Sweaty Weather

Look, Mother Nature, when I said I wanted things to warm up, I was assuming you would give me lovely springtime temperatures in the 60s and 70s.  What I was NOT expecting was for it to go from 40 degrees to 80 degrees in a matter of hours.  Not only does it wreck havoc on my sinuses, but it has caused untold emotional distress from the heat rash I have developed.  And did I mention that the people of Binghamton are wearing less clothing because of the heat? MUST. POKE. OUT. OWN. EYES.

As for the opera, some scenes are developing into a wee bit of a s**t storm, as the director has added acrobats, jugglers, dancers, supernumeraries with maypoles and a giant keg that dispenses water into the mix.  Too bad there is barely room for the chorus, who actually sings. And if your eyes aren't assaulted enough by all that, there are various "carnival" pieces that fly in from the ceiling and have almost skewered several of us unlucky enough to be in the way.  So now we have to watch for things coming in on the sides AND from above.  I feel like I am in a war-torn country.  All of this is useless clutter on a stage that can barely hold just me, let alone 40 other people. 

And my costume is not the only disaster.  The evil Mephistopheles has been given a jacket with sequin flames, which is gay enough for any Cirque de Soleil show, let alone this opera.  It is kind of hard to take a character seriously when he is done up like a showgirl.  And, once again, the men in the chorus have been given tights and jackets...that is all.  And the median age of the men in the chorus is 85, so I have been privy to a lot of old balls swinging around in tights.  

It has not been a good week for people watching in Binghamton.