Back to “The Egg,” 4/11/14

We’re excited about today!  We’re going to the NCPA (National Center for the Performing Arts), or “The Egg”, for a performance of Verdi’s “La Traviata.”  It was organized by Judy’s principal at BISS, Kyra. There are six of us attending.  They’ve arranged two cars with drivers, and a fancy meal before the show, so it’s going to be fun.

I hurry home after my classes at BHSFIC, change clothes, and taxi to BISS.  We leave BISS at 4:00 pm, in our cars, travelling to the Raffles Hotel, one of the “Grand Hotels” in Beijing.  Traffic is heavy as we head into the center of Beijing.  The hotel is an experience unto itself.  The “High Tea” is still being served.  Check out the picture below.  I tried the pasta myself, but everyone else went with the tea.

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“High Tea” at the Raffles Hotel in Beijing. L to R: Dani (secondary principal, Australian), Kyra (US), Arvis (Kyra’s husband, Latvian). not pictured: Antony (curriculum, Greece)

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This dress was on display at the Raffles, along with several others as part of a display by the designer.

After dinner, the drivers picked us up and dropped us at “The Egg”.  Our seats are really on the 10th row, center section, and we can hear and see very well.  The orchestra is tremendous, much better than the orchestra for “Swan Lake” we attended in January.  The singers are really good.  They’re singing the Italian, and a translation is projected overhead in English, and on the sides in Chinese.

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The set was a technical wonder and had us talking during each intermission about how and why it was done.  There was a tilted scrim at the back of the stage.  The floor was covered with matte paintings that were pulled off the stage as the scene changed.  There was a camera above the floor, and the camera view of the floor was rear-projected onto the scrim from the back, to serve as the backdrop.  For me, it was confusing because as the stage filled with singers, we were viewing them from the front (as usual), and also a top view of them walking around was projected onto the back.  There’s probably no way this description make sense.  Even sitting in the hall, it took us some time to figure out how they were doing it.

The most serious problem occurred during the finale when the camera and scrim were tilted to include the pit orchestra, and then the audience.  It didn’t take long before people were waving at themselves and taking pictures, which were of course, flashing right back into all our eyes.  The musical moment at the end was lost because of all the visual distraction.   Even with that, it was a fun evening, and we came away visually and musically stimulated.

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This is during the bows at the end of the show. Behind the performers you can see the scrim with the projection showing the back of the performers, the orchestra, and then the audience. The lights are from camera flashes.

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