Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

A little night music.

Sunday, Jan. 29, 2006
11:55 a.m.
You�re probably all dying to know how the symphony was last night. The letters and cards just won�t stop pouring in with that very question. So I shan�t keep you in suspense any longer but shall let spill out from the tip of my virtual quill all the news that�s fit to type.

First, it was one of those afternoon/evenings when my husband and I were called upon to provide taxi service to our wee bairns who, for reasons unknown to us, refuse to learn how to drive, putting us in the uncomfortable position of either playing bus driver or being terrible parents who curtail their children�s social lives by forcing them to stay home. As it were, my daughter needed a ride to a friend�s place (thankfully in town) before supper, and my son needed a ride to his rendezvous spot (unfortunately out of town) so he could attend a dance. I actually had to pick my daughter up when we got home near midnight from the place where I had dropped her.

Anyway, this meant we were rushed. We promised to take one of our exchange students from Mexico to the concert and had to pick him up at 7:15. As it was, Hubby passed by the university at 7:10 from dropping off Buddy Boy, thinking that the young man might already be waiting, but he was not, so he came home to get me. What actually happened was that the young Mexican saw Hubby�s car from a distance and ran like the wind to catch him, but dropped a glove, and in the time it took him to retrieve it (shades of Atlanta�s golden apples, folks), Hubby was gone. So he, thinking he had missed his ride, called a cab which arrived at the same time we did. All was mended (the cabbie was remunerated for his trouble) and we proceeded on to the salle culturelle where a sign was posted over the guichet: Desol�! Salle complet which roughly translates as �Sorry, sold out�.

Oh dear! What was to be done? Our little Mexican did not have a ticket for the show and was dearly looking forward to it. As it turns out, I saw in the distance a man (Vlad�s husband, actually) who teaches at the local private school with an envelope of tickets. He had brought a group of students with him, except that two had pooped out and he had two extra tickets, one of which he was more than willing to sell to our exchange student. Hurrah! With all right with the world, we found our seats and settled down for an evening of Mozart.

Well, this is Mozart�s 250th birthday year (Friday was the actual anniversary) and of course musical organizations everywhere in the western world are going to be using this as an excuse to programme the master�s works. Our own OSS is no different. We were looking forward to a couple of symphonies, perhaps a concerto or two, but what we were given instead was one of these animated shows which I thoroughly despise.

The concert was hosted by an actor in period costume and a wig pretending to be W.A. himself. He talked about his life, from his precocious childhood through to the tragic death of his daughter Theresa, and then his own demise. It was sprinkled with humour (as in him saying that if he were alive today, he would be composing rock music, film scores, etc.) but the whole monologue was in French and I zoned out quite a bit, as did my husband, whose French is worse than mine. The orchestra played two opera overtures (Don Gi0vanni and La CIemenza de Tit0), three movements from two different symphonies (�Jupiter� allegro vivace and �Haffner� andante and presto), a movement from four different concerti (K. 417 for horn, K. 622 for clarinet, K. 299 for flute and harp, and K. 467 for piano), the opening movement of Eine kIeine Nachtmusik, two movements from the Requiem and the Ave verum corpus. The soloists are all orchestra regulars and the choir was the ensemble vocal from our sister university.

The order of the programme was quite different from how I have listed it, but the choral works ended it for logistical reasons. It was a disappointment. I would rather hear one work played well in its entirety than an evening of a smattering of pieces. The actor, I thought, was a totally superfluous touch, but of course the francophone audience here just eats that kind of thing up. The anglophones I talked to found it rather disturbing, but then it could be because we feel just a tad �left out� linguistically. Anyway, after the music was all over we adjourned to the lobby for the after-concert reception, which is always fun.

I found out from the horn player (and the flute player his wife) that they have been going for the past four years to the same hotel in Cuba that we are visiting this March break, and they absolutely love it. This has reassured both of us, since we really didn�t know what we were getting into. I found out from my retired Barbadian friend who plays the stock market for �fun� that he had a good year last year, pulling in $90,000. A good year? That�s more than most people I know earn! Sheesh!

Anyway, if I can convince my dearest daughter to do so, we are going skating in five minutes. Otherwise I�m on my own again, I guess.

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