LINCOLN CENTER

 

Metropolitan Opera

 

Giuseppi Verdi

Don Carlo

 

While I am away performing a healthcare survey in Providence, RI, Carolyn is the guest of two of our dearest friends at tonight's performance at "The Met."


 

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND

A three day trip to Providence, RI to survey an Office Based Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Center.  Riding Amtrak.

MADISON SQUARE PARK

Shake Shack
Burgers & Fries

34 degrees, dry, little wind.  A beautiful winter day.

LINCOLN CENTER

Juilliard
Jazz Orchestra

This was the same venue where we saw and heard Don Pasquale by Donizetti.

THEATER DISTRICT

Studio 54
The Mystery of Edwin Drood

The audience votes at the end of the play for the ending and who the murderer is.  It was written by Charles Dickens, but he died before he finished it.  Therefore, it has no original ending.

BRYANT PARK

Malaysian Festival

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

In Search of True Painting
Matisse

We bought a membership that will allow unlimited free entry and access to the restaurant that overlooks Central Park.

LINCOLN CENTER

Morse Hall
Juilliard

Morse Hall is a smaller, 125 people, recital hall.

Jordan James
French Horn

Juilliard maintains an inventory of 253 Steinway pianos, the largest collection of any institution in the world.

We walked from our apartment to Lincoln Center with dinner along the way.  We rode the subway home and noted this advertisement.  I might go back to school?

LINCOLN CENTER

Stephanie P. McClelland Drama Theater
Juilliard

Pericles
Shakespeare

LINCOLN CENTER

Avery Fisher Hall
New York Phiharmonic

Brahms

Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 83

Piano - Rudolf Buchbinder

 

Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 6, Pathétique

Conductor - Alan Gilbert

              

 

USA MEN'S ICE SKATING TEAM

Find Carolyn skating on the rink and I'll pay you $1,000,000.00!

The Captain of the USA Olympic Men's Ice Skating Team

The USA's best hope in winning an Olympic Gold Medal in the Men's Free Style

The $1,000,000.00 offer is withdrawn.  Carolyn has left the ice.

A pleasant afternoon at Bryant Park.

LINCOLN CENTER

Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Juilliard

Don Pasquale
Donizetti

We've been here over one month and our blog will attest that we've attended some really good and some literally world class musical events.  Tonight, though, was the most exciting evening so far.

The musicians in the orchestra and the singers in the opera were all students at Juilliard.  They were spectacular.

The setting (theater), the singers, and the production never had us say, "They're just students."  It was a wonderful evening.

A FREE DAY!

''Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.''

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832), German poet, dramatist.

My sister, Shella Massey, introduced me to the above phrase.
 

Beautiful day today, 40 degrees, clear and sunny.
 

We first walked to Bond Street No. 9 to get Carolyn's Valentine gift,
 

http://www.bondno9.com/

We then walked to Katz's Deli for a Reuben,
 

http://katzsdelicatessen.com/

 

We then walked home and rode the subway to Juilliard for the violin competition finals at 4:00 PM.

A word about Juilliard music competitions...

We have attended several competitions at Juilliard and have a sense of how they work.  Each of the students plays the same, challenging piece of music in a performance setting with faculty judges sitting in the back of the room.

A competition is not for sissies since Carolyn and I this afternoon heard the full Bartok Violin Concerto No. 2 four separate times. We were there to hear 4 students from 4:00 PM until 7:00 PM.

Here's the way it seems to me.  Let's say I had a world class vineyard cared for by a world class vintner.  I divided the grapes from that vineyard into 4 equal parts.  I then gave the 4 portions of identical grapes to 4 competing winemakers.  Several years later I opened one of the bottles from one of the winemakers and considered it very good.  For the succeeding 3 months I opened one bottle a month from the remaining 3 winemakers.

As I drank the wine in 4 separate settings from the 4 different winemakers, who used the identical grapes, I would probably consider each of the bottles quite good.

However, If I opened a bottle from each of the 4 winemakers at one time and did a side-by-side tasting, most probably, one would stand out as a better bottle of wine, having used the same grapes, because of the talent and skills of the winemaker.

Juilliard places 4 very good, talented musicians side-by-side and, even though they are all good, one of them stands out as exceptional.  That's a Juilliard competition.
 

Today had something for everyone!

BIGGEST LIGHT SHOW ON EARTH!

The top of the Empire State Building is lighted in various combinations of colors with its new LED lighting system.  The colors are vivid and vibrant.  Last night's show, though, was not its static "same old show."  Last night's show was of moving, changing, programmed lights.  I've got to believe it's one of the largest light shows in the world.  It shines in all directions and is high enough to be seen for miles.

Earlier this evening they ran "The Show" again.  Here it is.

WE WENT FOR BAROQUE ON THE UPPER WEST SIDE

The Juilliard Baroque are all faculty members at Juilliard.  "The members of the Juilliard Baroque are virtuoso performers, award-winning recitalists, Grammy-nominated recording artists, soloists, and/or principals with every major international early music ensemble."

The concert was in the Corpus Christi Church which is nestled between Columbia University, Barnard College, Union Theological Seminary, and Riverside Church.  So much to see!

Couperin

Les Nations 

NEW DAY IN THE CITY, NEW CHURCH IN OUR LIVES

Today we get voted into Marble Collegiate Church.

MORE THAN A DUSTING, LESS THAN A DUMP

Intrepid is my name!

At the southern entrance of the park.

Into the snowy woods with frozen ponds.

The Angel of the Waters is cold!

And the 3rd guy in the photographer's line is like the 3rd dog in a dog sled team, his view is the back end of the photographer in front of him.

SNOW BLOW

This morning the blizzard of 2013 began ramping up. Flurries and light rain this morning, blowing snow and dropping temperatures this afternoon.  The "Big Dump" will occur over this evening.

We watched a foreign movie in the morning, Hamlet in the evening, and watched the snow blow around us from 34 floors up into the sky.

And by the way, Kenneth Branagh's video production of Hamlet runs just over 4 hours.  Good, but long.

My goal tomorrow, if able, is to get to Central Park early and get some pictures to share with you. Big adventure!

TICKET TUTORIAL

We're here for a full month now.  There's so much we've learned about so many different things.  We're getting quite good at getting around on the subway.  In fact, we've taken a taxi only one trip and that was because we had to.  We have senior, refillable subway cards that let us ride for $1.15/trip.  That's cheap!

I now want to show a little about tickets and how ticket lines work here.

If you'll notice, the lady has the front of the line literally has portable, lightweight, camping gear.  She is a professional.  Also, you can notice coats on the floor holding people's places in the line.  These people are serious.

This particular line is at Juilliard for an upcoming jazz concert.  The tickets are free, but valuable.

MARBLE COLLEGIATE, 60+, AND BEN VEREEN

 

Today at noon we attended the Marble Collegiate, Wednesday noon, 60+ lunch and program.  Performing was Linda Ipanema and The Dixie Cats.

 

This evening we will return to Marble Collegiate to hear Tony award-winning Ben Vereen, who is a member there, speak on service.

 

Interestingly, several weeks ago Alton Fitzgerald White, who sings the lead role of Mufasa in The Lion King on Broadway, sang at church.

 

Today is going to be a church day. 

UNEXPECTED JOYS!

This is our week of gathering our new group of doctors.  We have 3 days of medical appointments before us just this week.

Our plan today was to ride the subway to Columbia University, eat lunch in the area, and go to my first doctor's appointment

Once on the subway we noticed the advertisement above our heads.

This was a great start for the day!

After a really neat lunch we realized there were two problems.  We were early and it was quite cold and windy.

One block from where we ate we noticed The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.

http://www.stjohndivine.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Saint_John_the_Divine

"The cathedral disputes the title of the largest cathedral and Anglican church and fourth largest Christian church in the world."

"The Great Organ was built by the renowned organ builder E. M. Skinner in 1911. Speaking on fifty inches of wind pressure, it is among the most powerful organs in the world. The Great Organ is currently valued at over eight million U.S. dollars."

It was wonderful!  We went all the way to the choir area right next to the alter where we sat between the left and right banks of pipes.  We were surrounded by sound.

I measured a sustained, reverberated sound of 4 seconds following the release of a note.  The organist later told us that the sound has been measured at 8 seconds!  That's a whole lot of reverberation.

Amazingly, the organist was a student at Juilliard and was one of the artists we heard previously at the Juilliard organ recital at Alice Tully Hall.

Mundane became spectacular!

MARBLE COLLEGIATE CHURCH

Today we begin the process of joining Marble Collegiate Church.

It is three short walking blocks from our apartment and we can see its steeple from our windows.

Marble Collegiate is a very welcoming church, talks about Jesus, is involved in the community, has really wonderful music, sings hymns we know, and has a great preacher.

It has been meeting continuously since 1628, making it the longest serving congregation in North America,

http://www.marblechurch.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Collegiate_Church

We're anxious to join, become involved, and make some new NYC friends.

IT'S OFFICIAL.  WE'RE OFFICIAL!

Today we stood for 2 hours in a "bureaucratic" line as we offically established our residency in New York.  That allowed us to then get our New York Driver's License and register to vote.