How I spent my New Years
Jan. 1st, 2006 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariOther Kenjari and I had a quiet, low-key, yet very enjoyable New Years Eve. First, we had an excellent dinner at The Fireplace in Brookline. It's a wonderful restaurant - nice atmosphere and terrific food.
Then we went home through a very pretty snowfall, where we watched the DVD of Puccini's Tosca that I'd gotten for Christmas. Wow is it good. Tosca is a very good opera - the music if good and the plot is just right for a late 19th century Italian opera (love! jealousy! murder! intrigue! suicide!). Raina Kabaivanska, Placido Domingo, and Sherrill Milnes sing the principal roles, and they are all amazing. Milnes is delightfully evil as Scarpia. And Placido Domingo sure can sing. And Kabaivanska is great. I wonder why I've never heard of her before, because she is wonderful. This version of Tosca is not a film of a live production. Instead, it was shot on location at the real locations referenced in the libretto. That and the good costumes make it a very visually attractive film. Even if you're not particularly into opera, I would highly recommend this film. The only thing people unfamiliar with opera might find a little off-putting is that the singers make use of the large, almost exaggerated gestures necessary for live performance at an opera house. But the singing is amazing.
Today we went out to see Brokeback Mountain. It's a beautiful movie, and if it doesn't get major Oscar nominations, I'm going to think that the Academy is asleep at the wheel. Heath Ledger is incredible - he doesn't even really look like himself - he looks like Ennis Del Mar. The cinematography is gorgeous, and the direction is wonderful. I have to say that one of the things I like about Brokeback Mountain is that it's not really a movie about being gay, it's a movie about a relationship between two people who love each other but can't be together. It's a love story, and a damn good one.
Then we went home through a very pretty snowfall, where we watched the DVD of Puccini's Tosca that I'd gotten for Christmas. Wow is it good. Tosca is a very good opera - the music if good and the plot is just right for a late 19th century Italian opera (love! jealousy! murder! intrigue! suicide!). Raina Kabaivanska, Placido Domingo, and Sherrill Milnes sing the principal roles, and they are all amazing. Milnes is delightfully evil as Scarpia. And Placido Domingo sure can sing. And Kabaivanska is great. I wonder why I've never heard of her before, because she is wonderful. This version of Tosca is not a film of a live production. Instead, it was shot on location at the real locations referenced in the libretto. That and the good costumes make it a very visually attractive film. Even if you're not particularly into opera, I would highly recommend this film. The only thing people unfamiliar with opera might find a little off-putting is that the singers make use of the large, almost exaggerated gestures necessary for live performance at an opera house. But the singing is amazing.
Today we went out to see Brokeback Mountain. It's a beautiful movie, and if it doesn't get major Oscar nominations, I'm going to think that the Academy is asleep at the wheel. Heath Ledger is incredible - he doesn't even really look like himself - he looks like Ennis Del Mar. The cinematography is gorgeous, and the direction is wonderful. I have to say that one of the things I like about Brokeback Mountain is that it's not really a movie about being gay, it's a movie about a relationship between two people who love each other but can't be together. It's a love story, and a damn good one.
