La Sonnambula

Opera goers can be rowdy, don’t be surprised. Mary Zimmerman was booed as she took a bow at curtain call of her Met production La Sonnambula two weeks ago. Which made me wonder if that same thing would have happened if she showed up at yesterday’s matinee.

Originally set in a Swiss village, La Sonnambula is simply a happy opera, no tragedy, just a silly love story beautifully written and composed by the great Bellini. Mary Zimmerman’s set was a modern-day rehearsal room where an opera company was rehearsing a production of La Sonnambula which some traditional fans found to be a turn-off.

At the restroom line during intermission, we saw a lot of head-shaking, heard a lot of tsk.. tsk.. and ranting from the less-than-pleased customers; without hesitation they expressed their disapproval of Zimmerman's staging. One lady was heard saying. “Just shoot that Peter Gelb – he took all the romantic operas and trashed them”. I don’t agree. The critics were too critical, perhaps this is part of their job. What Zimmerman was trying do was a create balance in the story between real life situation and dream time. And that showed at the very end when the cast finally were dressed in their native Swiss costumes. It mirrored what life is about during sleep and wakefulness.

It was a dream cast with the title role of the sleepwalker Amina, played by Natalie Dessay opposite the tenor Juan Diego Florez as Elvino, her fiancé. She is petite and he is of small build but both have powerful voices for Bellini’s romantic and tuneful music with lots of sustained high notes and soft singing. An absolutely stellar performance!

Doris reminded me that this is a reunion for this duet Dessay and Florez after their last season's performance of La Fille du Regiment. Doris and her husband Dick were my seatmates today, a lovely couple. Dick proudly announced how the two of them met - she was a costume designer for the Old Met about 50 years ago when the opera house was still at 39th Street. And she was not a bit critical of the set as the others were so I knew right away she must be reading into this production and making sense of it. Me? I read the reviews so I knew what to expect, that's why I was open to the change.

On the way home, we passed by this photoshoot of what appears to be the brass section of the Juilliard Orchestra. To be young and talented!

Well, that concludes the Opera season. Until the next one in September, we'll see what the Met brings to us. Unfortunately the Metropolitan Opera is also feeling the pinch that it has decided to put up its two murals by Marc Chagall "The Triumph of Music" and "The Sources of Music" as part of a collateral for a loan to finance its productions.

Like Amina, we hope to be awakened from all these economic complexities - safe and sound.

I am hopeful.

Of gnomes, nymphs and humans

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, Dvorak's Rusalka is a fairy-tale opera. Sang in Czech, it is a rare treat to listen to the internationally acclaimed Renee Fleming play the title role, especially as she sung the unforgettable "Song to the Moon".

She was in her best form even when she mimed with elegant fluidity the part where she was mute. Story has it that the water nymph Rusalka fell in love with a human Prince who visits the forest where she lives. She asked that she be transformed into a human and through the help of the witch Jezibaba she was, but she lost her power of speech which she did recover suddenly at the second act.

With Dvorak's lush scores and Fleming's voice penetrating throughout the performance, it was an afternoon of glorious opera. The visuals and costumes were topnotch and the setting at the lake life-like.

Poetry and art

These are pages from a book of poetry, translations from Chinese by Arthur Waley and illustrated by Cyrus Le Roy Baldridge, first published in 1919. I found this book gathering dust on a shelf in an old basement storage.

The illustrations are striking and the the poetry strongly resembles traditional English verse.

The Ferry


Regret


Watching the Reapers

Plucking the Rushes

The Little Lady of Ching-hsi

Five "Tzu-yeh" Songs

Got milkweed? The monarchs will come

This beautiful butterfly with a broken right wing, is one of many that visit my garden in the summer and feed on the nectar of this butterfly bush. I have yet to see the orange monarch butterfly come around our area. While I'm not sure if I ever saw a monarch, I remember seeing the chrysalis (pupa) from which a butterfly emerges, hung from a rare plant my mother tended at home. She had a butterfly garden.

She called the plant Ivory. It gave out a thick white sap when cut but it's white flowers were fragrant and can be strung together as necklace. I have not seen this plant anywhere else. When I was a kid, I stayed away from the plant because the chrysalis and so many of them hung on the leaves of the Ivory, I thought, were housing worms inside their green cocoons or pods. It is only now that I fully understood what they are, after watching the NOVA segment on the migration of the monarchs.

Now I see the connection between my mother's Ivory plant, the chrysalis and the butterfly. The milkweed which also produces a milky juice is an important source of nectar and is the host plant for butterflies. The Ivory and the milkweed plant must have something in common in their sap that draws the larvae of the butterflies. Who knows, the plant which my mother named Ivory could be a species of the milkweed. The monarchs can not exist without the milkweed. There is a magical connection. So, please don't cut down the milkweed from your garden or that vacant lot next to yours.

Originally aired on PBS in January, which I missed, I saw the program about the monarchs last week and was amazed at this phenomenon of transatlantic crossing of these butterflies from Canada to Mexico. It is a natural wonder and almost a miracle. Watch the one-hour program on the PBS website: The Incredible Journey of the Monarchs and see the butterflies soar and glide on their long-distance flight and learn how they survive! If you're unable to view it, the DVD will be available on sale from PBS in April.

Words of wisdom from The Little Prince:

Grown-ups love figures. When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters.

They never say to you, "What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?"

Instead, they demand: "How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?"

Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943, translated from French

Greenmarket Stroll

Union Square is a food shopper's paradise. Between Trader Joe's and Whole Foods which are a block away from each other, it is a tug of war when it comes to produce and groceries. Skip that and stroll through the Square on a Saturday or Wednesday and you have the largest open-air Greenmarket in the City where regional growers many from Upstate NY, some all the way from Vermont, bring their goods to sell.

There are a few of these Greenmarkets in the City but at Union Square it is a year-round bounty and it is the largest. How does Greenmarket differ from other Farmers' Markets? Well, I learned that Greenmarket allows only producers, so farmer co-ops are not allowed. In other words, only those who produce their own carrots, fish, lamb, eggs, etc. can sell at Greenmarkets.

The first sign of Spring, or so I thought, 67 degrees and sunny, so I dragged Chong to the Square on a beautiful Saturday. Since we went by car, the irritating part is finding a spot to park, but we managed with an hour's limit on the muni-meter ticket. We wandered through the market with tents upon tents of produce, meats, cheeses & dairy, plants and flowers, etc., most of which are organically grown.

There's a variety of veggies one can choose from, I didn't know there are so many types of potatoes; pick your way through blue potatoes, yukon gold, fingerlings and I counted almost a dozen varieties in one stall. That was Spuds 101 for me. And all the varieties of apples - the Mutsu variety I'm seeing for the first time. Where and how do they grow them this time of year? Check out the lettuces and salad greens, the wonderful colors of the carrots, eggplants, tomatoes and lately some Asian vegetables. It is amazing.

Often you'll see chefs from the nearby Gramercy neighborhood, doing their marketing here. Some of the best restaurants are in this area and I guess they mean "market fresh" when they say so on their menus. This Greenmarket is where the yuppies from the Village and the Lower East Side shop, I bumped into one tall guy who picked up a parsnip-looking vegetable called celeriac. I've never used that in my cooking before, so I asked him about it and he gave me tips for its use in soups. The Jerusalem artichoke is another root I have not tried which I must do so before I die; I see fellows just grabbing them by the handful, not even minding the prices so it must really be good. Men, women with their dogs in tow, everyone's enjoying the stroll.

My favorite stands are the artisan organic cheeses and of course, the flowers and plants. There's also an Amish farmer who sells cheese curds that are shaped like gumballs and are fun to snack on. There's Beth's Farm Kitchen that specializes in jellies and jams. I wouldn't try her garlic and rosemary, but the rest are simply of homemade quality.

Don't forget the Penn Dutch Pretzels - 3 whole pretzels for a $1.00 and they sell the broken ones in small snack bags for $2.50. Now that's an up from what used to be $1.75 as I remember. They are so irresistible, I just had to munch on them while strolling around.

For drinks, one can have a shot of wheat grass juice. Yeah, you read it right, grass! Healthy, but I wouldn't go that far. I'm happy with a cup of scalding hot cider fresh from the pot, which took a few minutes to fairly cool down for me to take a sip of. There was a long line for the old-fashioned freshly bottled organic milk. You can tell these people are regulars here at the market, they bring back their empty bottles by the bags.

This is just a sight to see, the farmers have identified their booths with signs that describe their farms and the process they have adopted in growing their crops. They even give out recipes. Names like Flying Pigs Farms that supplies the restraurants and the market with fresh pork , 3-Corner Field Farms that sells pasture-raised lambs, yogurt and cheeses, sheep milk soaps and wools, the Amish farmers from Pennsylvania Dutch County and the list goes on.

This time of year, the flower vendors sell branches of cherry blossom ready to force bloom. What you do is recut the ends of the twigs on a slant and hammer the woody ends so they look mashed. This helps the branch take up water to nourish the buds. Placed on a tall vase of warm water, it's an early Spring touch to your home. The blossoms last two to three weeks, cherry and apples are excellent for this. I love it.

Greenmarket shopping is my favorite chore, strolling about is so much fun and wherever I go I look for them. California is well-known for its Farmers' Markets and I've been to some. The Union Square Market also reminds me of the Marche Place D'Aligre in Paris where I went nuts shopping and saved some money for eats while on tour. It was awesome, their aromatic muscat grapes are sugar-sweet and the Ficelle baguettes and cheeses, wow! That sustained me on our loooooooong walks exploring the city on our own and often times getting lost in the process. The European open-air markets are among the best.

It's as if we did not have enough of our foodie shot for the day, on the way to the car we browsed at the supermarket Garden of Eden and wow, what a store! It's got everything and the produce are just as fresh as those outside at the market but of course more pricey.

So what happens at the end of the market day? The Greenmarket feeds the hungry, but not just those who can afford to buy the goods. The unsold food and produce are donated to City Harvest, a non-profit organization dedicated to picking up food and supplies from hotels, restaurants, bakeries, cafeterias, etc., for distribution to the poor and hungry. Their trucks are everywhere and that's always a good thing to see.

And so goes the "food chain", nothing goes to waste, the way it should be. Oh....food glorious food.

Let's hear it from my boys!

Bonding with the boys - gone fishing? Not really. Just had a grand day out.

I've counted it to be a blessing to be an aunt to my nephews. I love them more than I thought I ever would and it brightens my day to hear that they call and want to spend some time with me. When I'm wrapped up in my singleness, I can count on them to bring me back to what's really important - that I have a place in the family.

They couldn't be more wrong thinking that I'm cool, but hey, I'm going to enjoy this one while I can! Today was one of those days - Ped emailed to arrange for our lunch date in the City with Mel. Drop everything. Of course I'll be there! That's the neatest thing about being retired, it's easy to be spontaneous and that's also the joy of being an aunt, no advanced planning.

Nothing fancy, Ped ordered a whole pizza pie and some sodas and then we talked about family business. It feels so good to get involved in their lives, especially about their grown-up children's lives. Mel is getting married for the second time and he discussed his plans for the ceremonies and the reception. My grandnephew with Ped, Marc was recently engaged and now making plans for a wedding next year. Bear hugs are great but there's nothing sweeter than these boys sharing their family plans with me. I felt the presence of my older brothers around me with whom I had great relationships.

Believe it or not, Mel and I had the larger share of the pie - three slices each while Ped had two. One of the best pies I've had - thin crust, crunchy and piping hot. Thick and saucy, for me that's a death sentence for pizza. I like it thin, not chewy, or cheesey and saucy. Since it's a no-meat Friday for Lent, it had to be the classic plain pizza and that one was really tasty.

Mel kept himself busy at the market while waiting for me at the Terminal and later together we feasted our eyes on all the food displays, cheeses from Murray's are one of the best. The blue-finned tuna steaks were looking so gorgeous at $20 per pound. I share the same passion with all the boys - good food and plenty of it. It felt really good to be with them.

By committing this time to my boys, it reminds me of how important and rewarding it is to invest time in my relationship to others, most important of all the family. To sauce or not to sauce, that is the question, for pizza that is. To encrust or embellish, not a choice when it comes to valuable family ties. What you see is what you get, I love you all. I'd be lost without my family.

Not so guilty pleasures

I'm having that want-to-stay-in-my-jammies-all-day feeling all because Mother Nature dumped 10 inches of snow on us at a time when I thought winter is waning away and the days are getting longer. What a downer. I'm not going to bore you with what winter wonderland looks like and with the wind chills in the single digit out there I'm not about to go out and take some pictures.

All I could think of right now are these chocolate-covered strawberries, cream puffs and tiramisu to give me some comfort. This is actually an old picture from Issa's birthday in 2007, during those days when she still had time to bake and before she ended up doing some real work that pays some real good money. These were her creations. Unfortunately for my dessert today I have to settle for persimmons, apples and a cup of avocado shake.

Sounds healthy, ha? It doesn't hurt to try, but it seems I've developed a sweet tooth in my senior years. Chocolate tempation gets harder to resist and I'm not even allowed to have any, but I do cheat every now and then.

It felt like a soup day and since canned Campbell's soup is not an option in my household and neither is microwave cooking, I decided to ransack the pantry and dig in the fridge for some ingredients. White beans, a stick of carrot, my mother's stewed tomatoes, chicken stock, onions, pasta shells and three strips of bacon (there's where the guilt comes from. Listen, I've modified the recipe using 3 instead of 4 strips, so give me some credit there) and voila, we're good to go!

Did I surprise myself! I'm not really into beans, I hate baked beans and chili, but this soup really kind of changed that. This is Mmm-mmm- goood, sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese, goes straight to the heart! And this was just an experiment. Not bad for an impromptu dinner, easy and convenient.

No guilt Pasta e Fagioli, hearty, stick to the ribs snowy-day soup. Mangiare!