Tuesday, March 17, 2009

a night at the theater

On Sunday night we accepted a very kind invitation to the Sala Sao Paulo, one of the preeminent concert theaters in Latin America, to hear a performance of Carmina Burana by the Lyric Chorus of the Municipal Theater here in Sao Paulo. Our friend Walter is a singer extraordinaire (and a great Mexican food chef and a phenomenal pianist to boot!) and he sings with the Lyric Chorus (I'm not totally sure I'm translating that right but it's a big professional choral group).

We have wanted to hear Walter sing since we found out his profession, and finally it worked out to go this weekend. We've repeatedly asked ourselves since Sunday, "Why did we just now do this when we're getting ready to leave?"

The theater is so beautiful and lovely and amazing. Great acoustics, great visuals and very soothing. And I don't even know how to describe the music. The concert opened with two pieces played by the Symphonic Band (think orchestra minus the strings) in homage to Brazilian composers. I wasn't familiar with these pieces but they were beautiful and interesting. After a brief intermission, the chorus performed Carmina Burana, which even if you don't think you know it, you do. The piece "Fortuna" is used in lots of movies and commercials. You'd know it if you heard it. Anyway, it was so lovely and well-done. We're still kicking ourselves 2 days later for just having done this for the first time here.

Walter - thanks for sharing this extraordinary part of your life with us. It was marvelous.

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