awake?

So the question is how/why am I awake? it's 1:30 in the morning...I don't stay up this late...it's prbably because I ate margot's cupcake batter and then made it into pancakes....did you know you could do that, use cake batter as pancake batter? well evidently you can but you have to be careful because the higher sugar content causes it to burn more rapidly...pretty ok.

ok Turandot...I'm sure if I am sufficiently awake to make any sort of coherent comments about it, but I have to soon because my next opera is next week and then I will be unforgivibly behind.

ok; so I think that Nitzche might have liked this opera...I say this because Nitchze's favorite opera was Carmen. There are some of you who might find this surprising perhaps, but it is because it portrayed love in an un-romanticized and an unforgiving fashion. he was into that.

anywho short overveiw...Act I: Turandot is a princess who does not want to be married because she is afraid of the subjegation that is marriage for a woman, as such there is a law that all her suitors have to answer three riddles. If they answer them correctly then she will marry them, if they fail she has their heads chopped off. Prince whitnesses be-heading, sees princess falls in love. Liu (slave in love with prince) begs him not to do it, he does it anyway. He answers her riddles correctly...she can't handle it, so he tells her that if she can find out his name then she can kill him anyway.
Act II: Prince sings super famous Nessun' Dorma, because princess has ordered that no one may sleep that night hence the name of the song. Princesses wise men types (ping pang and pong) find prince's old man father and slave liu...they torture liu but she won't tell princes name...princess asks what makes you so strong...she answers her love for the prince in an aria that makes you cry...she then kills herself...princess is minimally moved...Prince kisses princess and tells her his name...she instantly falls in love and assumibly (according to the fairy tale) they live happily ever after.

Anyhow: Patricia RAcette as Liu...super fantastic! man I have not been moved to tears at opera before...I also saw her as Michaela last year...very good then too. Andera GRuber as Turondot. I thought that her performance was alittle flat, though I can't decide if it is my dislike for the character of the princess or her as a singer. In her defense the part is wickidly difficult, but once she got out of her super high register I wished that she had alittle more depth to her sound.

Vladimir GAlouzine as Calaf (the prince) I didn't really have a strong opinion, my fellow opera goers liked his sound quite a bit...he emphatically ended his phrases in a glotal kind of way...but that's mostly just a stylistic choice the way he was doing it.

ok the story...man does love ever lose out in this story. I mean Calaf (the prince) sees Turadot and immediatly lusts afer her.
Liu, genuinely loves calaf and kills her self to save him...the true love and tragety in the story
Turondot falls in love when she is kissed...I beleive they say something about her ice melting...this is again desire or lust.

So my interpretation poorly articulated because it is almost 2 in the morning (what is my problem get off the stupid computer) Is that she has given up. remember she has seen like 20 some odd suitors killed because of her, there has to be a time that she just gives up. She hates the idea of marriage because of the story of this woman killed by a man and she vows to never to be placed in such a position of weakness. but she compromises this ideal and ends up with the prince...he doesn't prove to her that men can be loving and nurtureing...he seduces her. She is not converted by the increadible love of Liu, she secumbs to latent desires and an exhaustion.

so moral of opera? love looses...lust wins

more when I have slept.