Last Saturday night was the opening night for the Seattle Opera's production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman. Student rush tickets go on sale for $20 two hours before the performance, which is basically the only way opera fits my budget. Standing in the ticket line with my friend, a lull in the conversation was interrupted by an older man behind us in line.
He asked us if we'd seen The Flying Dutchman before. "Oh, you're in for a treat," he replied after we admitted we hadn't seen it. He then went on to explain that he'd been listening to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's recording of the opera in preparation.
"There's a theme in the beginning--you'll recognize it immediately," he advised, "and once you hear it, you'll want to hear it again and again." If nothing else, this guy had experience on his side. He'd first heard The Flying Dutchman on his father's 78's back in 1943. Since, he'd seen it live multiple times at venues from New York to Seattle.
One thing that has intrigued me about opera is that you don't often see new operas. It's generally accepted amongst enthusiasts which operas are best, those operas are performed over and over again, and people keep going to see them. The main components of the opera remain, while only the details change, but there are enough nuances to keep repeat customers satisfied.
About ten minutes before the curtain lifted, I got a text message.
Barry 755
This reminded me of two things. First, that I needed to switch my phone from vibrate to silent. Second, that I'd recently seen an excellent comparison of Barry Bonds' swing to Babe Ruth's swing by Carlos Gomez over at The Hardball Times (which also includes a comparison of A-Rod's swing and Hank Aaron's swing.)
This amazed me. A lot has changed in baseball since Ruth's time. Players swing lighter bats now because they simply couldn't get around fast enough with heavier bats. Relief pitchers are used much differently than they used to be. (How often do you suppose Ruth faced a LOOGY?) Much to the chagrin of Mr. Bert Blyleven, pitchers rarely throw complete games. Players are paid enough to focus on baseball all year long. Players in the league are now from different countries and there's no color barrier.
Just looking at those swings, though, you'd barely know a day had gone by. It's as if Bonds is Babe Ruth incarnate, here to reprise his role as home run king, but as more of a west coast villain than an east coast hero.
Before purchasing our tickets, my friend and I asked the man in line which performance he liked best. With complete sincerity and lack of hesitation, he answered "oh, I'm sure this will be my favorite."
Here's an OK synopsis of how various papers covered the event:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003622871
Moss thought your link was to a review of the opera...
By the by, great story, and well told, ubes!
Thanks. Glad you liked it, Moss.
Ditto what Moss said. Uncanny, the resemblance of the two sluggers swings.
I'm curious, how was the opera?
I liked it for the most part. I tend to like Wagner in general as compared to, for instance, a lot of Italian composers. The acting was not so great, and the sets were a kind of weird mix between period and contemporary that didn't seem to follow any rhyme or reason, so that was a little off-putting. I'm mainly in it for the music, though, and that did not disappoint.
Ohhhh. Here all this time I thought you were talking about HONUS Wagner.
He was pretty good, too.