Perhaps like bird-watching, or any other passion that may come later in life for some, for Janet Pfeffer, the head volunteer usher for the Avalon’s “Live at the Met” opera simulcast broadcast, her love of opera can late in life. In fact, it only arrived last year.
While she has made her living in education, and plays numerous volunteer leader roles with some of the Mid-Shore’s leading music and singing performing groups, Janet’s discovery of opera was a total surprise to her. In her interview with the Spy, she talks about how it happened that this age-old musical tradition finally started to have special meaning for her.
The next performance will be a love performance of Offenbach’s famed Les Contes d’Hoffman on January 31st at 1pm. Tickets can be purchased online here
We also wanted to share with our readers Janet’s lovely essay on her experience at the Avalon:
A Day at the Opera
Saturday, November 1, 2014 is dank and rainy, a good day to stay indoors and watch a murder. I put on a colorful jacket and scarf, pack an apple and some Halloween leftovers, and show up at the Avalon Theatre at 12:15 pm to usher at The Met: Live in HD performance of the opera Carmen.
We are expecting a good crowd, to see what the Met describes as a “mesmerizing production of Bizet’s steamy melodrama … [with an] irresistible score.”
https://www.metopera.org/metopera/liveinhd/LiveinHD.aspx?nav=top
Suzy Moore, Theater Manager, assigns me the orchestra entrance and I get right to work, preventing bloodshed between two pairs of patrons eager to be first in line when the doors open at 12:30 pm.
My job as usher is to welcome people, rip ticket stubs, hand out the synopsis of the opera, and check that general admission folks know to avoid sitting in the sections reserved for members of the Avalon Producers’ Club or the Metropolitan Opera Guild. As the audience settles in, I close one of the entrance doors to conserve heat. The Avalon is an historic structure with an old heating and cooling system; not unlike the majority of the audience members. Just after 1:00 pm I settle into my special seat right next to the doors. The locking mechanism on the doors is taped to eliminate clicks, but I remain poised to open the door for entering or exiting patrons and then ease it gently back into its closed position.
I know that I’ll be writing a blog about my Carmen experience, and I decide to NOT take notes on the narrative – I will use the synopsis to give some plot highlights – instead, I will look for half-a-dozen aspects of Carmen that excite me. Here we go.
The overture. Carmen begins with a rousing overture. The Met cameras have been showing us the New York audience settling in; they now provide panoramas, group shots, and close-ups of the conductor and orchestra members. A female oboist has several peak moments. Toward the end, the jagged crack in the Met’s huge curtain opens just enough to show a sinuous couple framed in blood-red light doing an acrobatic and erotic dance. Already things are getting steamy.
The appearance of Carmen. When the curtain rises we see soldiers in Seville in drab green uniforms hanging around a gray tobacco factory. The women who climb up out of the factory wear pale tan smocks over white dresses – all except the gypsy Carmen with her waist-long black hair and lacy black dress. Throughout the opera Carmen wears bold colors and uses her layers of clothing to flaunt and seduce. Though she wears long skirts, we see a lot of leg, a lot of thigh. (Plot highlights, Act 1: Carmen throws a red flower at Don José, one of the soldiers, who initially pays no attention. Later, he is supposed to guard Carmen after she’s arrested for fighting with another girl in the factory, and she entices him with suggestions of a rendezvous. Don José lets her escape.)
Spanish dancing. The second act takes place at a tavern where a good amount of spirited flamenco-style dancing takes place. The Met uses professional dancers, and the opera singers are coached to look good in the ensemble. (Plot highlights, Act 2: Carmen rejects the overtures of a bullfighter and continues to tease Don José, who’s spent two months in prison for letting her escape and has now come looking for her. José is jealous and enraged, ends up fighting with his superior officer, and has no choice but to join Carmen and her smuggler friends.)
Intermission and behind-the-scenes. Intermissions last more than 30 minutes; there’s time to stretch, eat, visit with friends, even stroll downtown Easton. Beginning and closing each intermission are special features. A different glamorous opera diva hosts each performance. She conducts interviews with some of the principals – one or two of the major performers, maybe the conductor or the Met manager, sometimes someone with a special role: a stagehand, the animal trainer, the chorus director. Joyce DiDonato, mezzo soprano from Kansas, is our Carmen guide. She is fresh from singing the National Anthem at the last game of the World Series. I admire her short blonde curls, short red dress, and super-wide smile. While I fetch my beverage from the concession on the second floor, she chats with Carmen, played by Anita Rachvelishvili, and then the stage manager.
Joyce DiDonato singing the National Anthem at the last game of the World Series
Fight scenes. The fighting between Carmen and the cigarette girl in Act 1, José and his superior in Act 2, José and the bullfighter in Act 3, and the fight to the death between José and Carmen in Act 4 are choreographed to perfection; at times I close my eyes to not feel their pain. (Plot, Act 3: Set in the smugglers’ mountain hideaway, it’s clear that Carmen’s love for José is fading; she is attracted to the bullfighter. José leaves to be with his dying mother, after being sought out by a peasant girl from his village, whom we met in the first act when she came to deliver to José a letter from Mom. Such a sweet girl, José planned to marry her before his seduction by Carmen.)
The choristers. The Metropolitan Opera is renowned for the quality of its choruses. In the October 2014 production of Macbeth the three witches were represented by a chorus of women and girls, each a distinct character with her own costume and set of mannerisms – each singing, acting, and moving in concert with the others. My favorite choruses in Carmen are the Act 1 women’s chorus play-smoking cigarettes and cooling off from factory work, and the children’s chorus running excitedly back and forth waiting for the bullfight in Act 4. (Plot highlights, Act 4: Outside the bullfight arena, Carmen is with her new man and is not afraid to confront José, who begs her to start a new life with him. She calmly tells him that she was born free and will die free. José is a sore loser; she finally loses her temper, throws his ring at his feet, and he stabs her to death.)
Bravo! Brava! We cheer as the singers take their bows.
Live performances are great; but so much is special about watching Metropolitan Opera performances on the big screen at the Avalon, which I have been doing since October, 2010.
The flow of close-ups, group shots, panoramas throughout the performance helps focus on the story; on the stellar acting and singing; on the elegant or evocative sets and costumes; on the skill of the dancers, swordfighters, acrobats, lovers or seducers; on the engrossing diversity of the chorus members, each adult and child with his or her own characteristics. The behind-the-scenes stagecraft, interviews and commentary before and between acts provide insights and that sense of being an insider.
The Avalon is such a comfortable place to watch The Met: Live in HD. It’s beautiful, not too small, not too big. The sound quality is great, the large screen is visible. Watching at the Avalon, It’s exciting to be part of a huge global audience, and at the same time to be a part of a family of several hundred. Many of us subscribe for half or all of the performances; we have our favorite sections of the theater, often our favorite seats, hence the importance of entering the theater early.
The Avalon is a friendly venue: we are allowed to picnic in the theater. We can purchase soft, hot, or alcoholic drinks and snacks in the Stoltz Listening Room on the second floor. Some of us bring brown bag lunches or snacks; some of us place an order in the lobby with the chef from Bannings, and pick up a sandwich or salad at the first intermission.
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