The less time one has, the more freedom one feels to not give a crap. With precious little time to sight-see, I disregarded any sense of being both a typical tourist and trying to hide that fact when I, along with some 250 members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, and Staff went to New York City to perform at Carnegie Hall on the 100th birthday of Benjamin Britten--more on that later, as this post's title suggests.
As a morning person, it wasn't too odd that I was out of my hotel and out on the street by 5 am. A couple days before, torn between winging it and planning it, I decided to work out to some detail what I would do on Friday, as we had a 1 pm rehearsal and a 7 pm concert and being late to either was not an option. I wanted to be downtown before the sun rose, so I had to catch the subway around 6 am. With an hour to spare, I wandered the blocks near our hotel. Thankfully, it was chock full of good sights.
(I like getting some love in the morning...)
(30 Rock! Totally thought of Liz Lemon quotes)
(Ermahgerd, Lergos! The tower of Isengard
across from the tower of Rockefeller.)
Picking up my train at Columbus Circle (dear God, what elaborate stations they have; at least St. Louis Metrolink stations look better...), it was a quick ride to the Chambers St. station, which dropped me off close to the World Trade Center site, the construction of which got me a bit lost, but I refound my way. Famished, I ate at Pret a Manger, and would recommend it to anyone (not that the food is especially good, but it is a charitable business).
Then I ambled my towards the Brooklyn Bridge. Here are some things I saw:
Leaving the Land of Friendly Squirrels, my next stop was the Brooklyn Bridge. I wish I had some Hart Crane memorized for the occasion, but oh well.
(Liberty is so far away...)
I arrived at the subway stop a bit early, which was a blessing, because after so much walking I needed to sit. From there, it was off to the Guggenheim museum.
...but I wasn't about to pay $22 to enter. Unfortunately, overestimating my physical prowess, I had figured to walk back to the hotel; by now, though, I was tired (when I left the museum, I had already been awake for six hours, and it was only 10:30), cold, and my left foot was starting to give out. Which made getting lost in Central Park all the more fun. At least I got to see a "castle," Cleopatra's Needle, and that bastard Alexander Hamilton.
(Belvedere "Castle")
(Isn't there some controversy over this?)
Winding up on the wrong side of the park, I then walked over 20 blocks back to the hotel, where I promptly almost-died. No rest was to be had the inn, though, as rehearsal was to start soon. But! they let us go an hour early! So I went with Dr. Carter to Lincoln Center, where I was Met Opera dreaming (as a composer, not a singer).
But there was magic to do, so it was back to change and then on to Carnegie Hall...
...where we kicked ass and took names. Like, important names:
http://jeffreycarter.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/more-from-nyc/ (Actually, that's Dr. Carter's blog, but since he did the hard work already, I'll just share his compilation)
I'm still waiting to see what Alex Ross at The New Yorker has to say: he did, after all, devote a whole chapter in The Rest is Noise to Benjamin Britten, with an emphasis on Peter Grimes, AND he tweeted the link to St. Louis Public Radio's broadcast of our St. Louis concert. Apparently, he'll have a very favorable review (the hardest critic we've had is our hometown one, but she's difficult to please on a good day... however, she was appreciative).
After the concert, I limped down to Times Square (my left foot is still somewhat lame), which was neat for a cool 3 minutes before I got tired of all the damn people.
(Aren't bright lights and digital cameras fun?)
(Statue of another bastard.)
And that was that. Up early next morning for the flight back home (the major fear of flying I thought I had never materialized, and except for the migraine I got halfway on the return trip, it was actually pretty awesome).
Except, it was more than just "that." It's not everyone that gets to perform in one of the premiere classical performance venues in the world in front of the premiere cognoscenti in the world (or so I would think) with one of the premiere orchestras in the world, doing one of the premiere 20th century operas on its composer's 100th birthday (and St. Cecilia's Day), in a one-of-its-kind performances (the program noted that this was the first time a complete concert version of the opera was done at Carnegie); of course, I was not alone on the stage, but part of a chorus and orchestra, yet that hardly diminishes the impact--indeed, I wouldn't have had it any other way (as a performer; as a composer, I'm looking forward to my works being performed there all on their own--one can dream). Sharing this kind of ovation with others makes it all the more thrilling and fulfilling:
My next post will be about Peter Grimes, and how this experience significantly improved my opinion of the opera and of Britten.
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