Vortices of Extelligence

Enjoy the silence...

Some of you may have noticed the - should we say, thinning out - of the entries in this blog in the past month or so. It's not that there's nothing happening that seems worth blogging about, it's just that the most important things going on in my life are things that I will definitely *not* blog about, and the rest - well, suddenly the rest does not seem worth blogging about...

So, no, this blog is not dead - not quite yet. However, bear with me for a while, while I still post only occassional entries, like the Otello one just now, or just enjoy the silence for a while. And to steal a closing line, "we will be restoring normality just as soon as we are sure what is normal anyway. Thank you."

The Moor at the Opera

At a practically last-minute tip-off from a friend, I went to see Otello[1] at the National Opera and Ballet - Sofia yesterday. It was great. No, it was amazing!

Part of the reason I went was to see (and hear, most definitely hear!) Radostina Nikolaeva as Desdemona[2] and Niko Isakov as Iago, both mentioned here already for their performance in Carmen some time ago. It turned out that the lead singer - Kostadin Andreev as Otello - was not half bad either ;) The love duet with Desdemona in Act I, the "by the dark, murderous sea" duet with Iago in Act II, the "swear and damn yourself" lovers' quarrel in Act III, the death scene in Act IV... all those definitely struck a chord in more than one soul in the audience. And then, of course, Iago's "cruel God", Desdemona's "Willow"... I don't know, I'm just lost for words - you had to be there!

All in all, these four hours seem to have been the most worthwhile four hours of this week; thanks, Tony, for the tip-off!

[1] And for the benefit of our English-speaking readers, no, this is not a typo - although Shakespeare's drama is called Othello, Giuseppe Verdi was Italian, and Italian was pretty much the official language of the opera at the time and ever since, so Otello it is.

[2] Unfortunately, the National Opera's gallery does not have photos from Otello performances, so those are still from Carmen and others.

Winding down

Updated: (see bottom)

Oh, hhe holiday season... And for our foreign readers, no, this does not just mean Christmas and New Year, but all the rest associated therewith, like:

• the company's Xmas party;
• other companies' Xmas parties;
• name day celebrations for namesakes of the about 30 saints celebrated at or near Christmas time, and in the first couple of weeks of the year.

And then, of course, there are the birthdays. Isn't it fun when you realize that not only have you just survived the last couple of weeks of December, but in the first three weeks of the new year there are seven birthday parties that you wouldn't miss for the world? As Iva said, "some mornings I wake up and my head hurts, just out of habit"...

Thankfully, things *are* winding down - and then there comes the finals session at the University :)

Oh, and you know what? FrozenBubble is addictive...