Musique à Paris

The incessant rain turned us away from our plans to see the night show at Versailles Chateau and instead we ran through the clouds to find tickets to one of the the two operas in paris, both closing on Saturday: Cosi Fan Tutte and Othello. At the old Opera House (Palais Garnier), Cosi was already sold out, and the chances of getting through the stand-by line were so slim, we decided on Othello at the Bastille.

There are two lines to buy day-of tickets. One is for full price tickets- whatever's left. Once that line is completely through, they start on the 'student' line and sell all tickets for 25 Euros. We (of course) divided and conquered to be in both lines to secure places. But once the full price line went through, the only tickets left were over 105 Euros. So we moved to our places in the student line, hoping...

Yes. We had 9 of us in 170 euro seats as music students in Paris, hearing the best pit orchestra I have ever encountered. Congratulations to maestro Marco Armiliato. The 3+ part cellos in the end of act 1 and most of act 2 break your heart, the tutti strings' pizzicati never more artistic, the solo english horn / oboe so mournful... we all cried for Desdemona--Tamar Iveri. if not for her goodness, her pianissimo high La's. I was enthralled.

We have been completely spoiled here as far as musical performances go. Within a week, we've had the opportunity to hear:

- Randall Scarlata, Baritone, with Benjamin Boyle on the piano performing the Dichterliebe, Faure's Horizon chimérique, Barber songs as well as Boyle's own Passage des rêves

- April Clayton, flute, with Teddy Niedermaier and Philip Lasser on the piano playing 'Jacques le Romain,' Bach's Sonata in em, Philip Lasser's Sonata (magical! Absolutely Loved it), and Prokofieff's famous Sonata for flute.

- and Emile Naoumoff: Nadia Boulanger's prodigy, pianist, theoretician, virtuoso, teacher and composer (you know, the kind that write piano concertos at age 9, whose parents fled from behind the iron curtain to let him study in Paris, and who solfege both books of the WTC in all keys for fun). We listened to him speak for two hours, but he could have gone on all day. He played Nadia's Lux Aeterna, Lily Boulanger (her sister)'s Pie Jesu, and Nadia's 'To the New Life.' His briliance extends far beyond the keyboard's connection with his fingers. He is the music. It was incredible. Wish we'd heard more. We'll have to come back. Plus, if we were always satisfied, why would we need to keep living and discovering?