The Brooklyn Museum - Part One

This past weekend my husband and I visited the magnificent 560,000-square-foot Brooklyn Museum, located at 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York. The Brooklyn Museum is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the country. Its world-renowned permanent collections range from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art, and represent a wide range of cultures. (All photos will enlarge if clicked on once and then again when it re-opens on a new page)

The museum is only a 30-minute subway ride from midtown Manhattan, with its own newly renovated subway station located very close to the museum entrance. There is also a paid parking lot next to the adjoining Brooklyn Botanical Garden. You can buy a "Art and Garden Ticket" at the Brooklyn Museum and present your receipt for same-day admission to the garden.

The beautiful Beaux Arts building was opened in 1897 and founded by Augustus Graham. The museum is well-known for its expansive collections of Egyptian and African art, in addition to 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th century paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts. It hosts many special exhibits as well as long term installations.

Here are a few of my favorite paintings from the American Art Collection:

The Brooklyn Bridge - Georgia O'Keeffe

One of the last works that O'Keeffe painted in New York before her permanent relocation to New Mexico in 1949, is considered her farewell to the city where she had lived and worked for many years. The Brooklyn Bridge is near and dear to my heart and O'Keeffe's image has always been one of my favorites.

A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie - Albert Bierstadt

Mt. Rosalie is now called Mt. Evans. Bierstadt established his artistic reputation with "Great Pictures" of the American West. Having visited Colorado many times since my son and his family live there I am always attracted to Rocky Mountain views.

The Peaceable Kingdom - Edward Hicks 

Self-taught artist and Quaker preacher Edward Hicks painted approximately sixty versions of The Peaceable Kingdom.  I have always found the scene of the "lion lying down with a lamb"  a wonderful symbol of peace and redemption.

An Out-of-Doors Study - John Singer Sargent

Sargent painted compelling landscape and figure subjects, including this image of his friend Paul César Helleu and his wife, Alice by plein-air using an Impressionist-inspired technique. The red canoe, grassy shore and painter hard at work while his wife rest nearby reminds me of a beautiful, relaxed summer day.

Niagara -  Louis Rémy Mignot

The view is taken from the American side of the great Horseshoe Falls, facing the Canadian shore. Looking at this painting I felt as if I could hear the water thundering down the side of the cliff and feel its spray on my face! It brought back memories of trips I've taken to Niagara Falls, where I have experiences just such wonderful things.

Bust of Abraham Lincoln -  Augustus Saint-Gaudens

This bronze bust is a replica of the head of a standing Lincoln completed by Saint-Gaudens in 1887 on commission for the City of Chicago's Lincoln Park. Lincoln in 3D is always the best way to appreciate the features of his interesting face.

George Washington. On the left painting by Charles Wilson Peale on the right painting by Gilbert Stuart

The Peale portrait was commissioned by John Hancock of  Washington as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in order to flatter and reward him for liberating Boston from the British in March 1776.
Gilbert Stuart portrayed George Washington several times in this stately, full-length portrait format known as the Grand Manner, and filled the painting with many iconic American details.

The differences in Washington from his somewhat youthful face from the beginning of the American Revolution in 1776, to his aged look during the years of his presidency beginning in 1789 are fascinating to see side by side as the paintings are displayed in the Brooklyn Museum. It seems from the office of our first president, being the president ages a man!

One area of interest in the Brooklyn Museum is the Luce Center for American Art on the 5th Floor. It is a 5,000 square-foot dense display in the Visible Storage and Study Center which offers an inside look at how museums work and provides a glimpse of the breadth and scope of the Brooklyn Museum's extensive American collections. Whereas only about 350 works are on view in the adjacent American Identities exhibition, this facility gives open access to some 2,000 of the many thousands of American objects held in storage, which are now available for viewing and research by students, scholars, and the general public.

Glass display cases contain a selection of archived objects from the American decorative arts collection: pewter, commemorative pressed glass, Tiffany glass and lamps, examples of contemporary industrial design and furniture, silver, eighteenth-century furniture, nineteenth-century seating furniture with original upholstery, and Brooklyn-made ceramics.

It is fascinating to think that as large as the Brooklyn Museum's building is, just a small fraction of the permanent collections can be displayed in its limited exhibition gallery space! To open some of the storage space for a glimpse of it's contents in this way was wonderful to explore.

It was also wonderful to see so many students and artists hard at work copying artwork in the museum and enjoying the galleries.

There is a lot more to show about from Brooklyn Museum and I will be doing a few more posts about it this week. In my next post I'll show the special exhibit we wanted to see at the museum before the show closed.


Linking up to My World Tuesday hosted by Klaus, and the My World team, Ruby Tuesday by Mary's The Work of the Poet blog, Outdoor Wednesday on Susan's blog A Southern Daydreamer and Rednesday on Sue's blog It's A Very Cherry World

Please visit their wonderful blogs next and join in all the fun!

Puccini's La Fanciulla del West at the Met

My husband and I are opera devotees and every season we see at least four operas at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, located at West 65th St. and Broadway, in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.  The Lincoln Center complex, which had its 50th anniversary last year, has embarked upon a major transformation initiative which is now 90% complete, to fully modernize its concert halls and public spaces on its 16-acre urban campus. (All photos will enlarge if clicked on once, and then clicked on again when they open on a new page.)

A view of the new steps leading up to the Josie Robertson Plaza in front of Lincoln Center. Unfortunately, I only had my small pocket camera with me this evening so the quality of my photos were not as sharp as usual. The lights in the steps announced all the ongoing events happening at all the venues in Lincoln Center, and they kept changing patterns very decoratively.

I've shown the new modern black granite Revson Fountain in the center of the plaza many times before on my blog, and if you look under my blog's opera label, especially this post, you can see how the water can be made to dance beautifully in many various heights and formations.

The evening we attended La Fanciulla del West, in early January, the fountain was operating very low, but I took a video of it non-the-less.

The Metropolitan Opera House Christmas tree was still standing in the upper balcony window on the night we were there. 

I always enjoy looking at the costumes on display in glass cases on the orchestra level, and this time there were two costumes designed by Cecil Beaton for the 1966 performances of Verdi's opera La Traviata. This year's season Metropolitan Opera's opening premier gala was La Traviata -- a brand new production directed by Willy Decker, with set design by Wolfgang Gussmann. You can watch some short videos of the new production on this link. Truthfully, I am not a fan of this new ultra modern looking production, and will forever love the lavish Franco Zeffirelli productions I've seen in the past out of sentimentality. 

This evening we attended Giacomo Puccini's La Fanciulla del West - The Golden Girl of the West. - This season's performances marked the 100th anniversary of the opera’s world premier at the Met. 

Although Puccini declared La Fanciulla del West his greatest opera at its premier, it never gained the popularity of his now better know operas of La Boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, or Tuandot, all of which are also personal favorites of mine. I was happy to have seen Puccini's La Fanciulla del West, as now I have seen performances all of his masterly operatic repertoire!

La Faniciulla del West is a three act opera set in a California mining camp during the 1849-50 gold rush. The Metropolitan production we saw starred soprano Deborah Voigt.  Voigt is more renowned for her Wagner and Strauss roles, than Italian roles, but gave a riveting and moving portrayal of Minnie, the owner of the Polka Saloon. Marcello Giordani, tenor, portrayed her love interest Dick Johnson (who was also the disguised bandit Ramerrez). Baritone Lucio Gallo was the jealous sheriff, Jack Rance, who also loved the character Minnie. Nicola Luisotti was the conductor and the set designer was Giancarlo Monaco.

There is an excellent review, including photos and videos of the Met production on the Opera Today website. 

The opera cast's final bows onstage

I found the opera enjoyable, but it was rather long as there were two intermissions of thirty six minutes long to allow for a change in the elaborate set. The highlights in the production for me was in the third and final act when Giordani sang "Ch'ella mi creda e lontano (Let her think I am free and far away)" and the final moments with the lovers walking off to the sunset, singing "Addio, mia California!"

 
I had to smile as it reminded me of the ending of many TV westerns when Dale Evans and Roy Rogers would walk off into the sunset singing "Happy Trails." Puccini was certainly ahead of his time!

PS: We are expecting a foot of snow tonight and it is falling heavily as I type this. I've heard the plow come down my street two times already so I think NYC may function better in this storm than the last. For all those sharing the same storm stay safe and warm! Think Spring!

Linking this post to:

"Outdoor Wednesday" on Susan's blog A Southern Daydreamer

"Rednesday" on Sue's blog It's a Very Cherry World

James Valenti Makes His Debut in La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera!

James Valenti, the handsome and vocally strong young American tenor seen in the photo above from his web site, made his Metropolitan Opera debut last night in the Met's 953 performance of Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata."  I was especially excited to see Mr. Valenti perform the role of Alfredo, because in an unusual "six degrees of separation" experience, I first learned about this native New Jersey tenor through his mother.  She is a reader of my blog, and in December she was nice enough to inform me in an e-mail about her son's upcoming Met debut. She does not have her own blog, and does not usually make comments, but since she knew I was an opera fan, and that I often attended the Metropolitan Opera, she thought I might be interested to attend one of James' performances.

Although our selections of operas for this season were finished, my husband and I were lucky enough to be able to purchase tickets to the opening night of La Traviata, along with tickets for our daughter. This photo was taken last night of us standing in front of the fountain in the Lincoln Center plaza, before we went inside the opera house.

We were also happy to be able to see the beautiful and lavish Franco Zeffirelli La Traviata production one last time, as this is its final season, and next year the new production of La Traviata by Willy Decker will be set in modern times, with modern dress and sparser sets.  Actually, according to the Playbill program that I read last night, Verdi intended La Traviata to be in modern dress, when he wrote it in 1853, so the new production will be an  interesting interpretation to see next year.

As always, I had to stop to look at vintage opera costumes on display in the opera house -- this one was worn by Jerome Hines as Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflote, between 1958 to 1979.

This costume, designed by Mark Chagall, was worn by Lucia Popp in the role of the Queen of the Night, also in Mozart's Die Zauberflote  It was worn between 1967 and 1970.

Looking up at the  opera house's atrium's chandelier's from the Family Circle balcony.

Looking out at the plaza during a very rainy night. New York City has received over eight inches of rain in the past few days!

A close up of the atrium's Swarovski crystal chandeliers.  This could have been a photo of my excited eyes sparkling as I watched the beautiful soprano Angela Gheorghiu portray the young and tragic heroine Violetta.  La Traviata literally translates to "The Fallen One," and is a tale about a young Parisian courtesan who becomes genuinely and passionately loved by Alfredo. Although at first resistant to his attention, as Violetta knows she suffers from a fatal disease and therefore wants to enjoy life and stay free, Violetta finally falls in love for the first time with Alfredo. They go off to live in the countryside, where Alfredo sings of his joy in the aria: "De miei bollenti spiriti – "Wild my dream of ecstasy!"  Mr. Valenti gave a strong and passionate rendidtion of this aria and received a long and thunderous applause from the appreciative Met audience!

Alfredo's father, Giorgio Germont, expertly played by baritone Thomas Hampson, visits them and pleads with Violetta to send Alfredo back home as he has disgraced the family and this will prevent his sister from getting married. A heartbroken Violetta relents and unselfishly writes a farewell note to Alfredo. Before he receives it, a heartbroken Violetta sings: "Amami Alfredo – "Love me, Alfredo."

Of course, as with many Italian operas, love conquers, but the ending is tragic.The entire synopsis of La Traviata can be read on the Metropolitan Opera's web site here.

A view of the Metropolitan Opera house during an intermission.  Our seats were in the Family Circle tier, the highest tier in the house as this opera was destined  to be completely sold out, and since we bought our tickets late, we were happy to sit anywhere!  The acoustics are wonderful in this section, however, and I always bring a small pair of binoculars in order to see the performers better.  The Met has a system where you can read the lyrics of the arias as they are being sung by a device which is situated on the back of the chair rail in front of each seat. Appreciation of the opera is enhanced this way, and I often read along, but La Traviata was the first opera I was introduced to by a high school music teacher who was ardently in love with Violetta and Alfredo, and by the end of our music semester her entire class, especially myself, was equally in love with them.  I have listened to my recording of Beverly Sills singing the role of Violetta so many times over 35 years that I feel I know this opera by heart, and the haunting first violin strains from the orchestra in the prelude never ceases to give me chills of anticipation. 

The conductor was Leonard Statkin, and he admitted to not having conducted La Traviata before in his career on his web site blog. While I thought the orchestra performed up to par last night, The New York Times review of the performance was somewhat scathing in his review of Statkin.

Meanwhile, the New York Times review of James Valenti was this:  "The young American tenor James Valenti had a solid success in his Met debut as Alfredo. He is tall (over 6 feet 5 inches), handsome and physically agile: qualities reflected in his virile and attractive singing. His voice is not huge, but it carries well. He won a rousing ovation."  I was certainly one of those giving him a rousing ovation throughout his performances!

Thoma Hampson, Angela Gheorghiu, James Valenti and Leonard Slatkin taking bows at the conclusion of La Traviata.

It was an exciting opera night and I was thrilled to feel a part of the debut of a rising star in opera!  I wish James Valenti much success in his career and urge you to listen to samples of his past performances in other opera houses around the country, and the world, on his web site at this link, and I'm sure you will also become his fan!

I'm linking this post to "Outdoor Wednesday" at A Southern Daydreamer's blog.  Thanks Susan!

La Boheme, Metropolitan Opera, NYC

On the evening of March 17th. my husband and I went to Lincoln Center in Manhattan to see the 1,216th Metropolitan Opera performance of Giacomo Pucini's La Boheme. (all photos will enlarge when clicked on)

Although it was a slightly hazy evening it was nice to see the opera house in the light again when we arrived,  as the days are getting longer.

A photo mosaic of the beautiful new fountain in the Josie Robertson Plaza in front of the opera house. It is a favorite gathering place for those waiting for friends, or to spend a few minutes chatting before going inside.

Because it was St. Patrick's Day we saw quite a few revelers near Lincoln Center and I couldn't resist taking a photo of this happy fellow wearing a kilt and carrying bagpipes.

Inside the opera house I stopped to admire the current vintage costumes on display. The set above and below were from the opera Carmen.  The Metropolitan Opera had put on a brand new production of Carmen this year, to much critical acclaim.

The General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, Peter Gelb, has been changing many of the productions of favorite operas over the past few years, in an effort to "revitalize opera and connect it to a wider audience," and while we understand his desire to make the Met's productions fresh and modern, my husband and I are particularly fond of all the Franco Zeffirelli productions, and it was one of the reasons we decided to attend La Boeme this season, as we fear it's beautiful and elaborate set and staging will be retired in the near future.  It is also one of our favorite operas, as it is for many, as the tender love story of Mimi and Roldolfo is sentimental, beautiful, and filled with many exquisite arias that never fail to bring a tear to the eye.  If you've never seen an opera before this is the one I'd recommend to be your first. 

Marco Armiliato was the conductor, with soprano Anna Netrebko as Mimi, tenor Piotr Beczala as Rodolfo, and an audience favorite was coloratura soprano Ruth Ann Swenson as Musetta.  The entire synopsis of La Boheme can be read at this link.  As always the opera house responded with a long ovation at the end of this perennial gem.

If I still had music on my blog, this would be the aria from act one of La Boheme that would be playing, “Che gelida manina,” as sung by the dearly missed tenor Lucciano Pavorotti in a 1990 San Francisco production. It is in this scene that the poor poet Roldolfo and his neighbor Mimi first met, and feeling an immediate attraction to her, he tells her of his dreams.  Perhaps you'd like to listen to it for a few minutes?



I'm linking this post to Mosaic Monday on Mary's blog The Little Red House.  Please visit Mary today and see her beautiful spring flower mosaic and visit the links to other blogs participating today.  Thanks, Mary, for hosting this popular event each week!