Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Blog Night

Porgy and Bess

Mr. Eddins has just invited us to Lyon, France at the end of May to see him conduct a full operatic version of Porgy and Bess. He is quite thrilled about it and was disappointed they couldn’t sell us tickets for it here tonight. Without further ado, we are taken into a portion of that musical piece.

As it opens it is a bit dark sounding, but opens up into laziness. The drummer in the back row is idle momentarily and takes a minute to rest. Now he prepares for a big symbol clash. Aha, I was right, and the tempo changes to upbeat and staccato. Percussionist is back to his leaning.

A slight taste of “Summertime” in a very slow and melancholy tempo. Soft and gentle, where does it take us next.

Who Spends a Night At The Symphony in Edmonton?

I had a sudden thought. Who is it that comes to the symphony? Is it business men and women? Eager music students wanting to learn from the masters? House wifes who’ve dragged their unwilling spouses out for a night on the town, but who have to be home by 10:30pm for the sitter? Or simply people who love music and the arts of all kinds? I know I fit into that last category. Whenever I’m surrounded by artists – visual, literary, musical, dance – I feel like I’m a part of it, like I’m home. I would MUCH rather watch a live theatrical performance, will get up early to be first in line for Mikhail Baryshnikov tickets (OH YES I totally did that and enjoyed my front row tickets immensely thank you very much) take the subway WITH the rats in NYC to see Stomp in a REAL off Broadway theatre, and experience first hand all The Arts has to offer.

I do not watch TV and many people find that odd. They ask me “so what do you do with your time then?” which to me is a very odd commentary on our society and how reliant we are on the “boob tube” to be our life. No sir, I choose to have my own life and do the things one sees other people doing on TV. Travel is part of my passion too, perhaps I will have to go to Lyon to see Mr. Eddin’s European debut! After all he did invite me!

I just had a desire to jump down and photograph the red drum stick (is that a technical term?) hanging on the giant symbol, against the back wall. The newspaper photographer Walter “Alphabet” as my friend Chris-tine used to call him (cause heaven knows I can’t spell or pronounce his real name) was in our blogging room photographing us before the concert commenced. He said he had to go photograph the performance from the wings or back stage. I now am thinking about how to beg, borrow or steal his camera equipment (even though it’s a Nikon, sorry Walter) so I can go take my photo of the red thingy. Funny what pops into ones head. I’m not going to do it, well, we’ll see . . .

My old friend Miranda (another of Harlen’s daughters) used to play the cello and I’ve always thought, how ungraceful that was, legs spread apart so. I’m looking at the cello section now and there are more women then men playing them. Commandingly I might add. They seem to be wearing pants mostly though.

Fabulous piece. As we in the soundproof room clap for the performance we feel a bit funny about it. Who are we applauding for? They can’t even hear us.

Mr. Eddins takes his second bow and departs the stage for intermission.

My Blogging The ESO live report continues on Page 3:
A piece from Allan Gilliland, a local Edmonton composer and jazz trumpeter called Dreaming of the Masters II.

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photography tutor in Edmonton

Born and raised in Edmonton, Darlene has had formal training in photography at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. She enjoys portraits, fine art, and travel photography. She is a seasoned traveler having spent time in Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, Peru, Thailand, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Cuba and Australia. Darlene loves exotic locales, exotic food and experiencing different countries directly through the local people and the cultural arts. Her vision is to share her artistic talents through teaching “the art of seeing”, and to spread love and tolerance through the experience of truly connecting with and understanding people of different cultures.