#20 Boston - From Classic to Modern Times
It has been a culturally enlightening week to say the least, and personally a very challenging one.
The latter mostly due to the fact that the GI doc I have been seeing is wanting to investigate this back pain I have been having, and thus ordered a couple of CT scans, which were done yesterday in the wee hours of the morning. The prep work for the CT scans has definitely improved over the years and the barium solution one has to swallow is quite drinkable and is no longer the thick gooey stuff that made you want to run to the bathroom immediately. I am now more than anxiously awaiting the results - unfortunately, being in a cancer center every day exposes you to a lot of information, and it is tough not to fill your mind with unnecessary worries. One has to stay positive, to use my favorite quote: "Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change."
Now to the cultural part - starting off this past Friday with Boston Cares ushering duty, at Faneuil Hall for the Boston Classical Orchestra as usual under the vibrant leadership of musical director Steven Lipsitt. He is a bouncy little guy, who has an anecdote at hand for every composer, and recites a little summary about every piece to be played. The BCO has an extremely loyal and enthusiastic audience - the demographics hover mostly in the plus 60 crowd, but you should see these folks leap to their feet!! The program presented this past Friday was certainly worth a tremendous amount of acclaim - the BCO was joined by the Boston Cecilia (http://www.bostoncecilia.org/about/about-us.html) - a very fine choir, who dates back to 1876 (not its current members though) - and local-soprano-turned-famous Barbara Quintiliani (http://www.funkhouserartists.com/BarbaraQuintiliani/, who simply brought the house down. A stunning performance! On the menu for the evening were a truckload of Bach Cantatas and a little Haendel thrown in as well. The composers were chosen for a reason, they were both German, born a month apart and were two of the key composers in the early 18th century. Their lives ended up quite different, Haendel never married, he left Germany for Italy when he was young, and fostered his musical talents in Italy before settling down in England, where he enjoyed great success and lived quite comfortably, one might say. Bach was less the adventurer, more of a church and court musician, he did not venture too far from home, stuck around, married twice and had quite a few kids. Bach's music was more church-oriented, whereas Haendel was, as the program described, "the quintessential enlightenment secularist".
Same century, different day - Saturday, this time ushering on my own, mostly because I wanted to see the musical "1776" at the Lyric Stage Company. As mentioned before numerous time, this is my favorite theater in Boston, small, but beautiful, and every production I have seen here I have liked. Spiro Veloudos, the very jovial producing artistic director, has breathed very fresh air into this venue, and "1776" was an attest to that. It was the highest attended performance in the history of the Lyric, and it was no surprise as to why. This was just fantastic, and I am not saying that because I like musicals. (http://www.lyricstage.com/1776.htm) The play centered around the discussions the Second Congressional Congress had during a particularly nastily humid summer in Philadelphia in 1776. John Adams, brilliant, obnoxious, pushy, yet passionate, aided by the very relaxed Benjamin Franklin (who kept nodding off during the debates....), pushed through the declaration of independence written by a very reluctant Thomas Jefferson. Superb acting, Peter Carey as John Adams, Kevin Ashworth as John Hancock, John King as a brilliant, brilliant Edward Rutledge from South Carolina, so good, JT Tuner as the sometimes narcoleptic Ben Franklin, and of course Terrence O'Malley as Thomas Jefferson, who was just really beautiful to look at. Standing ovation, need I say more?
Cultural event #3 would be this Wednesday - my friend Nesli had alerted me to a concert taking place at Harvard Memorial Church - the Sinikithemba Choir was in town! Sinikithemba, a Zulu word for "we bring hope", is an unusual choir, all members are HIV-positive, and have set as their mission to "speak out through their music.... helping to end the tremendous stigma surrounding HIV infection in Africa". This was a very inspirational event. Performing with two other choirs, The Boston Community Choir, the SANS (Sharing a New Song) choir, and the stunningly talented (and also HIV-positive) blues singer Tim Hobson, this event brought a different vibe into Harvard Mem. At the end everyone was dancing around, and joined the choir up front (myself included) for a rendition of "O Happy Day". What a great evening! (http://sinikithemba.org/sinikithemba/The%20Sinikithemba%20Choir.htm). The event itself was organized by yet another great group, Sibusiso, a nonprofit that was brought to life by Boston area nurses and has made it its mission to improve the lives of HIV-infected and affected in resource-poor areas. (http://www.sibusisopartners.org/).
That brought us back to present times, I actually should quickly sign off as I need to head to the airport, heading to Utah today, to see my friends Rani and Nate get hitched. But not before putting in a couple of words for a couple of artist friends here - first my good friend Pauline Lim, who is extraordinarily multi-talented, so check our her website - www.paulinelim.net , and also my new friend Andrew Anselmo, who has raised Origami to quite the art form (www.flappinbird.com).
Talk to you next week!
Petra
The latter mostly due to the fact that the GI doc I have been seeing is wanting to investigate this back pain I have been having, and thus ordered a couple of CT scans, which were done yesterday in the wee hours of the morning. The prep work for the CT scans has definitely improved over the years and the barium solution one has to swallow is quite drinkable and is no longer the thick gooey stuff that made you want to run to the bathroom immediately. I am now more than anxiously awaiting the results - unfortunately, being in a cancer center every day exposes you to a lot of information, and it is tough not to fill your mind with unnecessary worries. One has to stay positive, to use my favorite quote: "Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change."
Now to the cultural part - starting off this past Friday with Boston Cares ushering duty, at Faneuil Hall for the Boston Classical Orchestra as usual under the vibrant leadership of musical director Steven Lipsitt. He is a bouncy little guy, who has an anecdote at hand for every composer, and recites a little summary about every piece to be played. The BCO has an extremely loyal and enthusiastic audience - the demographics hover mostly in the plus 60 crowd, but you should see these folks leap to their feet!! The program presented this past Friday was certainly worth a tremendous amount of acclaim - the BCO was joined by the Boston Cecilia (http://www.bostoncecilia.org/about/about-us.html) - a very fine choir, who dates back to 1876 (not its current members though) - and local-soprano-turned-famous Barbara Quintiliani (http://www.funkhouserartists.com/BarbaraQuintiliani/, who simply brought the house down. A stunning performance! On the menu for the evening were a truckload of Bach Cantatas and a little Haendel thrown in as well. The composers were chosen for a reason, they were both German, born a month apart and were two of the key composers in the early 18th century. Their lives ended up quite different, Haendel never married, he left Germany for Italy when he was young, and fostered his musical talents in Italy before settling down in England, where he enjoyed great success and lived quite comfortably, one might say. Bach was less the adventurer, more of a church and court musician, he did not venture too far from home, stuck around, married twice and had quite a few kids. Bach's music was more church-oriented, whereas Haendel was, as the program described, "the quintessential enlightenment secularist".
Same century, different day - Saturday, this time ushering on my own, mostly because I wanted to see the musical "1776" at the Lyric Stage Company. As mentioned before numerous time, this is my favorite theater in Boston, small, but beautiful, and every production I have seen here I have liked. Spiro Veloudos, the very jovial producing artistic director, has breathed very fresh air into this venue, and "1776" was an attest to that. It was the highest attended performance in the history of the Lyric, and it was no surprise as to why. This was just fantastic, and I am not saying that because I like musicals. (http://www.lyricstage.com/1776.htm) The play centered around the discussions the Second Congressional Congress had during a particularly nastily humid summer in Philadelphia in 1776. John Adams, brilliant, obnoxious, pushy, yet passionate, aided by the very relaxed Benjamin Franklin (who kept nodding off during the debates....), pushed through the declaration of independence written by a very reluctant Thomas Jefferson. Superb acting, Peter Carey as John Adams, Kevin Ashworth as John Hancock, John King as a brilliant, brilliant Edward Rutledge from South Carolina, so good, JT Tuner as the sometimes narcoleptic Ben Franklin, and of course Terrence O'Malley as Thomas Jefferson, who was just really beautiful to look at. Standing ovation, need I say more?
Cultural event #3 would be this Wednesday - my friend Nesli had alerted me to a concert taking place at Harvard Memorial Church - the Sinikithemba Choir was in town! Sinikithemba, a Zulu word for "we bring hope", is an unusual choir, all members are HIV-positive, and have set as their mission to "speak out through their music.... helping to end the tremendous stigma surrounding HIV infection in Africa". This was a very inspirational event. Performing with two other choirs, The Boston Community Choir, the SANS (Sharing a New Song) choir, and the stunningly talented (and also HIV-positive) blues singer Tim Hobson, this event brought a different vibe into Harvard Mem. At the end everyone was dancing around, and joined the choir up front (myself included) for a rendition of "O Happy Day". What a great evening! (http://sinikithemba.org/sinikithemba/The%20Sinikithemba%20Choir.htm). The event itself was organized by yet another great group, Sibusiso, a nonprofit that was brought to life by Boston area nurses and has made it its mission to improve the lives of HIV-infected and affected in resource-poor areas. (http://www.sibusisopartners.org/).
That brought us back to present times, I actually should quickly sign off as I need to head to the airport, heading to Utah today, to see my friends Rani and Nate get hitched. But not before putting in a couple of words for a couple of artist friends here - first my good friend Pauline Lim, who is extraordinarily multi-talented, so check our her website - www.paulinelim.net , and also my new friend Andrew Anselmo, who has raised Origami to quite the art form (www.flappinbird.com).
Talk to you next week!
Petra
posted by My Boston at
7:54 PM
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