Two nights in a row at the Mariinsky.

Well, I am now officially done with 3/5 ths of my RSL crap, and to celebrate this I went to the theatre tonight.... and last night..... as a preemptive celebration.....

So, last night might have been the best one of my little "alone time" excursions I have taken so far in the past six months in this city. I found out that at the little Mariinsky theatre (the concert hall), they were showing the movie Battleship Potemkin, which we studied in my film class this semester, with the amazing, fabulous, flawless Mariinsky orchestra accompianing it live. So I was like hey, cool, it's how a silent movie was really supposed to be watched, and for 150 rubles (approximately $5) I was like yeah, why not, who cares that I have two exams the next morning, the movie is only 75 minutes long. And so I went by myself to this viewing, and I am so glad I did.

Okay, not only was that how a silent film was really supposed to be watched, but how a silent film NEEDS to be watched. Every silent film should be so lucky to have the Mariinsky orchestra playing its score live. I don't know, it just blew my mind. I'm always so impressed by ballet/opera orchestras in general because they have to work with five bajillion actors and dancers and singers and have to respond to their mistakes and all work together to make everything run smoothly.... but I think that accompianing a film must be even harder because the film can't adjust itself to your music.... you have to stay on top of your shit, and on top of their shit they are, that Mariinsky orchestra. It was so cool, there would be guys on the screens blowing horns and then, oh, hey look at the brass section tooting their own horns. And the sound was just overwhelming and made the movie so much more effective than listening to the crappy recorded score we heard from the video we watched in class.... I got chills at several key moments, felt quite patriotic and communist most of the time, and even was shaking my foot along to the music unaware of this tick until I noticed the woman on my right making fun of me to her friend.

Oh man, it was SO GOOD. Mom, I am so upset that this seems to be a one-time kind of thing, as part of a German film festival (makes no sense as Potemkin is a Russian film.... but according to future roommate Lauren Abman it was first aired in Germany before it was shown in Russia so they have a soft spot for it....... anyway, some German dude introduced the film with a translator and then the film was shown with German subtitles. it was kind of a trippy experience.... I kept thinking I was understanding the German guy when he was talking because it kind of sounded like mumbled English but didn't actually understand him and then got confused when the Russian translator woman would speak and I would actually understand her when it was a language that seems like I shouldn't understand it at all.... ANYWAY THIS IS A HUGE TANGENT AND BESIDE THE POINT), it was really an amazing experience and I wish they did that kind of thing more often. It was SO GOOD. I cannot emphasize this enough.

It was also cool to see something in the small Mariinsky, in the concert hall. I'd never been there before, and it's kind of ridiculous how it is the exact opposite of the old, real Mariinsky.... it is a brand new building, just finished over a year ago or something, the place still smells of plaster and new wood. Unlike the Mariinsky, it is quite modern in design, the inside wooden paneling and stuff for acoustics reminded me of Jewett at Wellesley or the concert hall at Longy.... only less 70s and not hideous. It is also a small, fairly intimate venue with amazing acoustics and really not a bad seat anywhere in the house.... though I got to sit in the second row with no one in front of me and a perfect view of the skinny string bean conductor and the cello section. Ahh, I miss the cello.

Speaking of missing the cello, the ballet I went to at the real Mariinsky tonight with Ilana, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, had one of the most beautiful cello solos I have ever heard in my life. There is this long scene in the third? fourth? (I lost count) act where the kidnapped princess is getting ready for bed and her lady-in-waiting is helping her, and it is just one cello on its own for about ten minutes.... I almost started crying.... and then this solo builds as the crazy head wife of the sultan guy comes into the princess's room and then a piano joins in (MOM THERE WAS A PIANO IN THE ORCHESTRA TONIGHT!) and then the whole orchestra as the crazy wife tries to stab the princess -- which she ends up successfully doing as the beautiful yet dumb princess was like "oh let me hide with my face in my hands and my back perfectly exposed to knife wounds" -- and it was chilling. Swelling. Something. The composer isn't anyone even super famous, one Boris Asafiev, but it was so beautiful.

The ballet itself was also totally badass. There was this huge fight scene at the beginning with all this crazy choreographed sword fighting and dudes dying. At one point one guy jumped through two other guys -- all three holding swords -- and then spun around and started sparring with each other. It was so fucking cool. And then they all fell down and died all over the stage really dramatically and Ilana and I laughed and the bitchy woman next to us told us to be quiet and then at intermission asked, "Do you speak Russian? Are you aware you are at a play?" We were really tempted to answer, "What? No! We're at a play? Shit, how did we get here?!" but decided just to shrug off her off as just another grumpy old Russian woman with a touch of xenophobia.

Man. What a good decision going tonight. I don't know what I am going to do without Ilana next semester telling me which ballets to see. I never would have picked this one to go to -- "The Fountain of what? Give me Swan Lake or Romeo and Juliet or the Nutcracker..." -- but she told me it would be good and she was right. I told her she's going to have to keep reading the playbill for the Mariinsky while back in Chicago and tell me what to go see so she can live vicariously through me. Though, I have a secret. I think that actually you can see any ballet at the Mariinsky and it will be amazing. I really have not been disappointed by any of the ballets there yet (the opera of The Nose this summer was another story....). So I'm going to keep going, even after I lose my ballet-going buddy.

Anyway, that was all well and good. I have another exam tomorrow, and my last RSL one on Wednesday, and that will be beautiful when all that shit is out of the way. If I swing things right I will be done with everything by December 25th, and then I can go off on round #2 of Travels with Emma (for a week between Christmas and New Year's eve, this time the awesome Katy is joining us on our adventures) with everything over and done with. So. Yeah.

Also, in a side note, as it is past midnight in Russia, I guess I can now legally drink everywhere in the world except for those parts of India where the drinking age is 25 and all those Muslim countries were alcohol is just, you know, illegal. I'm so old. Just look at that. But not as old as Beethoven. If he were still alive celebrating his birthday he'd be 238 years old, while Jane Austen would only be 233, and the Boston Tea Party only happened 235 years ago. Look at that trivia.

Oh, and Katya and Stas just got home. Sorry guys, Katya beat everyone to it and was the first to wish me a happy birthday. Stas was second. They are on top of their stuff, those two.