of a pig.

squirrel said...

I met Trent Lott once and I was star struck... it was like, OH Hey, Trent Lott, Wow!!

Then I stopped myself, like "What am I saying? This dude is Hitler"

Anonymous said...

kudos to Ms. Baranski--she stood in line like the rest of humanity to get tickets, was civil and polite when approached and reinforced all those good vibes!

Maury D'annato said...

Squirrel: she's a comic actress beloved of many, extremely distinctive looking (I never spot celebrities but knew right away it was CB), plays hauteur very well.

As to trying/not trying, I don't know...I don't go to every prima and blog it up at 1 AM like I did one season, but I do aim to please or to annoy only mildly. I give it a shot. It's an interesting question to me, actually, because on the one hand, some nights, I find myself thinking "oh, should I write about this or will I enjoy it more if I'm not in some corner of my brain trying to think of something to say about it?" And I've certainly thought of ditching it plenty of times. But then some nights it would be an effort not to write about what I see, because let's face it, 50% of the point of going to one's eleventeenth Tosca is blabbing about it with people if there are people on hand who are some combination of clever, insightful, and civil. So...I guess that's my answer to that.

Oh except the "ephemeral" entries. Well, what can I tell you about that? I was on my iPhone and thought some people would get a kick out of knowing she was there, so I wrote it. I figured I'd write about Rosenkavalier itself later, and then I wasn't really in the mood. As I have been known to say quite tiresomely and even quote myself as saying: it's fun to write about something wonderful or terrible, but something pretty good is kind of a drag. It was pretty good.

squirrel said...

yeah, just "OK" is not as much fun to break down into a blog post... and just so you know, I didn't mean any of my snide remarks as a pot shot at your nice blog, which I do enjoy reading, and which I noticed all along was sort of a part-time thing in which you felt no obligation to post on a regular basis.

I will go see the Rosenkavalier from the suckass seats on Monday, but should at least be able to hear pretty well back there. I guess I'm kindof looking forward?

Maury D'annato said...

Oh no offense taken. I like to think of myself as having sort of an aesthetic of the half-assed. I like to say: if a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing ambivalently and incompletely.

You should look forward. It really is pretty good. I still might blog it just a little.

Jack Johnson said...

"Just a little" is fine, even "ephemerally."

Onkle Greifenklau said...

Maury, I always look forward to your insightful, witty entries since I'm stuck out here in the hinterlands of tourist hell (Orlando - where our opera company has ceased operations after 50 years of semi-mediocre productions). Even if you just blogged about what you ate, I would still follow it.

squirrel said...

Ha! Actually Maury blogging what he eats might be sublime. Journalistically speaking, if not gastronomically.

I am looking forward. I get all goosebumpy at the Rosenkav.

rapt said...

Dear Maury--

Characteristically sweet-tempered and self-deprecating though your response to the whiff of discouragement in the air, I find myself quite alarmed at the prospect of said whiff having a toxic effect. Please please please continue to do whatever you feel like doing in this heart-lifting blog--I think of the story of the impresario who supposedly, receiving complaints about Tetrazzini's costuming, made the remark about not caring if she sang in a top hat. Don whatever attire suits your inclinations of the moment--just keep singing!