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Seth Colter Walls: both within and without the state of being connected / the Internet makes me feel online

Mary: Of course this is where you begin. I'd have started with the Saint Joseph Domaine Laurent Betton with the peppery finish that we murdered last night at Bar Boulud.

Seth: Oh sorry, HK, my mind is still a touch scrambled from the last of the three short "operas" we saw last night. As you know, the libretto for the last one was written by Samuel Beckett. The rhythms are still a bit in my head. But let's start at the beginning.

Seth: As everyone has been properly notified, City Opera is currently presenting a night of three short, modern one-act operas, which are being rubric'ed under the heading of "Monodramas"–on account of how there is only one singer per piece. (All sopranos, as it happens.) You can read several quite favorable standard-issue operatic reviews in the Times and in the Post (and in another town's Post) if you'd like–though what follows will be more of a user-experience conversation for the non-specialist.

Mary: And I went in totally cold. I do not have the recordings, LIKE YOU DO.

Seth: Truth–or at least for the two that HAVE been been recorded. And so here is the point where we say the titles and composers. First off was John Zorn's "La Machine de l'etre" (The Machine of Being), written in 2000, and which was 10 minutes long, only. Plotless. Also: wordless. Just emotive sounds from the soprano over a gnarly orchestra. And it's meant to be based, somehow, on the late drawings of Antonin Artaud.

Mary: Very KTHXBAI. And it was just a GANG of burqua'd ladies.

Seth: Right. At beginning of this piece, dozens upon dozens of people on stage were in burquas. And the two kind of mannequin-ish actors, dressed up in tuxy-duds, who served as our "guides" to all three works and who stood out in front of the curtain before the lights went down...

Mary: They looked like they were in some sort of synth band!

Seth: Yes, they were very Crystal Sleigh Pink Nothings...

Mary: Yeah, the super hot lady one with bangs and 5" patent leather heels. And the dude.

Seth: Right. He's always going to be called "the dude," when standing next to her.

Mary: And they went around undressing everyone: the soprano, a man in a scarlet suit... before the music even started.

Seth: The whole thing played very much like performance art? But they also gave some odd "structure" to the the night's disparate pieces.

Mary: The thing about the whole performance art bit was that at times it was almost like a comedy skit–poking fun of EXACTLY something like that. BUT it was all too well done and strangely pleasing in other respects.

Seth: Yes, the audience was supposed to laugh a bit, at the beginning and in-between the pieces. Some slight comic relief amid all the keening, angsty abstraction of the modernist musics.

Mary: The audience laughed because they played so much with the planes of interest. Like the focal points altering jarringly from the projected artwork to the background to the sherpas who move around on the foreground. You laughed because moments were absurd.

Seth: TONS of data to process. Here's also where we describe more concretely to people that one of the burqa'd ladies in the Zorn piece had a huge thought-bubble screen above her head, onto which animations based on Artaud's work were projected.

Mary: Some of the women in burquas looked like nuns, though, when they were skittering about. And the drawings looked like aboriginal boobies.

Seth: And penises... which is why I thought the burqua/nun thing was interesting. And also why the whole conceit of "dressing/undressing" the participants before the first two operas was key. Just the notion of the sheathed self versus the revealed/vulnerable self being the emotional nexus between these works that are otherwise quite dissimilar. And and the reason that we don't get any dressing/undressing in the third act is because the MIND/PERSONA IS UNKNOWABLE TO ITSELF, hullo Beckett!

Mary: Hmm... the thing is some of the burqua'dnuns had mad personality while totally covered. BUT you know that's funny you say that, about vulnerability, it's like all the nuns were space aliens, right? And the audience is an invading space ship, and we're way more powerful than them.

Seth: Uh...?

Mary: And the undressed singing lady head nun or den mother or whatever looked panicked! Like she was making up excuses to us, to protect all the other nuns who were helpless

Seth: Yes, she was gesturing to the animations, to the crazy penises and boobs projected into their speech bubbles, as if to explain their essential legitimacy to us as thoughts.

Mary: But she was also the only one really looking at us. There was something very beseeching about it. Like she was asking us to spare them

Seth: And explain their brains to us.

Mary: It was a weird feeling, and none of us were getting it.

Seth: Which, obviously, was why it was wordless

Mary: RIGHT.

Seth: How cool was the fire at the end?

Mary: It was gonzo. Right so there was a huge speech bubble that they showed the animation on, and then they set it on fire. OR rather, it went up in flames. And it was SO FUCKING BRIGHT.

Seth: How do they make fire so bright that you have to close your eyes, even from that distance? And don't forget the other dude in the red suit also had a competing thought bubble, but his went away and then he was vacummed up into the ceiling. AS ONE DOES in this show. So much flying.

Mary: I was worried for their lumbar support. But I also loved it. Also we forgot the lingerie lady with the t-straps.

Seth: She had a super-kinetic and disjointed dance.

Mary: YES, broken doll club dance w/splayed hands and good hair movement.

Seth: This all happened in 10 minutes!

Mary: It was crazed.

Seth: Correct. And then there was a brief multimedia interlude that came before Arnold Schoenberg's "Erwartung" (Expectation, or Anticipation, or Waiting — people do fight over this), from 1909–which in some ways was the most straightforward, most "plotted" thing of the night. In brief: a woman in the woods is looking for her lover, who is late to meet her.

Mary: A total wackjob woman, btw. I mean she is basically straight up making out with a dead man.

Seth: She comes across a dead body (it's him!) and mistakes it for a tree trunk at first. Later she realizes he's dead, but then keeps wondering about the "other woman" homeboy had been seeing of late.

Mary: That's what made her totally nuts! Well, you know I felt deeply for the animated interstitials, because they felt good on my brain and as though I was DUMB high on very good marijuana. AND reminded me of the BEST kenzo floral prints from the 70s.

Seth: That was video art of the seasons changing in the woods, courtesy of Jennifer Steinkamp. Thought it was a bit long. But it was a nice way to disguise the need to have a 5-minute set change after the Zorn piece.

Mary: What did YOU think of the second one?

Seth: I thought it was the least successful staging of the night. Like all the stage business revealed the director's lack of trust regarding what actually happens in the piece.

Mary: So she sees her dead lover, is maaaaaybe making out with him the whole time, and talking to him about how sad she is, and how desperately she loved him.

Seth: After killing him and forgetting it.

Mary: And THEN she gets PISSED! Because she DECIDES he was having an affair with some chick with "white arms." I also noticed this was the production with an Asian lady in it.

Seth: Meantime: so many rose petals falling onto the stage from above.

Mary: Gorgeous rose petals.

Seth: Too many?

Mary: Yes. And then we think maybe she killed him. BUT also I really like their little empire waist dresses, with the pretty little balloon cap sleeves, AND there was a super pretty doll house in that one too. OK so let's get to your favorite, the LAST ONE.

Seth: Morton Feldman's NEITHER!

Mary: The #disco one.

Seth: Describe the set?

Mary: It looked like the walls were covered in fish scales

Seth: I feel like this was opera as it would be staged at Club Silencio from Mullholland Drive?

Mary: Without a doubt. I LOVED the disco balls that were just spinning mirrored boxes.

Seth: Very General Zod. And also they reflected this refracted pinwheel morph-zone of intense colordrom, right?

Mary: YES. The reflections off them shits were really uncomfortable in a way I liked.

Seth: But viz a viz the sheathing and unsheathing of the women in the first two, there was no getting INSIDE the woman in the final piece.

Mary: Oh none. We were in it, but there was no inside to be had.

Seth: The boxes spinning all around her were the antithesis of the doll house (look inside), and the animations (look inside my head).

Mary: YES. I mean, it starts off elegant and beautiful ... and then...

Seth: A bit disturbed and keening and repetitive, but rhythmically varied. And sometimes very softly played. To the point where when a new phrase or momentum was created out of the pointalistically realized orchestration... your hair was just blown back.

Mary: And the words!

Seth: "to and fro in shadow from inner to outer shadow / from impenetrable self to impenetrable unself by way of neither"

Mary: Bro: "UNSPEAKABLE HOME"!

Seth: The final words!

Mary: By then, you're like, WERD. CHURCH.

Seth: One other moment? When once of the dancer woman is trying to hold onto the man who is flying away, and she's holding onto his shoes?

Mary: Very no strings attached/*NSYNC (not Portman-Kutcher).

Seth: LOLLL ... anyway, it reminded me of the protagonist in opera number 2 holding onto the dead body that had weirdly risen, undead-like, at the end.

Mary: YES.

Seth: I thought it was a nice callback, just as the boxes that were animated in the first piece were the disco boxes in the last piece. I think the director, Michael Counts, did a great job "tying" together these pieces thematically without putting too much of a BUTTON on the whole deal.

Mary: Agreed. Man those disco boxes were crazy feeling on the brain. But that's the thing. That piece JUST ENDED. It was like being sprung form a sensory deprivation tank into times square. What did we call it?

Seth: That you are refreshed, but also kind of dazed that you elected to sleep with all the lights on and windows open.

Mary: And slightly headachey.

Seth: And still in your SKINNY JEANS.

Mary: And needing to pee. BUT, in a good way that you should pay money to go do.

Seth: $12 tickets and $25 tickets remain for all the remaining presentations of "Monodramas" — which is cheaper than all the things we ate and drank afterward. Otherwise: did the music ever become beautiful to you? Or did it stay space alien-y the whole time?

Mary: It was beautiful the whole time, and space alieny the whole time

Seth: DUALITY, BITCHES. Also, parts of this night contained some of the most exciting opera-making I have seen on any NYC stage this season.

Mary: It was uncomfortably beautiful–and draws you into its crazy immediately. It's like a really hot crying chick.

Seth: Again: LYNCH.

Mary: VERY VERY LYNCH. Importantly so.

Seth: I wonder what we'll see next?

Mary: First we have to go to our jobs again, though.

[EXUENT ALL, TO MEETINGS]

Seth Colter Walls and Mary HK Choi are a mite sluggish today.

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Why do so many rappers rap about rap?
I think it's just a common theme. It becomes hardwired in your mind. It's just part of the music.

Why does negativity sell more records than positivity when it comes to rap?
In Canada, that's not really the case. K-os probably sells more records than any other rapper in Canada.

You've been touring across America with k-os for a month now. Have you noticed any differences between Canadian and American audiences?
A lot of the crowds have been surprisingly similar. Since we're both Canadian, I think we end up drawing a similar kind of audience. That's been the most interesting thing to me.

Why do you think there are so few female rappers?
I think rap's inherently kind of macho. So that might be part of it. I can see that changing. Hip-hop is always changing.

Are you trying to make that change?
I don't really try to change an entire genre. I just try to do what it is I do. If that in turn affects our culture—then that's cool. But I definitely don't start out with any ideas about changing a genre. I'm just trying to make music that makes sense to me.

I hear you like Roxette.
Oh yeah, for sure. They remind me of being a kid and hearing their songs on the radio.

You're also earning a master's degree in Liberal Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. What's that about?
The whole program revolves around literature and philosophy and their relationship to passion and reason. It's always inspiring when you get to take in a great work, or study someone who has committed themselves to creating something special or to advancing a new or positive idea. It's more out of interest and fun. It's obviously not the most important degree.

You make a lot of pop-culture references in your music.
It makes it more like a conversation, like when you're talking to your friends and you might make a comment about the Monday Night Football game or whatever. So I think it brings it to a human level, where you're just interacting on a shared experience, a shared environment and that sort of thing.

Any thoughts on Chris Bosh leaving the Toronto Raptors to join Lebron James and Dwyane Wade in Miami?
I'm not surprised he left. He'd be a great second piece, and he's an even better third piece. I don't think you can be too mad at him for leaving. My only problem with this topic is that I think it's kind of boring.

Paul Hiebert is a writer in New York.

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Penderecki is probably best known for his 1962 piece "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima" (image-less YouTube version below), which you could argue would be a lot less famous if it were titled "Threnody for the Traditionally-Minded Opponents of Tone Clusters," or even if it had kept its original title of 8'37, but then history is history.

I'm also kind of a fan of The Devils of Loudon, his opera about demonic possession.

On this concert bill, I'm also curious about Penderecki's Symphony No. 4, and the 2008-penned Concerto for Horn and Orchestra. Should be a worthwhile event!

SEMI-RELATED: The New York Philharmonic has just posted an archival performance of Stravinsky conducting the world premiere of his Symphony in Three Movements, back in 1946. It's a totally free listen. Details on their Valery Gergiev-led Stravinsky Festival are here. (You may recall our prior discussion of Gergiev.)

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Choire Sicha: Yeah, seriously, what the hell?

Seth: And why have you gone 3 times in the last week, weirdo?

Matthew Gallaway: Elektra is an opera written in 1909 by Richard Strauss, who is one of the most important composers of the 20th Century. In the manner of say, Picasso, he paved the way for the atonal dissonance and 12-tone scales that would come to define progressive music for the next 100 years or more. (Read Alex Ross for more accurate information!)

Seth: And regarding the music, for people who are not familiar? I'm going to drop that Steve Albini quote about punk. He says: "I like noise. I like big-ass vicious noise that makes my head spin. I wanna feel it whipping through me like a fucking jolt. We're so dilapidated and crushed by our pathetic existence we need it like a fix." ELEKTRA DOES THIS.

Matthew: Elektra is also psychologically nuanced and reflects the revolutionary theories of Freud/Jung. The librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal was obsessed with the past: he said something about how it's impossible to speak without hearing 2000 years of history reverberating in your head. He was a poetic genius. His collaboration with Strauss was like the ___& ___ of rock music.

Choire: I would add that Elektra retains a lot of its original power, amazingly. This piece that really did people's faces in when it was new still retains a lot of its blammo and kapow.

Matthew: My thoughts EXACTLY.

Choire: It's got a real Reichsmusikkammer! (Sorry! Kidding!)

Matthew: Whenever I go to the opera, I try to put myself in the shoes of those hearing it for the first time, 100-200-300 years ago, and what it must have been like to hear something that powerful (pre-Husker Du/My Bloody Valentine/Velvet Underground/etc.). People literally went insane.

Seth: Yeah, I wish I coulda been there. Instead, I saw Courtney Love bare her breasts at Lollapalloza '96 and then storm off stage to fight with Kathleen Hanna.

Seth: Why did you think last night was better than the time you went with Choire, and better than the dress rehearsal?

Matthew: I felt like the singers were less worried about being in the right place in the right time and 'letting loose' more than they had previously — I thought it had great 'energy.'

Seth: As I think you both know, I am the young-ish, enthusiastic sort, and am willing to forgive a production lots of little things because I am grateful that they are bringing fucking Elektra to my eye-sockets and ear-holes.

Matthew: I felt very much the same way...I was interested to note today that it is actually 100 years old, i.e., it premiered in Dresden in 1909

Seth: Obviously everyone always fixates on the title role. Is the singer in question up to it, etc. But while I thought Susan Bullock was pretty good last night — all the blah blah about her lack of power had me expecting something much more enervated — I was actually surprised by how much I liked Voigt as Elektra's sister Chrysothemis. Can we talk about her?

Matthew: Yes, I thought she also sounded great

Seth: Yall are older than me. Did you ever see her live, pre-surgery? All I have are videos. How does this compare?

Choire: I can't remember when I last saw her in the Olden Times. She isn't now as enormous vocally, from what little I remember? But I did think she sounded very good. Not like, "OMG WHO IS THIS CHICK HOLY CRAP" good? But very, very good.

Matthew: The thing about her voice — I probably saw her 10 years ago — is that it's always been kind of huge — i.e., a real Met voice — and now I think it's probably a little less 'creamy' than what you might have heard, but it has more of a 'laser-beam' quality.

Choire: Oh! That is a very good description!

Matthew: That's a very typical evolution for a dramatic soprano.

Seth: Secretly, I think Chrysothemis has some of the most beautiful music in this opera. So I was glad that Voigt sounded so good.

Matthew: I think her music is the most traditional and lyrical, and can feel like a breath of fresh air after the much darker sections of Elektra and Klytemnestra.

Seth: For the kids at home, here's Glenn Gould playing some of Chrysothemis's stuff on piano (starts at 3:32 mark).

Matthew: Although my favorite part of the piece — at least in the beginning — is when Elektra is ruminating (or obsessing) about her father.

Choire: Yes! Very gorgeous.

Seth: When we had that last night, I was thinking: Let's just stay here! No need to bring out any other characters or actors or things! Let's just have ruminative sadness and little stabby sounds from the orchestra. Heaven!

Matthew: Exactly, and the music is almost like an homage to the Wotan/Brunnhilde scene at the end of Walkure, which is brutally sad (i.e., a father saying goodbye to his favorite daughter forever).

Seth: But my whole problem with the Ring is that its gonzo eschatology kinda gets in the way of feeling anything for those people. Like, big deal Lord Goldman Sachs, you done fucked up the world. Boo fuckin hoo. Whereas with this Greek tragedy stuff, I think it helps Strauss write music on that grand scale that actually connects, and doesn't seem as schticky.

Matthew: I'm going to agree with you about Strauss but not Walkure!

Seth: Well, I like Wagner more when he writes for humans. Like Tristan/Isolde.

Matthew: Speaking of humans, let's talk about Klytamnestra — did you find her sufficiently deranged?

Seth: I liked Felicity Palmer's voice and all, as Klytamnestra. But when she gets the news that Orestes is dead? And she shakes her fists in the air to indicate her triumph like a five year old at a jungle gym? Not impressive. I think this is partly a production issue.

Choire: Oh God. Listen, for me? This was not exactly a wonder of stage acting, which is complicated by, yes, the production.

Seth: There's something ominous and spooky about Klytemnestra when she has those sorta-masked minders standing behind her. But then the libretto takes them away from her. And then she's just a woman in a weird getup. You'd think a better director–like, I dunno: Lepage, maybe even (gasp) Julie Taymor–might have engineered a costume for Klymee that would suggest her power even when she's alone.

Choire: DON'T YOU JULIE TAYMOR US.

Matthew: DITTO.

Seth: OK, OK.

Choire: JESUS CHRIST.

Seth: We'll give the assignment to the guys who did the Glass Satyagraha a couple years back. With all the puppetry and cloaking and whatnot. That was amazing. I found myself wanting them to do a new production of Elektra for the Met.

Matthew: If I can disagree about the production a bit, I think that its restraint in a way is to its advantage: if you go back and look at some of the older productions, there's a LOT of black eyeliner and mythological gestures, which I'm not sure is necessarily as appropriate in 2k9?

Choire: Sure. But you know, this production? I mean: wow, there is nothing there. Which is admirable? I have a question for Seth, because he brought a civilian, and I wonder what she thought of it? Was she thinking: WHY AREN'T THEY DOING ANYTHING?

Seth: No, she loved it. But mostly because I showed up in a suit. BUT SERIOUSLY. What obsessives usually forget about a piece of music like this is that a lot of the work is done by the piece just showing up and doing it to your earhole. This music is FUCKING AMAZING.

Seth: And a newcomer is mostly just knocked over by that reality. And doesn't spend a whole lot of time thinking, why is there a gigantic horse split in two on the left side of the stage OH WOW RIGHT TROJAN WAR. (Snore.)

Choire: True... Also I think she and you were there on a firmer night than I was? And while I wasn't underwhelmed? It became more and more like a recital than a performance, when the gusto wasn't quite brimming. Because let's be honest: NOTHING HAPPENS ON STAGE. Also maybe I am going a little deaf though, being old and all? Because I wasn't getting the sheer volume. However? GAY SIDEBAR?

Matthew: Orestes looked pretty damn hot.

Choire: Correct! Okay gay sidebar over.

Seth: Okay. So. After this, Strauss went all wussy. Writing rom-com operas for Maureen Dowd to quote in her columns.

Matthew: But more than that, I think it's important to remember that the music reflects a psychological pathos.

Choire: DO GO ON.

Matthew: The most dissonant sections of the piece occur during Klytamnestra's aria, when she is in a state of COMPLETE DENIAL about having KILLED her husband! She's literally begging Elektra to help, and of course, Elektra is like: 'here's what will help — YOU MUST DIE.' The music completely reflects this. Carl Jung actually published a book called the 'Elektra Complex' not long after this opera premiered as sort of a companion/counter text to the Oedipal Complex of Freud (because Elektra is so obsessively infatuated with her father — the music also reflects this dynamic).

Seth: You are right about all of this, and I want to download your intelligence into my brain, if we could make that happen, pls? I thought Bulllock's best ACTING + SINGING stretch last night came during the Orestes recognition music.

Matthew: Agreed — that was also very touching.

Seth: I thought that was all very well executed. And the fact that the orchestra isn't BLARING SO MUCH during that part particularly gave her some slack, volume-wise, so that she could shade the development of the scene.

Matthew: True, of course it's just the calm before the storm.

Seth: Yeah, the climax–in which Elektra celebrates the death and destruction and goes nuts–wasn't so hot for me. Bullock shouldn't try to dance to the orchestra's beat. It doesn't look rapturous. And it doesn't look crazy, especially. It just looks awkward.

Matthew: I agree that's a bit problematic, but it has been getting better.

Choire: [At this point it would be wise to disclose that Matthew has family ties to the Met, although his opinions are his own.] As for me, I felt like Bullock gathered steam steadily and then backed off right at the end. I was NOT LOVING HER at first but I grew to like her. Plus, as Matthew knows, I'm convinced she talks like Tracey Emin? All Margate?

Seth: I don't know these names.

Choire: HERE:

Seth: Oof!

Choire: I SWEAR that's what it sounds like backstage at the Met RIGHT NOW. Anyway! So I think we all agree that the draw here is: a great chance to hear a gorgeous piece of music.

Seth: Yeah, and how often do you get a chance to hear it live? Also: Met Orchestra is a good Strauss orchestra when it wants to be.

Choire: I feel like this year it's that and Ariadne auf Naxos. And, of course, LULU.

Seth: Yeah, Lulu is going to kick ass. But don't forget Gergiev doing The Nose.

Choire: I have not heard Lulu since 1987 with Catherine Malfitano! Shh, I am old.

Matthew: I thought it was interesting to think about what piece of music from 2009 will be performed in 2109. (Did I write that date correctly?)

Seth: Hm. What music, huh?

Choire: Isn't the answer, "None"?

Seth: NO NO NO NO NO. DIE!

Choire: WELL? TELL ME WHAT IS THIS YEAR'S ELEKTRA.

Matthew: Grizzly Bear? AnCo?

Choire: L. O. L.

Seth: Thomas Ades's The Tempest sounds very nice on the EMI recording that came out this year. Will reserve final judgment till when we get to see it in NY in 2012 or whatever.

Choire: It's more like CAN'T READ MY CAN'T READY MY NO HE CAN'T READ MY P P P POKERFACE.

Seth: Listen, that song's stock is gonna go down before 2019.

Choire: NO ONE LISTENS TO CASSANDRA. But the future will know I was right!

Seth: But if we're *really* trying to answer Matt's question, about operatic stuff?

Matthew: In 1909, there wasn't the categorization — Strauss was a huge star.

Choire: That's right. SCHOOL HIM, GALLAWAY.

Seth: Listen, people will still be singing this aria.

Choire: Yes, they will. It's a beautiful song, and one of only three things in that god-forsaken thing I ever want to hear again. (To be fair: the three things in it are each fantastic.)

Matthew: But seriously, let's say that 0.00000005 percent of people under the age of 30 have heard Doctor Atomic, in comparison to Lady Gaga? Opera in some ways has been destroyed by capitalism — it doesn't lend itself to commodification. And it's expensive as SHIT to produce. Nobody ever makes money on opera. Ask Oscar Hammerstein.

Seth: True.

Matthew: Another reason to go see it now: before it's DEAD! I'm being needlessly fatalistic, of course.

Seth: Also: the electric amplification of instruments, as Alex Ross points out in Rest is Noise, sorta made a 100+ member orchestra an economically irrational enterprise.

Choire: I, like David Byrne, do sort of cringe at a $32 million budget for the Ring Cycle in L.A.

Seth: Oh, man. That David Byrne thing made me mad.

Matthew: It was always economically irresponsible. King Ludwig spent a fortune on 'The Ring.'

Choire: Sure! Also? THIRTY TWO MILLION DOLLARS.

Seth: This is why what George Steel is having to do at City Opera (i.e., work with tiny budgets) is a good and useful thing.

Matthew: But compared to Yankee fucking Stadium? Come on.

Choire: (Duly noted: These complaints are by a man who likes a $300-million movie, so, whatever to me.)

Matthew: We should have more public funding of the arts instead of ____.

Seth: We should have some cheaper fucking productions of a greater number of interesting works. But to LA's credit! They will be doing the first North American staging of a Franz Schreker opera next spring. So there's that.

Choire: OH YOU AND YOUR FRANZ SHREKER.

Seth: I loves. Alex Ross: "Schreker was better on his best days than most great composers are on their off days, which is why canons of genius are suspect." Also: Hitler can go fuck himself with his Wagner.

Matthew: Don't even start.

Choire: Whoa. Whoa whoa and whoa.

Matthew: There's no Strauss w/out Wagner.

Choire: MM HMM.

Seth: YOU GUYS, I KNOW. I'm just saying: it IS unfortunate that most of the music the Third Reich deemed "degenerate" has yet to get a full hearing as staple rep. They buried it, and it's mostly stayed buried. Sadface.

Choire: No, sure. As The Gay, we can appreciate that sentiment.

Seth: That's all I'm saying with the Hitler/Wagner thing. And Franz never getting produced anywheres. It's a BALANCE thing.

Seth: To conclude? Fabio Luisi conducted the shit outta Elektra last night.

Matthew: Yes, the Met Orchestra was beautiful and dynamic. He had them on a tight leash.

Choire Sicha: Umm... something something THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID?

Matthew Gallaway and Seth Colter Walls would very much like for you to attend the opera. Choire Sicha is sort of okay if you just decide to stay home with your DVR.

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The Met sent this image from the show over, and, YES, RIGHT? You see what I am saying. SOMEONE ONCE WORE THIS ON HIS HEAD and was like, "FEAR ME." Our modern times should be so lucky.

Black-lacquered kabuto (helmet) with the arm of a guardian deity wielding a Vajra
Edo period, 17th century
Iron, lacquer, wood, and papier-mâché
H. of outer bowl, 43.5 cm (17â...› in.)
Yasukuni-jinja Shrine, Tokyo

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