Vivaldi's Four Seasons @ Rosslyn Spectrum

No plans for Satturday night so checked out Ticketplace, one of my go to sites for events and picket up a ticket for Synectic Theatre's production of Othello. Wait you say, the post title says Vivaldi. Well a funny thing happened on the way to the Rosslyn Spectrum, where Ticketplace listed as the venue. They were playing Vivaldi and had no record of my ticket purchase. I shoudl probably but those things in the reverse order as I did not realize it was not my show until I sat down (they were flustered by a long line and everything running late so just gave me a ticket rather than digging into the details of my email confirmation). A very nice usher who I asked about the mixup told me she knew nothing about Othello but suggested I stay and watch the show and perhaps would enjoy it.

Chamber music has not been on my short list of events when moving to DC so this was probably about the only way I was going to see it. I must say, I am glad it worked out though. The production was excellent. Between each Season, the first violin explained how Vivaldi was attempting to mimic the sounds and emotions of each season and then they would play just a small piece, isolating just the relevant sounds so we could judge for ourselves their similarity. Vivaldi apparently also wrote poetry describing the scenes he was emoting and this was read as well. Finally the music for the season was played, bringing it all together. I have heard excerpts from the Four Seasons many times over the years but it really is beatiful heard live. I have always loved string instruments, especially the violin (more musicians should incorporate electric violins and their ilk into rock, I think) so this was probably the perfect piece for me to see live.