Britten's War Requiem

Last Wednesday, Nov. 11, it was Remembrance Day, and to commemorate the occasion, the TSO put on a performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requium (Op. 66). It's a piece for full orchestra, chorus, children's choir, and vocal soloists (soprano, tenor and baritone). To give you an idea of the epicness of the performance, here's a picture I snuck of the stage:



The orchestra is, of course, on the stage, the adult choir is on the first balcony, and the children's choir is on the second balcony in the red robes. It's difficult to see, but there were two percussion sections, and the pipe organ was also used.

The piece itself was quite moving. Inspired by the requiem mass, it has seven movements: Requiem aeternam, Dies irae, Offertorium, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and Libera me. (To tell you the truth, I was thinking about Liva, a Latin metal band, the whole time.) The lyrics are a mixture of texts from the Latin Mass for the Dead and poetry by Wilfred Owen, a poet who died in WWI at the age of 25. The soprano and choir performed the mass texts, while the tenor and baritone, representing an English and a German soldier respecitvely, sang Owen's poems. The children's choir and the organ were supposed to be "offering disembodied commentary on the proceedings" (according to Don Anderson).

I found the performance to be rather visceral. Frequently, I had a shiver go up my spine. At times it was verging on almost too chaotic, but this did well to convey the terribleness that is war. I quite enjoyed myself (even though I had to take a bathroom break and missed the third movement), and I left with an unsettled feeling in my stomach. It was good.

A more or less (but mostly less) productive weekend

Yesterday, I made a shopping trip at the Yonge-Eglinton Centre where I picked up some kitchen supplies at Kitchen Stuff Plus (I love that store!) and a few balls of cheap acrylic yarn at Mary Maxim (since Romni doesn't sell anything either cheap or acrylic).

That evening, the man and I went to the TSO where they played Ravel's Alborada del gracioso and his Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major, as well as Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op. 100. The soloist was Louis Lortie and the conductor was Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The performance was absolutely thrilling. Nothing beats live orchestral music... We were sitting in cheap seats behind the orchestra, which wasn't so bad because we could see all of the conductor's facial expressions, and besides being a little brass-heavy, the balance was ok.

Today I started and finished crocheting a quebecois beer cozy for my boyfriend. It is loosely based on that pirate can cozy I talked about in a previous post, except I had to invent a fleur-de-lis applique pattern and switch up the colours a bit to be more... erm... patriotic. It turned out pretty well (though the applique could probably have been better, but I'm lazy) and the man loves it. A picture and pattern will likely come later. I think he's really missing la belle province, and it's nice to have reminders of home. His Christmas present was a Quebec care package, and he was super happy.

Speaking of beer cozies, the eyes of the pirate beer cozy were starting to fall off (stupid french knots) so I decided to try my hand at beading, and this was the result:



I think it's ok, though the mouth is kind of funky. It's my first time doing beading on fabric, so I guess it turned out alright for a beginner's attempt.

Finally (maybe), I started making a sleep mask for the man (gosh I'm a good girlfriend) from this pattern, altering it so that it's much less girly. I'm going to knit one layer of black and one layer of blue, and possibly put some fabric between these and then crochet them together with blue. The blue yarn I'm using is the leftover stuff from the quebecois cozy. It's Patons Astra in Electric Blue and it's very soft. I'm also doing it in stockinette stitch instead of garter stitch.

So, overall, I've been pretty productive, though probably not in the right areas of my life. I'm supposed to write an abstract for a poster representing my research by Tuesday, and there's this big pile of essays on my desk, just waiting to be marked...