10.10.10 was a perfect day in Moscow. The natives are a bit restless since they know they’ll pay with very bad weather later for the lovely weather now, but we are content. This was a day made for walking in parks and that is exactly what we did. I found some new routes and Cindy and I explored them together reveling in the warmth and watching in amazement as the locals tried to become solar collectors as they absorbed as much sunshine as possible. We found a little park that had two lovely ponds filled with ducks and geese and old men along the banks with fishing rods. We must have walked for about two hours and ended up at a local brew pub called Sixteen Tons, where we shared a great cream of sorrel soup and a chicken sandwich, washed down with a pint of their local pale ale.
Romeo and Juliet was a grand experience. The production was held in the New Bolshoi since the Old Bolshoi is still closed for repairs. It is scheduled to open in November after having been closed for three years. It really didn’t matter; everything about the production was so wonderful that they could have done it in a high school gym for all I cared. The music, choreography, costuming, and the sheer athleticism of the dancers had my heart racing from the overture to the curtain call. I’ll attach some photos of the New Bolshoi; it is really quite lovely.
 |
| Entrance to the New Bolshoi |
 |
| Grand Facade |
 |
| Clean Well Lighted Bar |
 |
| Great Frescos |
 |
| We are second tier, left side, last row |
 |
| View from our level |
AAS has a visiting author who is here for a week and she is accompanied by her husband, his brother and the brother’s wife. They were also invited to the ballet last night and we were all supposed to be picked up by bus at six pm. Cindy got a call at five pm saying that the bus was stuck in traffic and that we were to take the guests to the Bolshoi by Metro and meet everyone else in the lobby. We dutifully met at the gate and walked them to the Metro and shepherded them down the escalator, into the Metro and out again at the Bolshoi. No one had told us that the Old Bolshoi was not yet finished; in fact I had been led to believe that the production was to be there. We took lots of pictures of the guests in front of the Old Bolshoi, whose façade is complete. I couldn’t for the life of me find out where to enter and then I saw lots of folks at the top of the hill entering the New Bolshoi, so we walked over there and found the others. There were about twenty in total because all the directors from the international schools in the Central European Region were being hosted by AAS.
At the end of the production we were all to march across Red Square so that everyone could see St. Basil’s at night and see the great lights on the GUM department store. Click on any of the photos to enlarge them.
The ballet ended at 9:25 and we didn’t get to the bus until about 10:20 due t othe walk across Red Square. Traffic was horrible and by the time we got to our drop off point it was 11pm and the restaurant we wanted to go to was closed, so we walked another fifteen minutes to the Temple Bar where we arrived just fifteen minutes before the kitchen closed. It is an upscale, expensive place but what could we do. We had an enjoyable time and didn’t get home until 1 am, far, far too late for us.
Tonight will be early, very early and we hope to catch up on some well-deserved rest. Happy Sunday, Cindy and Wm
No comments:
Post a Comment