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Tonight David and I had dinner at one of our favorite places in Hyde Park, The Lake Shore Cafe, just off Lake Shore Drive.
In addition to a great open buffet, complete with a large salad bar and lots of desserts, they offer Dixieland Jazz.
We've been there several times. The band is JJ and the Jazz Masters. JJ is 84 years old and plays the drums. It's great to watch him smiling as he drums away. There is also a Sax player, a bass, a pianist and a terrific Vibraphone player. Tonight we also had Gina Gibson, a very good jazz singer.
My friend from years ago, Rita Avram, used to call this kind of jazz 'two-beat', which it really is. These guys know how to improvise around any tune and Gina can match them with her vocal ad libs.
In 1950, when John and I were first in New York City, we used to go down to Nick's in Sheridan Square to hear Phil Napoleon and his band. One time, on my 21st birthday, one of our friends got them to play Happy Birthday to me in two-beat. It was a great night.
So was tonight. We'll go again, I'm sure.
I'm back in Chicago for the winter months except for January when we will be in Albuquerque.
Saturday David and I attended an interview with Trevor Noah of the Daily Show. We both enjoy watching this program. I especially enjoy seeing it in Chicago since it airs at 10:00 pm rather than 11:00 as it does in the East.
Trevor is a very bright, witty young man who has written a book about his growing up in apparteid South Africa with a black mother and a white father.
This was a part of a book tour he is making throughout the country. He had many amusing and wise things to say about our recent disastrous election, comparing it to politics in South Africa. An interesting afternoon.
Last night we saw King Charles III by Mike Bartlett at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. This play was written, rather oddly, in iambic pentameter and concerns a plot by the real William and Kate to get the Prince of Wales to abdicate in their favor after the death of Queen Elizabeth.
I doubt very much that Her Majesty was amused!
It is difficult to accept a contemporary play about real persons that is written in blank verse with the odd rhyme at the end of an important speech. For one thing we have seen and read about these people for years and this distorted image of them did not ring true.
Possibly behind the scenes this sort of plot is being hatched. I have heard rumors that many in Britain would prefer to skip over Charles in favor of William but I don't think the Government is actually planning to follow this procedure.
The large cast was headed by Robert Bathurst as King Charles III, Kate Skinner as Camilla, Jordan Dean as William, Amanda Drinkall as Catherine, and Alec Manley Wilson as Harry.
The last contemporary play I saw that was in blank verse was The Lady's Not For Burning, by Christopher Fry in 1950. It had a Medieval setting about a witch and starred Richard Burton and Claire Bloom. Fry was a much better poet! I also put on The Coming of Christ by John Masefield (blank verse) with music by Gustave Holst at the Red Bank, NJ Methodist Church in 1958. Also a better poet.
Last evening David and I saw the production of Madama Butterfly that was staged by the Berkshire Opera Festival. This is a new group that is attempting to fill the void left when Berkshire Opera closed its doors some years back.
This was opening night for their first season and played to a full house. I have seen Madama Butterfly a number of times and this was the oddest set and stage direction yet. The very large stage at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield was back by a scrim with a platform in front of it and a large circular object from behind which singers made exits and entrances. Otherwise the stage didn't have much on it. This arrangement meant that a lot of the singing had be from the rear of the stage.
Often when singing major arias the singers stood at the front of the stage and faced the audience, sort of like a concert version of the opera.
Inna Los
The cast had many splendid singers. Inna Los was Cio-Cio-San. She has a sizable voice with a good top and is a very good actress. For some reason in Act I everyone was dressed in Japanese attire appropriate to the period of the composition of the opera (Early 20th century). Then in Acts II and III, Cio-Cio-San appeared in a modern gray suit. This was to emphasize her attempt to seem more 'American' but shook up the time frame. I doubt that this story, which may be based on fact, works in a contemporary setting.
Jason Slayden
Jason Slaydon was B.F. Pinkerton. He has a resounding tenor voice with the requisite range for the role but his voice needs a bit more polish to gain international repute.
Sarah Larsen
Sarah Larson sang the part of Suzuki. Again a large voice but she needs to find the bottom of her range which was weak. She was at the best in Act III.
Weston Hurt
Two of the best voices last night belonged to Weston Hurt as Sharpless and Eduardo Valdes as Goro. Both had rich strong voices and sang and acted wonderfully. Bravi!
Eduardo Valdes
The rest of the cast included John Cheek (formerly at the Met and a resident of Great Barrington) as the Bonze, Benjamin Taylor, a very good baritone as Prince Yamadori, and Katherine Maysek in the ungrateful role of Kate Pinkerton.
The conductor was Brian Garman and the stage director was Jonathon Loy. A good orchestra was in the pit.
Some of the stage direction was lacking in sensible movement in that the singers had to cope with this odd set. Acts II and III were done without pause. Since there was nothing to indicate the walls of Butterfly's house, Shoji screens were wheeled on and off stage from time to time. At the end of Act II Suzuki wheeled one to the front of the stage for Butterfly, herself, and Sorrow to peer through to look for the arrival of Pinkerton. Usually Butterfly pokes holes in the material to look out. In this case the material was apparently un-pokeable so they were standing, with their backs to the audience looking at beige material of some un-pokeable kind, all through the humming chorus and the prelude to Act III. It looked odd. David said 'What are they supposed to be doing?' They were actually looking back into what had just been the living room of the house.
At the end Butterfly kills herself while standing on the platform at the rear of the stage with her back to the audience. When Pinkerton rushes in from behind the large circular set piece, He merely stood in place, unable to get across the religious statue that was in the middle of the platform to reach her. Not very dramatic.
The strangest production of this opera I ever saw was in Paris at the Salle Garnier. Lorraine made her Paris début in this room with Les Arts Florissants and I attended that performance as well.
In that production life-sized puppets doubled the actions of some of the singers and Butterfly arrived on stage in what appeared to be an enormous pie dish with the material forming what would have been the crust coming up to her neck. Oh well!
