Go see it, really.

This weekend, I (finally) saw Lucia, which you may not think you know, but you know.


Mad scene? You've heard it. Trust me:

Admittedly, usually it does not move into a crazy techno track with Bruce Willis and Milla Jovavich running around and exploding things, but this is *the aria*. The opera is noted not just for frequently featuring kilts (not this one), not just for its dripping historical melodrama, not just for the incredibly challenging and exquisite bel canto vocal lines and breathtaking mid-opera sextet, but - of course - first and foremost for THE MAD SCENE! Which is not some kind of slang for a really neat place to have out, but come to think of it, the opera is taken enough with dramatic irony that perhaps hipsters would "like" it (can they like things not in quotes? I'm not sure), or at least feel a kinship with it.

THE MAD SCENE, which requires a techincal spectacle from a single singer for about eleven minutes, begins as a sweet and soft duet between soprano and flute. It's lilting, youthful. A girl singing about her wedding night with her true love. The cognitive dissonance being that we all know that she, believing her lover to have betrayed her reluctantly married another only to (rather immediately) discover that she had betrayed her lover in doing so, and that her true wedding night ended when she slaughtered her new husband in a delerium. We know that she married to save her brother's life and her family's fortunes in a politically unstable time and that by having taken this action, she's signed their death warrants as well. As she trills hypnotically, she despondently disrobes, writhes on the floor, sexually advances her brother whom she mistakes for her lover, and - eventually - cuts her own wrists while happily singing that she will look down on her love from heaven. What makes it so poignant is just how jarringly the contrast between the beauty of the song and the horror of the reality affects the audience. Are we pleased by the impressive vocalities? Are we disgusted? Scared? Amused by the macabre elements of it all? Sad? Yes to all of these and our collective audience brain becomes simply overwhelmed. This is an opera carried by vocal panache (from all the principles), but sold by incredible acting and atmosphere. The creepiness of it all is still under my skin a little bit. Oh yeah, there's also a ghost, or maybe Lucia was going mad all along... who can say?


In very unrelated terms, I've had a productive week. My mere presence caused two defendants in murder trials to change their pleas, so now I have to watch my trials in Kent (I was given permission to attend a murder trial headed by a prosecutor related to somebody in my division). I am ever closer to a Halloween ensemble.

And even more exciting: according to my electronic tracking, I may be one or two steps closer to cancelling my gym membership! Whether it sticks remains to be seen. I joined Bally's a few years ago because I practiced there with one of my tango partners. Since I also worked in a place that shared a parking lot with another one, I kept the membership for a while. After that, the one in Seattle closed down and eventually I stopped working in Bellevue and yet the membership remained, automatically charging my card on a monthly basis. It's a great testament to my own inertia that I let it continue for so long, but in fairness, they don't make it easy. You can't cancel in person. You can't cancel over the phone. They do not post the cancellation information on their website. It's kind of a "secret" P.O. box that is admittedly listed in your membership contract (thank god I'm a fledgling lawyer and thus save every scrap of paper like this in a special accordian file for fear that some day I may actully have to read my contract of adhesion!!) They've recieved my registered mail (yes, it had to be registered/certified and yes I used fifty gazillion 37 cent stamps to send it this way because I am waaaay too busy to stand in line at the PO and pay for appropriate postage and besides I have all these friggin' 37 cent stamps which have surprisingly not fossilized yet). Your move, Bally's! I hear that they have quite the repurtation as scammers, so we'll see if my "easy cancel" membership lives up to contract or if there is a loophole to fight over. To be fair I liked Bally's alright and if there were still one in Seattle or if I still worked in the same complex as a Bally's, I would definitely go there. On the other hand, I have Julia and Jaana and their adorable dancing friends! And a pilates video! I mean I am so totally set on the workouts for a while (and sadly, all of those videos probably cost about one month of the membership I've allowed to drag on for about one unecessary year and a half).