Friday, October 19, 2012

The bah-leh

It's spelled ballet, and pronounced bahleh, which means high brow entertainment. For some reason or another we bought tickets. Perhaps because several sources gave this one rave reviews. We haven't been to a ballet performance for many, many years, and thought it would be fun to mix it up.

Graceful, athletic performances? Check.
Emoting out the ying yang? Check.
Beautiful costumes? Check.
Wonderful set and lighting? Check.
Good music that enhances the performance? Check.

But if I hadn't known what I was seeing, I wouldn't have clued in that it was Othello till the very end of the first half, when the famous handkerchief makes an appearance. We enjoyed the show, and thought they had done a good job with the play, given the limitations of the art form. But there are other things I enjoy more, so I don't think we'll be going again any time soon.

No swim this morning, since I was feeling a bit like a weenie. I figured the sooner the work day started, the sooner the work week would be over. Right after getting home I was up on the roof to nail down some siding that had come a bit loose. Then onto the bike for a quickie hour spin.

4 comments:

  1. Love, love, love ballet. Really need to just pick up a ticket sometime and go by myself - take the night off from being a mom/wife to enjoy a little culture.

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  2. There is no shortage of culture here in Calgary, though it's pronounced Kulcher by most people. Calgary still has a reputation of being cowtown and a rednecked bastion of the old west. It's true there are still elements of that, especially around Stampede. The Jubilee auditorium holds about 2700 people, and it was fairly full last night. In addition to the highbrow ballet, opera, various orchestras, there is a huge community of people that attend one of the approximately 50 venues for plays or other theatre productions.

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  3. Were you feeling like a weenie because you went to the ballet and those guys in their tights made you feel inadequate? Or maybe because you were up late watching the ballet and so were just too tuckered out from lack of sleep and all that emoting to get up early enough? Either way...sometimes being a weenie is the logical thing to do.


    Some ballets I like, some are kind of annoying (though athletically impressive).

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  4. Actually the feeling like a weenie was the morning, and the ballet was in the evening. I have a lot of respect for those guys in their tights. Anybody that can lift a girl over their heads, move around the stage in time to music why she gracefully thrashes around up there, and put her down lightly, and make it look easy has my respect. Now, Saturday I was also tuckered out so I didn't swim, but then, we were waiting for the snow. There are days I like being a weenie, and this weekend was one of them.

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