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family birthday visit, the full version
Feb. 11th, 2014 09:32 pmOkay, here is a better write-up of my parents' visit. The original plan was for them to arrive around 1pm on Friday, at which point we would hit two or three wineries (because that is what we do in the Finger Lakes, yay) and then have dinner at Madeline's at 7pm. Since I was sick, what happened instead is I slept until 2pm, spent a couple hours cleaning my apartment, and then pretended I was a functioning human being instead of a zombie. Meanwhile my parents hit two or three wineries without me and arrived at my place around 5:45, bearing gifts which were duly opened. (Said gifts included two books from Vicky and a crockpot from my parents.) Then we did dinner as planned.
We split two appetizers among the three of us -- the fried sesame tempura calamari with kimchee-and-other-stuff sauce (because I almost always try the calamari at a new restaurant, if it's on the menu) and the beef samosas. Then I had the gorgonzola-stuffed pork chop, Dad had the New York strip steak with ginger blueberry port sauce, and Mom had the rack of lamb with a dijon asiago citrus herb crust. (Madeline's does weird fusion cuisine. Also, they are expensive. Everything was delicious, but I think you can get an equally good meal for a heck of a lot less money elsewhere, so I'm not sure we will be returning.)
On Saturday, they got up and ate breakfast at normal times, and Mom let herself into my apartment to feed and walk their dog around 8am. (If I keep Dottie overnight, they can get better rooms for less money than if they have to find a pet-friendly motel.) Then I got up at 10:30 and we had brunch at Friendly's, so we could get to the movie theater shortly after noon. The opera did not begin broadcasting until 1pm, but my god, it was good we were there fifty minutes early; even getting there at 12:30 would have consigned us to some pretty undesirable seats.
The opera was Rusalka, score by Antonín Dvořák, which is basically The Little Mermaid (Anderson version) with a Slavic river/lake spirit instead of an oceanic fish-girl. Also Rusalka survives and the prince dies, even though she refuses to stab him with an enchanted knife in order to return to her former life. She ends up as a spirit of death who drowns people in the lake, and he willingly asks her to kiss him so he won't have to live with the torment of having betrayed and lost her. Renée Fleming played Rusalka, which is apparently one of her favorite roles.
Rusalka is kind of a pocket opera. The cast is very small, and only three of the roles (the prince, the water goblin, and the gamekeeper) are for men. (Supposedly there is also a hunter, but he was never onstage in this production and I suspect you could easily have someone double up on the role.) Even the ballroom dance scene could be cast entirely with women; you just have to dress some in tights and tunics instead of floofy skirts.
I had a little trouble keeping my eyes open toward the end of each act -- illness and NyQuil will do that -- but I managed not to fall asleep, and I enjoyed the singing and staging.
After the show, my parents took me to the grocery store to get my shopping done for the week. Then we got takeout from McDonald's, they packed up their car, and we said goodbye. So it was a truncated visit, but lovely despite that and I'm glad we were able to work around my cold and exhaustion.
We split two appetizers among the three of us -- the fried sesame tempura calamari with kimchee-and-other-stuff sauce (because I almost always try the calamari at a new restaurant, if it's on the menu) and the beef samosas. Then I had the gorgonzola-stuffed pork chop, Dad had the New York strip steak with ginger blueberry port sauce, and Mom had the rack of lamb with a dijon asiago citrus herb crust. (Madeline's does weird fusion cuisine. Also, they are expensive. Everything was delicious, but I think you can get an equally good meal for a heck of a lot less money elsewhere, so I'm not sure we will be returning.)
On Saturday, they got up and ate breakfast at normal times, and Mom let herself into my apartment to feed and walk their dog around 8am. (If I keep Dottie overnight, they can get better rooms for less money than if they have to find a pet-friendly motel.) Then I got up at 10:30 and we had brunch at Friendly's, so we could get to the movie theater shortly after noon. The opera did not begin broadcasting until 1pm, but my god, it was good we were there fifty minutes early; even getting there at 12:30 would have consigned us to some pretty undesirable seats.
The opera was Rusalka, score by Antonín Dvořák, which is basically The Little Mermaid (Anderson version) with a Slavic river/lake spirit instead of an oceanic fish-girl. Also Rusalka survives and the prince dies, even though she refuses to stab him with an enchanted knife in order to return to her former life. She ends up as a spirit of death who drowns people in the lake, and he willingly asks her to kiss him so he won't have to live with the torment of having betrayed and lost her. Renée Fleming played Rusalka, which is apparently one of her favorite roles.
Rusalka is kind of a pocket opera. The cast is very small, and only three of the roles (the prince, the water goblin, and the gamekeeper) are for men. (Supposedly there is also a hunter, but he was never onstage in this production and I suspect you could easily have someone double up on the role.) Even the ballroom dance scene could be cast entirely with women; you just have to dress some in tights and tunics instead of floofy skirts.
I had a little trouble keeping my eyes open toward the end of each act -- illness and NyQuil will do that -- but I managed not to fall asleep, and I enjoyed the singing and staging.
After the show, my parents took me to the grocery store to get my shopping done for the week. Then we got takeout from McDonald's, they packed up their car, and we said goodbye. So it was a truncated visit, but lovely despite that and I'm glad we were able to work around my cold and exhaustion.
