After going to the Ring Cycle last year, I'm no longer afraid of going to a concert of arias in a language I don't understand, and for some reason (slow sales, presumably), QPAC emailed a few weeks ago offering cheap but good seats ($59!) in the concert hall for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra's "Handel's House". I went (with my wife) last night.
I've a soft spot for Handel, and baroque music generally, which, now that I think of it, may be partly due to Lurch playing the harpsichord in The Addam's Family!
While being vaguely aware of the ABO, I've never seen them before, and they were great. The concert featured a guest Japanese soprano singing Handel arias I was unfamiliar with, but her voice was pure and she looked lovely. I went to the concert with modest expectations, but it was better than expected.
The arias were broken up with other pieces, included a Vivaldi concerto and one a violinist/composer I never heard of before - Pisendel. I see that he was a contemporary of Handel, Bach and Vivaldi, and his violin concerto last night was lively and immediately likeable.
Should I mention the guy one seat away from me who was continually using his phone during the first half? Sure, he had the light on (probably) as low as possible, but I could see he was actually texting in the middle of the concert. Then would stop. Then a few minutes later turn the phone on again. And he was in about mid 30's - absolutely old enough not to have the fried attention span of every single person under the age of 30. The problem for me is, once noticing the fidgeting fingers out of the corner of my eye, it was impossible to stop noticing it.
Anyway, it was dealt with by an usher in the second half. I managed to get my way without any direct confrontation. Yay.
But back to the concert. I see now that it has already played in Sydney and got good reviews, so my musically uneducated gut reaction was pretty accurate. Yay, again.
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