Readers, Welcome to my blog (formerly Birds, Blooms, Books, etc). I'm entering a new decade taking on the challenge of moving from Maryland after living there 46 years and learning about my new home here in New England in the Live Free or Die state - New Hampshire. Join me as a write this new chapter of my life.

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

A 2 Cultural Events Weekend

 Saturday night we attended a performance of Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers and Sunday afternoon it was the Ballet "Tangled".

The first was a production by Upper Valley Baroque Chamber Choir which involved contracting with soloists and instrumentalists. To reduce the cost we were one of many asked to host.  We had one of the theorbo instrumentalists as our house guest from Thursday through Saturday night. 


See the two really long necked lutes below? Our guest, Michael is on the right. He travels the world playing plucked instruments but lives in Syracuse, NY because his wife is a professor at the business school.


The vespers are in 13 parts, all in latin and quite easy to listen to. It was apparent that a lot of work went into this production.  The church was filled to capacity.
Above photos taken at end of intermission as instruments were tuning to start again.

Sunday afternoon was the ballet that granddaughters were performing in.

The Plainfield Town Hall has a gorgeous backdrop painted my Maxfield Parrish in 1910 or so.


It was the perfect setting for the ballet.

First up the flowers.



Then the bunnies (note the 3 boys in this class).


Rapunzel and her friend the chameleon in the tower.


Birds.  Granddaughter #1 was one of these.


Peasant girls, granddaughter #2 was one of them.


More of the teens can be seen on the cover.  One day the granddaughters may be one of these stars.


The last time the ballet school did Tangled the girl on the left, above was one of the flowers.

A very nice but busy weekend.








6 comments:

Tom said...

...a classy way to send a weekend.

David M. Gascoigne, said...

What a great idea to have the musicians as house guests. I would have leaped at the chance. What interesting conversations I am sure you had.

~Lavender Dreamer~ said...

How marvelous! Sounds so wonderful and different from what we did over the weekend! Enjoy your week!

Barbara Rogers said...

I wonder how differently the long neck lute sounds compared to short necked.

Anvilcloud said...

That was a pretty cultural weekend.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Your weekend sounded wonderful, Marcia, and how nice to have hosted one of the musicians too. I have never seen or heard a long necked lute, but what an experience it must have been for you. When you mentioned the Plainfield Town Hall, it made me recall my hometown, which was Plainfield, NJ. That Maxfield Parrish backdrop looks wonderful especially considering its age. The young performers must have also been enjoyable to see, especially your granddaughters.