Nessun dorma (no one sleeps) is the piece of music that singlehandedly seduced me to the world of opera. I don't remember when I heard it first. But the swell of the music...ahhh! Turadot became the first opera CD I owned (although the first opera I listened to from beginning to end was La Traviata, and started my lifelong one way love affair with Placido Domingo...another story for another time), and I am the proud owner of 9 different versions of Nessun dorma (sadly, my student budget will not allow me to purchase more than one version of the full opera). Of course, I bought the version where Domingo sings Calaf, although I've had my eye on the version with Pavarotti, Sutherland and Caballe for months now, if it weren't so freaking expensive.

So last year, I broke down and finally spent 70 dollars to see the premiere of Turandot at the Met. I would have spent more, but no one wanted to sit with me in a box seat, so there. I waited three months, and I think I was not disappointed (although, I had a headache from earlier in the day that would not go away).

Call me a snob, I guess, but I have never bought a ticket for an opera that was not staged in the Metropolitan Opera House. I have officially designated it as one of my "happy places" in the city. When the starburst chandeliers start ascending to the ceiling to signal the beginning of a performance, I seem to forget that I have tests, papers, students, teachers, bills, and all the tedious minutiae of life.

The print above is by Rafal Olbinski, whose work I've seen prominently displayed in the Met Opera gift shop. Turandot is the daughter of the Emperor of China, who challenges her suitors to answer her three riddles (they are really ridiculous riddles too, I don't know why these suitors cannot muster half a brain among them to answer the riddles). Answer the riddles thrice, die only once, she says. If the riddles are unanswered, off with the suitor's head. Calaf, a prince who has lost his kingdom, has gone insane when he sees the beautiful Turandot (what explanation is there for him to abandon his poor, old and blind father?) and answers the challenge. He successfully answers the riddles, but now Turandot backs out on the deal. She would rather die than get married. Calaf tells her that if he can find out what his name by tomorrow, he will die. Turandot then proceeds to annoy the populo di Pechino by threatening them with dire suffering if the name of the prince is not found. Ergo, nessun dorma in Pechino.

Now Turandot's henchmen have found Calaf's father, Timur, and his slave girl Liu, who is secretly in love with Calaf. They torture Liu, who kills herself before she could reveal the name. As everyone on the stage leaves, Calaf goes and kisses Turandot (she gets a kiss for killing somebody??? WTH!) and SHE realizes that she's got a thing for him after all! So everyone is happy, except for the 12 suitors who died in the year of the tiger.

I tend to listen to the tenors very closely, much more so than the sopranos. Richard Margison was passable, his voice very similar to Domingo, but my benchmark for Calaf is the Italian tenor Franco Corelli. Now, I don't know as much about opera as I pretend I do, but something about Corelli's voice -- he has a voice that can be heard all the way in China if he performed in New York! It works well with the al'alba vincero attitude that Calaf should have.

Hei-Kyung Hong as Liu was the audience favorite, I believe. I have heard her sing as Violetta at Central Park, and she has a strong clear voice. This opera was the first time I heard Andrea Gruber sing, she didn't really move me (by the way, what's with all the white costumes? Chinese only wear white during funerals. I guess considering she has more than 20 dead suitors, maybe she can be excused.).

My favorite part, surprisingly, was the trio segment with the three courtiers, with the unfortunate names of Ping, Pong, and Pang (it goes to show how much Europeans knew about China at that time). They had great comedic timing (ah, the irony of preparing for both a wedding and a funeral), and looked like they enjoyed themselves.

I think I shall watch again. I hope they have a different cast, so that it is a different performance all together.

Wow. It's been such a hectic hectic last two weeks. I finally admitted defeat and told myself that I needed more time to write the paper that I need to write, and this is the last chance I will get...

Anyways, I haven't really done much on the knitting front, as I have been busy with research, and I hope to get more time into my Gryffindor scarf (yes, nycoz4, it is a Gryffindor scarf). And speaking of Gryffindor, Scholastic has just released the cover art of the seventh Harry Potter book...wait...let me just get on mugglenet.com and download it...

Aha! Here we go...

Everyone is free to speculate as to where they are, what they are doing, and who the hell are the people in the background. There must be some wandless magic going on, right? Coz why would Harry be facing Voldemort without a wand? Can't wait to pre-order my copy! Why haven't I pre-ordered yet? Coz I'm not sure where I am going to be in July, duh.

I think a Slytherin scarf should be next on my no. 7 circular needles after I complete the Gryffindor one, don't you think?

Dancing with the Stars is BAAAACK!

American Idol, American Shmidol! Somehow, I really can't stand watching ordinary people trying to hit the bigtime, but I am an absolute sucker for B, C, and D list celebrities hamming it up on a ballroom dancing floor. This season has been especially entertaining...at least for me it is : ) hee.

My sentimental favorite is Joey Fatone. I was a huge *NSYNC fan in the late 1990s, to the annoyance of my co-workers who had to listen to Bye Bye Bye a gazillion times before I finally packed up my MP3s and my Lance Bass screensaver (a few years later, my former co-worker, remembering my fondness for Mr. Bass, forwarded me a news article about Lance's coming out as a gay man, with an implicit "I told you so"). And I must say, if not for the fact that my files were corrupted when I arrived in the US, I had a really good collection of my boys' songs.

Anyways, Joey was the best dancer in *NSYNC (take that, Justin Timberflake!) so I figured he was a shoo-in in this competition. But there was someone who was floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee...

Laila Ali's mambo was just sizzling. Well maybe it's about time for another woman to win this competition ya know. She is the one to beat! The Greatest must be smiling, wherever he is....But...

When Apollo Anton Ohno came out dancing to "Let's Hear it for the Boy" I was "aaaawwwww shucks!" He's actually pretty good, and he and his partner seem to have a lot of fun. Well, the judges like him a lot, too.

But the others were great too! Ian Zering and Cher Burke were still very much in the running. Heather Mills did a backflip (remember, she has an artificial leg), and Billy Ray has moved up from being a bear lost in the swamp. I was disappointed that Paulina Porizkova was eliminated, she was so pretty to look at, and she danced better than that Ms. USA girl (such a ditz too!).

Anyways, next week, I AM VOTING! (By the way, all images from abc.com).

Spot is falling asleep, so we'll say good night here. Enjoy the rest of your week.

Inspired by an email sent by a wonderful and beautiful person (whose Starbucks name shall not be mentioned, haha), I am posting an answer to his questionnaire, and I am hoping to find visual aids that might help Spot's readers know more about Spot's girl. So here goes:

1. What time is it? 4:24 pm

2. Name: K

3. What are you most afraid of ? hell

4. What do you drive? flip flops

5. Have you ever seen a ghost? no. someone stuck an ice pick in my third eye years ago

6. Where were you born? Cebu, Philippines

7. Ever been to Alaska ? Anchorage airport as well, and I have the teddy bear to prove it! (ok, some manyak has the teddy bear)

8. Croutons or Bacon bits: putting a gun to my head? croutons, but prefer nuts

9. Favorite day of the week: Friday always has positive associations

10. Favorite restaurant: If I have to be pretentious...L'Atelier de Joel Roubouchon (been there only once, totally amazing)...but if I am being true to myself...Harbor City in the SM Mall in Cebu City (the ONLY dimsum restaurant in the world, as far as I'm concerned, East Manor in Queens, Pampa on the Upper West Side (bowing to the wisdom of Louie L.), that seafood place beside the beach in Iloilo, brunch at Bizu, Manila was always good (am a sucker for eggs florentine), Las Paellas de Alba, wherever I can get pata tim...I know there are more, but I don't remember...

11 . Favorite Flower: Hydrangeas (especially the really blue ones) and I agree with Jonner on the cattleyas...I particularly remember an apple green one with a purple center that my aunt gave me to wear on my high school graduation...Grandmere and Maman are also great collectors of orchids..The plate sized magnolias that grow in front of the National Gallery in Washington DC...masses of bougainvillas remind me of home, we had a huge tree full of white blossoms that used to climb on top of the gate to the driveway.

12. Favorite sport to watch: Go Leafs! Go Yankees! Ballroom dancing (yes, it's an Olympic sport!), figure skating. Lately Noel has had me watching American football.

13 . Favorite Drink: mango juice, when it's from Cebu

(have no idea where #14 is)

15 . Disney or Warner Brothers: WETA. go figure.

16 . Favorite fast food restaurant: does dimsum count as fastfood (since the food is served by carts)? Harbor City

17 . What color is your bedroom carpet? none. the better not to cover my hardwood floors

18 . How many times have you failed your driver's test? never taken it. never found the need to.

19 . Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail from: sadly, the New York Times

20 . What do you do most often when you are bored? knit. especially since i got that itsy bitsy knitters bag

21. Bed time? ideal is between midnight and 1 am

22 . Who will respond to this email the quickest? i reserve judgement

23 . Who is the person you sent this to that is least likely to respond? i reserve judgement

24 . Who is the person that you are most curious to see their responses: peyton manning...oh wait, he's not on my mailing list

25 . Favorite T.V. shows: LOST, CSI, brothers and sisters, house, grey's, ugly betty, masterpiece, iron chef (original version), and sadly, all my children (well gregory house watches general hospital!)

26 . Ford or Chevy? sorry, no american cars for me.

27 . What are you listening to right now? aolradio.com

28 . What is your favorite color? I think aqua or turquoise...the color of the waters off Boracay island on a stunning, sunny 85 degree day, and the colors of a tropical sunrise (sunsets are too cliche).

29 . How many tattoos do you have? on my boobs? let me count...none

30 . Do you have any pets? i heart pablodor, tigger, nicole, penelope and paski (and scubs, olive and toyang in heaven)

31 . How many people are you sending this e-mail to? i've forgotten how to count

This week has been pretty hectic for me, what with the dissertation and my very active social life, but I managed to get some pics of my current projects. The beret, however, is finished and I am wearing it right now. Again, this is one of those, post for the sake of making Spot happy, but I promise to write more stories later when I feel chatty.

An old friend showed up unexpectedly last Friday, and I wanted to do something that would be considered very New York before she flew back home. Die Zauberflote was playing at the Metropolitan, I said. Maybe we could catch that. Ever since I saw my first opera in the spring of 2006, I have been completely captivated by the music, the sets, the singers (not so much the $65 you need to choke up to get orchestra seats -- but hey! This is NYC!). My first was Il Forza del Destino by Verdi, but my favorites are the two based on Beaumarchais' plays: Figaro and Barbiere di Siviglia (the two titles refer to the same character). I just like leaving the Met in high spirits and Figaro's "cinque! dieci! venti! trenta!" in my head.

Anyways, was completely excited because DZ is a MOZART opera and because it was sung in GERMAN. Most of the ones I saw before were sung in Italian (with only Cyrano in French and First Emperor in English -- coincidentally both title roles sung by Placido Domingo), and I was curious as to how a German opera would sound. For the record, although Tan Dun's music was divine, the English libretto ruined it for me.

Anyway, back to Die Zauberflote. Apparently, this opera is well known for the "Queen of the Night" aria in the second act, where the soprano hits extremely high notes at a very fast pace. (See the pic of the Queen of the Night from the Met Website). The plot isn't exactly edge-of-your-seat excitement. It is a rather loose allegory of the tension between truth and superstition, darkness and light, complacency and sacrifice.

Our seats had partial views, but considering they were only 15 USD, I was more than happy to lean forward whenever Papageno flits towards the right end of the stage (my right, not his). I always loved the grandiose sets of the Met (well, they do need to fill that ginormous stage). Mozart's music, as always, full and beautiful (and hummable, which I think should be an important characteristic of a good opera--since this is considered the pop music of the 18th and 19th centuries). James Levine was conducting (Yay!) and the Met Orchestra, is still the best orchestra, in NYC, to the best of my knowledge.

Found this quiz on some random quiz site. I haven't seen Cosi Fan Tutte yet, but maybe I should make definite plans to see it.

Which Mozart Opera Does Your Life Most Resemble?

Cosi Fan Tutte (All Women Do Thus). For a complete synopsis, see http://www.metopera.org/synopses/cosi.html.
Take this quiz!

Something else I found on the Met Website. If you look closely, I'm sure some of you will recognize 2 very familiar people at the first Met performance at Lincoln Center.