2020

Upcoming Travel Series: Silk Road 2020

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Based on last month’s post of Vladivostok, Russia, I have decided to create a new series based on my earlier world travels. Since 2014, I have traveled every summer around the world, ranging in time from 60-80 days. They were glorious events, going in either direction eastward or westwards in one direction from San Francisco and back.

You can read the summaries of each year’s trips in the header tabs above. But for this curated series, I plan to repost selected travels following the Old Silk Road. These travels were not necessarily taken within one year or in successive order. For instance, trips to Iran and Uzbekistan were taken separately, but I will piece the links together for you in a logical travel path.

Here’s a preview video of the first post on Mongolia (theoretically an extension of the traditional Silk Road). Refer to the second map below.

I am hoping that you will savor and enjoy the seldom-traveled UNESCO World Heritage spots that I pursued independently. Some trips were arranged through a travel company but were always personalized with no other participants. My husband and I traveled together, or sometimes I traveled alone. All trips were more than safe, fascinating and laden with a lifetime of memories and educational value.

For those new to my blog, I focus on architecture, planning, interior design professionally, and culturally on anthropology, art history, and a healthy dose (sometimes obsessively when available) on opera and music. Europe and Asia have been my primary destinations, but the areas that glue these two continents together have been the anchors for my recent travels.

I hope you will enjoy the revisits and hopefully they will feel as immediate as the original posts. Please let me know your thoughts, and I hope the reposts will be fresh and inspiring for your future travels–whether real time or or in your imagination!

Look for future posts on Mongolia, China, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Turkey, with a few side trips to the Caucasus, Morocco, and Germany!! I plan to post every week or two by early Sunday, PST (Pacific Standard Time). Below are a selection of Silk Road Maps from various points in time for dreaming, the start of any trip….

This map starts in Beijing and transcends the traditional route through Samarkand and Bukhara in today’s Uzbekistan.
This one shows the same route, with the extension from Karakorum in Mongolia (the capital of Genghis Khan’s empire, to Isfahan and Tehran in Iran
In this version, the western edges of the Silk Road are displayed, with multiple routes through S. Russia, the Caucasus to Greece and from Samarkand to Turkey
2020

“Fear Dims Even the Sunlight”

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—John Howard Griffin, from Black Like Me

It’s been a dark and unsettling couple of weeks. I wanted to express my feelings but needed some time to think more about the events generated by the murder of George Floyd and the widespread protests about racism throughout the world.

Talking about Race

Today, the National Museum of African American History provided me with guidance and support. In its web portal, “Talking about Race”, it gives a helpful suggestion: start by reflecting on what race means to you. I thought back to what I read in high school, and a book that shook me into awareness. Black Like Me by John Griffin was a powerful account of a journalist who posed as an African American and wrote about his experience.

While the book may be dated now, it was an anchor in my first remembrance of the existence of racism. It effectively raised the disparity between black and white America. Empathy can be an important bridge to understanding what it is like to walk a mile in another person’s shoes. In some ways, the book was more genuine and heartfelt than assertions from those who have immediately jumped on the bandwagon today.

Nevertheless, I am more encouraged by the worldwide movement. From middle America to London, Paris and Hamburg, major anti-racist protests taken place. It has helped me to validate what I have experienced in traveling throughout the world.

“Talking about Race” on the NMAAHC website is below:

https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race#

It’s important to share thoughts about recent events with friends and family in a safe and trusting environment. Like politics, racism is a deep and complicated topic, and there are no-fly zones with those who clearly do not share the same views. Here are a couple of other timely pieces forwarded from my daughters: a long article by James Baldwin in the New Yorker (Note: you may need a subscription to the New Yorker to access the article):

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/11/17/letter-from-a-region-in-my-mind

and a long conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates on why he is hopeful below:

https://www.vox.com/2020/6/5/21279530/ta-nehisi-coates-ezra-klein-show-george-floyd-police-brutality-trump-biden

While these sources may only provide limited views, they helped me to understand how Black lives Matter. Kaepernick was one of my heros since he took his knee nearly four years ago against police brutality. Since then, he has been busy training Black students at Know your Rights camps and committed to raising awareness. You can see the press release below of that eventful day:

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/06/04/why-did-colin-kaepernick-take-a-knee-the-lasting-legacy-of-protest/

I was heartened by the world response to raising racial issues to help make the world more accountable and responsive. Let’s hope we can solve both our social problems successfully in conjunction with the COVID epidemic.

Eighty Days around the House

Instead of eighty days around the world, it looks like eighty days around the house this year! Have you noticed that the light quality coming through each window is different during various times of the day? If not, you must not have windows that face each cardinal direction. Take a moment and look out each window.

Everyone seems to be posting retrospectives and looking back in time during the pandemic. It’s motivating me to go through the many past trips that I could share. Even if they aren’t real time, you might find them interesting. I guess I will have to change my tag line from “real time” to “virtual”.

Look for videos and posts from Uzbekistan (2014); Northwest China (2014); Macchu Picchu (2017); Easter Island (2017); Iran (2018), and the Caucasus (2019). And by all means, let me know if you have any requests.

2020

Russian Odyssey

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The Corona Virus and its Shelter in Place requirements in California have kept me on my toes creatively, to plan each day at a time and to fill it with learning and entertainment. For one of my favorite activities, I combine both opera streaming with sketching..

The daily operas presented by the New York Metropolitan Opera (go to metopera.org) provide an anchor, so in addition to listening to wonderful music, I can study and record performers’ faces that hold long enough for a sketch. In the case of opera, it’s pretty easy once they launch into a famous aria. But I can’t say that I can follow the story at the same time!


  • Pagliacci et al
  • Opera Couplets
  • Turandot’s Calaf, Timur and Liu
  • Turandot’s Ping, Pang and Pong
    urandot

In addition to opera sketching, there are plenty of live zoom sketching events. I follow those sponsored by SF Sketchers, so we have sketched each other from our homes using 3, 5 and 8 minute sketches. Down and dirty, but lots of fun and we engage.

In another sketching event yesterday, we took a gondola tour of Venice and stopped along the way to sketch at a couple of spots. It triggered fond memories of traveling. I had already reduced my plans to travel this year and had made no bookings for the summer. Since all international travel is off the books for now, I wasn’t stranded with cancellations.

Nevertheless, it’s still disappointing to realize that there is no end in sight to being able to visit different parts of the world in the foreseeable future. In lieu of travel I have reduced my carbon footprint by traveling via books. Currently I am reading “Sasha’s Dance”, a cultural history of Russia, in conjunction with “Anna Karenina”, a Tolstoy masterpiece. They are wonderful to read together by weaving both front and back stories.

After having nostalgic thoughts about Russia, I went back to watch a video I made of Vladivostok. These videos remind me of the the coastal city’s austerity. The video below is the quick version.

For those of you interested in the long version, I am reposting what I wrote on Day 59 on Vladivostok. It was part of my 80-day world trip in 2016. For this portion, we traveled from Beijing to Vladivostok via the Trans-Siberian Express eastwards to the coast, then flew from Vladivostok to Tokyo. Look on the next post.

P.S. In the image featured above, I did the “everything” activity yesterday, by combining food and opera on a blustery Saturday evening. I made handmade chicken and spinach pasta with homemade pasta sauce, then plopped down to enjoy “L’Elixir d’Amore with Pretty Yende, Michael Polenzani and a glass of wine. Wish you were here!

2016

A REPOST FROM 2016 WORLD TRAVELS: Day 59: Vladivostok, Russia

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Here are some first views of Vladivostok coming from the north by train on arrival at sunset the night before:

Dinner at Three Brothers across from the hotel, complete with live American jazz music for $30 for both of us with wine

Evening Entertainment: Portugal vs. Wales with Rinaldo scoring 1 of 2 goals

IMG_4475

If you were visiting Vladivostok for the first time like we were, you could start an early morning walk at the Friday morning Central food market:

You can take a minibus to the new Mariinskiy Opera and Ballet Theatre. It is hosting the first International Piano Competition at the end of this month. I predict that it will be a great draw for concerts, ballet and opera in the future. You might consider taking a trip to attend this magnificent new venue and the emerging new productions and stars that will perform here!

After that, you can catch a bus back to the city and stop at the Lookout Point over the new Golden Bridge completed in 2012. Does the design look familiar to you?

IMG_4541

Later in the day, get your cultural brains in gear and visit the Primorie Art Gallery. When we attended, it was showing an exhibition of Russian Art from 1700-1900. We were intrigued with the very personal touches of each painting, that may have reflected or imitated more famous Western paintings of the same era. Sargent, Picasso, and Matisse came to mind.

There were also a number of startling paintings that represented new subjects seldom seen in paintings of the same era. Chinese or Muslim figures were represented in historical settings that required more context and explanation. Unfortunately, all paintings were titled in Russian or limited English.

At the end of the day, kick back and have dinner at the Three Brothers for evening meal. This was our return visit from the night before. The outdoor dining was perfect for the cool balmy weather of Vladivostok. The city is very similar to San Francisco, with hills, coastal fog, city views everywhere, and a lively ambience. We’re in love with this city of 2 Million!! This city is destined to be a big tourist destination in the next 10 years, so come soon.

2020

MOM AND APPLE PIE

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Restricted in traveling this year, I have been focusing my time with research on my mother’s life. As today is Mother’s Day, it seems appropriate to pause and take stock of my discoveries and revelations.

As a Chinese immigrant, my mother, Oy Lum, was in many ways the typical story of a hard-working woman who managed to raise a family of five girls single-handed, on a factory worker’s intermittent wages. My father was institutionalized, and like many Chinese men in the early 20th Century in San Francisco, was unable to find sufficient work to maintain a living.

Sun Yat-sen

What surprised me was that my mother had attended the equivalent of a women’s junior college in her late teens. This girls’ school was founded in 1862 by one of her ancestors, when women were unable to become educated. Sun Yat Sen, China’s father of the democratic revolution in 1911, valued women’s education, and he would have supported the progressive school. The story “Butterfly Lovers”, was about a woman who played “Yentl” in order to go to school.

Unfortunately, most attendees were unable to apply their knowledge to any direct purpose. There were no jobs for women in those days. The school didn’t have the political and economic forces of a Radcliffe or Vassar College to help. Students were ahead of their times but for what my mother ended up doing in America, an education seemed hardly purposeful. Nevertheless, my mother quietly conveyed the importance of education. She was the opposite of a “helicopter” parent or “Tiger Mom” these days. Yes, she did encourage us, but her primary focus was on our well-being and not in micro-managing our lives. 

My quest for understanding my mother comes from the many stories she told me as a child about China. It was definitely perplexing. My cryptic training came from opera films she took me to see in San Francisco. When I asked her if she lived like the characters in the classic opera stories, she nodded emphatically. And yes, I took her literally. She and her family wore the costumes, moved in stilted fashion, and sang in screechy voices. Nevertheless, I loved them as they remind me of her.

Many years later, when I led my mother to visit her village for the first time in over 40 years, she was somewhat unmoved by its rural appearance. She simply surveilled the environment and agreed, yes, it hadn’t changed much. Outwardly, her life in the U.S. didn’t seem to have much effect on her either. Whether in limited English or in a dialect of Cantonese, she was a woman of few words.

In the end, my mother is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. It’s a timeless, picture-perfect cemetery that once forbade Chinese and dogs from being interred there. Despite options to return to China or being buried next to my father at the Chinese cemetery in Colma, she plotted meticulously and chose her crypt location in Oakland. After 98 years, this was not only her final home, but it spoke volumes on where she saw herself in peace and tranquility.

2020

Happy Easter!

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Happy Easter! With Shelter in Place heading into Week 3, Easter 2020 may be a more significant and memorable holiday than in the past.

Cameron Carpenter

In case you are looking for a little sparkle for your Easter, try this: https://youtu.be/d5O8cHI-vPY

If opera is not your thing, maybe organ music is?!? Cameron Carpenter is one of my favorite musicians. We saw him in Bamberg a few years ago to many accolades and a standing ovation from a stiff German crowd, then here at the San Francisco Symphony playing the score to the movie Battleship Potenko. He is a brilliant, creative dancer as well as classical and contemporary organist.

Cameron is good inspiration for us. Since all the talk is about what not to do with your hands, watching this clip of his performance might give you ideas what you CAN do with them. And your feet too!

Shelter in Place–Week 3 and Gavin Newsom

Three weeks ago, we were happily prepared to shelter in place when Governor Newsom mandated the requirement on March 18. The San Francisco Bay Area was one of the first to implement this restriction outside of Asia to contain the spread of the deadly corona virus. It was a novelty for the first two weeks.

Depending on when you start counting and entering into the lockdown, many Bay Area residents are beginning to feel more apprehensive. How long will this last? Is it really effective? Are we going to be living like this the rest of our lives?

Thankfully, in California with Gavin Newsome as our governor, we finally have some true leadership and direction. You can see the latest interview with Anderson Cooper here:

Meanwhile, what’s it like here at home in San Francisco? The days drift by for me with sketching, gardening, meditating and reading. In lieu of 6 hours on an IPhone, cooking is a productive time-killer. I finally tapped into those greasy cookbooks on the shelf near the kitchen and roasted pork belly with a Peruvian recipe last night. I also retrieved an easy, comforting flourless chocolate cookie recipe that I made at the beginning of lockdown. I even shared it on a recipe chain letter and sent it to a friend who ran out of flour and wanted to make a chocolate birthday cake.

A plethora of opera livestreams continue. All the major houses sponsor their own versions. I have followed Metopera loyally. During Wagner Week 2, I combined sketching with the music. Here are a few of the die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdammerung characters:

Meanwhile, idle time passes quickly by looking out the window:

….Watching Clouds go by….

The San Francisco Chronicle

We started following the San Francisco Chronicle, our local newspaper, again so we could get updated statistics on local media about the corona virus. But I still follow Deutsche Welle for reliable world news. Willie Brown, our former San Francisco mayor, wrote about a couple of jokes in his column:

I still haven’t decided where to go for Easter — the living room or the bedroom.

Classified ad: Single man with toilet paper seeks woman with hand sanitizer for good clean fun.

And from the man: it’s better 6 feet apart than 6 feet under.

This week I started to send old childhood pictures to my kids. Here are Julianne and Melissa, with their dolls, Tommy Tucker and Mary Anne today.
Easter Flashback

Addendum: Here’s a link to my posting from Easter Island in 2017: https://travelswithmyselfandothers.com/2017/10/15/day-9-10-easter-island-moai/

2020

Fun and Games While Sequestered

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If I were a carpenter…I could build the addition to our house in the backyard. And if I were a musician, I could post my daily performances like Igor (see igor-levit.de on twitter). I’d practice every day anyway, so why not share those wasted moments?

Unfortunately, since I am neither, I have to find my own diversions. I am spending an inordinate amount of time watching live stream opera performances. It’s easy to find distractions to multi-task during these long seances. I even reverted to sketching opera singers. They are perfect material since they are often standing in one position for a period of time long enough to be captured on paper.

I discovered this earlier while watching the Biden/Sanders debate (Featured image above). Politicians making their pitch at the podium is another excellent venue to stalk portrait figures. Naturally live and in 3-D is ideal but given our sequestered circumstances, who’s counting?!?

My last few posts have been focused on opera. Here is one last hurrah: if you are still groping around for livestreams, here is the ultimate, comprehensive list, compliments of operawire.com:

A Comprehensive List of All Opera Companies Offering Free Streaming Services Right Now

It will at least help you to imagine being in one of the many great opera houses in the world! The list should last you for quite awhile.

Just for some comic relief, I started some pilates exercises on line. Here’s one I am trying if you are interested: https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/ss/slideshow-15-pilates-moves. We follow the active exercises with a 20-minute meditation.

And here are a few photos from this week of daughters quarantined at an undisclosed location:

Be sure to share what you are doing during this unprecedented time in our lives! Are you eating and cooking? Taking naps? Writing a book?!? Would love to hear from you!!

2020

More Opera Livestream Diversions

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As of yesterday, six Bay Area Counties are requiring a “Shelter in Place”. No non-essential travel or activities outside the home, possibly until July! That puts further impetus on our staying indoors and remaining calm.

Some of you have expressed an interest in the opera live-streams cropping up in the past few days. Here are a few additional opera websites offering performances online:

https://operawire.com/staatsoper-unter-den-linden-announces-streaming-program-through-mid-april/.

You can watch the Marriage of Figaro here:

https://www.staatsoper-stuttgart.de/spielplan/oper-trotz-corona/

For those of you curious about opera, it’s a perfect way to introduce yourselves to the form. You can download the libretto online to translate each opera and follow along.

These websites have had livestream offerings in the past, but they have not been widely used in the U.S. They are perfectly poised to share their excellent repertoires.

The links may be imperfect, as the websites may require you to download their apps, create an account, or sign up for a temporary membership. After all, if it’s free! You may need to invest some effort, patience and ingenuity. It’s worth the bother.

To get right to the source of real time updates, I recommend going directly to Operawire.com or on twitter for schedules and updates. Here an excerpt from the twitter feed:

  • @MetOpera Nightly Streams
  • @WrStaatsoper Daily Streams
  • @Rof_Pesaro Streams
  • @TeatroRegio di Torino Streams
  • @teatromassimo di Palermo

Let’s get creative and make the most of an unpredictable, uncontrollable situation. Under these dire circumstances, I have convinced myself that virtual travel can be a substitute for physical travel. Thanks to the internet, we can explore the world in different ways from what we have been doing in the past.

A few more suggestions I have followed: make a family emergency plan for your family. Call a different friend everyday to renew an old relationship worn by too much attention to electronic media! Get inspired! We can get through this together!!

  • Pagliacci with Roberto
    Alagna at Metopera
  • New York Metopera
  • Das Rheingold, Munich
  • Munich Staatsoper
  • Falstaff, New York Metopera
  • Rigoletto with Nadine Sierra, New York Metopera
  • Carmen
  • Dresden Semperoper
  • Baden bei Wien
  • Baden bei Wien
  • Baden bei Wien Semi-Outdoor Operahouse
  • Adriana Lecouvrier, with Anna Netrebko, Salzburger Festival
  • Eurydice at LA Opera
  • Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles
  • Glyndebourne Opera Finals
  • Fidelio with Jonas Kaufmann at Royal Opera
  • Royal Opera House, London
A gallery of opera performances I attended in New York, London, Austria and Germany recently
2020

Opera Streams during Quarantine

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Having returned home less than a week ago from London and New York, I found myself facing the corona virus shutdown. Life has turned itself upside down and inside out in ways we have never experienced in our lifetime.

I’m not sure that I can bring much encouragement nor solace to the picture. Maybe attempting to maintain those parts of your life that are normal, and that you are capable of controlling, are important. So I have decided to continue communicating what I can through this website, for those of you who are interested.

If you are feeling isolated, here are a few interesting suggestions that I have discovered on Twitter feeds. A number of opera companies are offering live streams of past performances.

New York Metopera

In an effort to continue providing opera to its audience members, the Met Opera will host “Nightly Met Opera Streams” on its official website to audiences worldwide.

These free streams will present encores of past performances from its famed Live in HD series. The encore presentations will begin at 7:30 p.m. each night on the company’s official website and will then be available for an additional 20 hours thereafter. Each showcase will also be viewable on the Met Opera on demand apps.

“We’d like to provide some grand opera solace to opera lovers in these extraordinarily difficult times,” said Met General Manager Peter Gelb in a press release. “Every night, we’ll be offering a different complete operatic gem from our collection of HD presentations from the past 14 years.”

The first week of the schedule is as follows:

Monday, March 16 – Bizet’s “Carmen”

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Elīna Garanča and Roberto Alagna. Transmitted live on January 16, 2010.

Tuesday, March 17 – Puccini’s “La Bohème”

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti, starring Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas. Transmitted live on April 5, 2008.

Wednesday, March 18 – Verdi’s “Il Trovatore”

Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Anna Netrebko, Dolora Zajick, Yonghoon Lee, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Transmitted live on October 3, 2015.

Thursday, March 19 – Verdi’s “La Traviata”

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Flórez, and Quinn Kelsey. Transmitted live on December 15, 2018.

Friday, March 20 – Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment”

Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez. Transmitted live on April 26, 2008.

Saturday, March 21 – Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor”

(Per Operawire feed)

Munich Opera

If you want to see Munich opera offerings, check out https://operlive.de or staatsoper.de

Joyce diDonato

Joyce DiDonato and Piotr Beczala will present excerpts from Massenet’s “Werther” from Didonato’s living room.

DiDonato and Beczala announced that on March 15 they will sing excerpts accompanied by harpist Emmanuel Ceysson and pianist Howard Watkins.

DiDonato announced the news via Instagram and Facebook and added, “Tune in and consider throwing some support to artist funds (to be listed!) http://www.facebook.com/JoyceDiDonatoOfficial”

Both singers were expected to perform the work at the Metropolitan Opera on March 16 through March 31. However, due to the coronavirus performances were canceled.

The live stream will be shown on Facebook and Instagram and will begin at 3 p.m Eastern. (That means west coasters will have to catch it at noon).

(From Operawire feed)

You can also use joycedidonato at her Instagram site.

Joyce diDonato took this selfie of us after the Metopera performance of Agrippina on Feb. 29!
Teatro Massimo, Palermo

I found another website that has free livestreams operas and ballet, at http://www.teatromassimo.it/eng/teatro-massimo-tv-495/. I just finished seeing excellent productions of two of my favorite operas, Cavallera Rusticana and Pagliacci, as well as a delightful production of the Nutcracker.

As we are about to enter uncertain times, I hope some of these offerings will help to calm the soul with beautiful music. It helped me!

Note: I haven’t verified whether these links work until after I post, so apologies in advance!! Some material above has been extracted from the Operawire twitter feed, with thanks to David Salazar, the editor.

Addendum (3/15/20): just received from Operawire: you can see many of Vienna State Opera’s past performances at:

http://www.staatsoperlive.com/

For details of schedule, go to:

Vienna State Opera to Offer Daily Live Streams From its Opera Archives

2020

Glyndebourne Opera Finals, Kensington Museums, and Fidelio

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Glyndebourne Opera Finals

Among the six finalists, Edward Nelson from S. California won this year’s Glyndebourne Opera Cup. A baritone, he was a former student of the San Francisco Opera Merola Program and an Adler Fellow. It was particularly exciting for me to see the international reputation and success of our own local training programs. Along with the first prize, Edward will receive a principal role in a major European opera house.

One of my favorite finalists, American tenor Eric Ferring, won third prize. His Mozart choices were sung with beautifully articulated German and particularly moved me. I anticipate he will be performing some challenging German operas on the European stages in the near future. Another one of my favorite finalists was soprano Meigui Zhang from China. She was also a graduate of the Merola. Unfortunately, she did not place in the top three winners. I was pleased that my top three choices of the twenty contestants made it to the final rounds.

Overall, I was thrilled to attend both the Glyndebourne and Metopera finals for the first time. It provided insight on the training, technical skill, artistry, and determination required to become a professional opera singer. I now know some of the next generation’s exciting star performers.

  • Edward Nelson,
    First Place
  • Alexandra Lowe, UK,
    Second Place
  • Eric Ferring, US, Third Place
  • All Six Finalists before announcement
Finalists for Glyndebourne Opera Cup 2020

Tutankhamun Exhibition at Saatchi Gallery, London

Located in Sloane Square, the Saatchi Gallery hosted a special exhibition of Tutankhamun making its way around the world. Tutankhamun was a boy who became king when he was around nine in ca. 1200 BC, and died when he was only 18.

The videos below explain the extensive methodology and preparation for the burial of Tutankhamun.

The treasures accompanying Tutankhamun’s mummy protected and assured his after life. The family tree traces his lineage from his father, Akhenaten, and grandfather Amenhotep. Both Tutankhamen and Akhenaten married their sisters, which may have contributed to multiple defects in the family. You can read about them here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun

More exquisite artifacts show the high level of skill of artisans that produced wood, gold and stone carvings for the royal tomb. The layout of the tomb shows what Carter discovered in 1922. The pieces will be permanently installed in the museum in Egypt now under construction.

Natural History Museum, Kensington

A quick walk down the block from the hotel to the Natural History Museum confirmed my suspicion. The dinosaurs were the highlight, with the blue whale suspended in the Great Hall perfectly proportioned to its size.

Victoria and Albert Museum, Kensington

The V&A, just another block further, reminded me of the British propensity to collect. But of course, it is always done tastefully. The giant Chihuly Murano glass sculpture barely made a statement within the monumental scale of the domed entrance. On the other hand, the Shah’s carpet, was imposing as the largest Oriental carpet in the world (a Kashan). But in the end, my favorite was a period Chinese cheong sam from the 1920-34 era at the time my mother immigrated to America.

Fidelio at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, was performed this year at the Royal Opera House to celebrate the composer’s 250th anniversary. The story is, like all operas, complicated and convoluted. Based on a true story during the French Revolution, it is a testament to marital loyalty (a long foregone concept). Fidelio’s wife, Leonore, attempts to save her husband from prison by posing as a prison guard. She gains the confidence of the prison official in order to free her husband. That’s it in a nutshell.

The new production by a German director was very choppy. In the first act, the historical setting is preserved, but the second act suddently jolts us into a modern day setting. The chorus, clad in black, serves as the audience in judging the scene. Fidelio, played by superstar Jonas Kaufmann, sings his chained lament before he is freed. Kaufmann performed for a total of only about ten minutes! The real star was Leonore, played by Lise Davidsen.

  • The ROH from the sidelines
  • Dome
  • Lise Davidsen Curtain Call
  • Jonas Kaufmann curtain call
  • Principal Cast

My apologies for the length of this post and the big cultural data dump. I couldn’t resist sharing these educational experiences. And yes, corona virus is everywhere and something to be concerned about. The news and alarm rolled into each country I visited like a slow but sure tidal wave–first in California as I was leaving, then New York, followed by the U.K at the end.

So, it looks like travel plans are on hold for awhile until further notice. I sincerely hope that this world-wide health problem will all come to pass quickly, teach us to be more vigilant and kind to each other, and that traveling with myself and others will again be as blissful and unencumbered as it has been over the past six years. Stay well and safe.

Real Time Creative and Independent World Travel