Q's Birthday 2004

All-in-all, I had an amusing and entertaining birthday. Again this year, I was recovering from a bit of a cold. It's been nothing more than a lot of sniffles and lethargy and hasn't kept me from my normal routine. I was also kind of tired after the first week back to school and a full day of Saturday classes. My mood was upbeat, but subdued as Irwin drove me to Oakland for the Crucible's "Fire Opera". I wanted it to be more fire stuff with some opera stuff thrown in, but it was actually a real operatic performance. They had most of the fire stuff on a secondary stage for the 'after party'. There's only so much fire-eating, fire jugling and naked fire twirling one can handle before it all gets to be a bit much, so we left about 11pm and headed back to the city.

On My Birthday

Jan. 17, 646: Saint Sulpice aka: Sulpitius the Pious (or the Débonnaire), died on 17 January 646, in a monastery near Bourges which he founded. The day of his death, according to several Manuscripts of the Hieronymian Martyrology is celebrated as the feast day of Saint Sulpice. In his honour the church bearing his name was built in Paris, from which the Society of St. Sulpice derives its name. On the 17th of every January, the sun supposedly shines through a special stained glass window in the church to illuminate a statue of St. Sulpice so it looks like he cries tears of blood. PLEASE NOTE: St. Sulpice is the patron saint of delayed vocations...

The Fire Opera

A Fiery Interpretation of Dido & Aeneas: For my birthday, my pal Earthgurl bought me a ticket to see The Crucible's reinterpreted version of Dido & Aeneas. The Crucible offers instruction in the fire arts like metal working, glass blowing, etc. Their "Fire Opera" celebrated their fifth anniversary and it looked like a very successful fundraiser and was an entertaining night out.

Henry Purcell's 1689 Baroque masterpiece portrays the final moments in the life of Dido, Queen of Carthage, whose obsession with the headstrong Aeneas, Prince of Troy, leads her to commit suicide on a final, fiery pyre. It was difficult to follow the story. I was hoping they would take more liberties with the material. I'm not a fan of opera. Everytime I hear a soprano singing, I just tune out. It doesn't matter what language they sing in, I just can't understand it.

The as four opera soloists, an eight member chorus, and a twelve piece early music ensemble were accompanied by sculptors & performers weaving a backdrop of molten metal casting, glowing hot glass working, welding, torch cutting, and fire dancing. The transitions between the elements seemed far too stilted. Opera entails people standing still and singing ALOT. The other performers were far more energetic and exciting to watch.

At the end, I was left confused about far too much of the plot. Little did I know, Irwin was having more dificulty with it. At least I figured out that the fates had decreed Dido's love for Aeneas. I thought their sex scenes were tastefully done with thunderclaps and sparks flying around behind them. It really was the only time in the production when all of the operatic and fire arts elements seemed totally integrated.

Earthgurl had to tell us later that Aeneas' was ship wrecked and that's how they met. He came on stage with the metalugists who made his spear and I'm not sure how we were supposed to interpret that as a ship wreck, though I do recall them singing about Neptune's folly, so maybe it's just in the original material. She thought that the reason the two lovers couldn't be together was because the fates had decreed it in the first act. I thought the fates wanted them to be together and Irwin was too distracted by all the topless women twirling fire.