My cultural calendar in 2022

As I wrote when I started this blog, after my years in the countryside of Virginia and after the first year-plus of Covid isolation and limitations, I’m focused on spending my time with good friends and on cultural events and experiences. To my friends in NYC, this list may be a yawn – more like two months’ worth of events rather than a full year. But to me, all these performances have been a real thrill. I’m hungry for more opera and theater but oh so happy with what I’ve gotten to so far, in my new retiree life.

There were a lot of highlights for me. First trip to Vienna since seeing it when 10 years old, and there, first time to hear Vittorio Grigolo on stage. First trip to Budapest, and wonderful performances, including an exquisite and moving staging and performance of the Easter Hymn in Cavalleria Rusticana, and the most beautiful rendition of Erbarme dich in St Matthew Passion. Thoroughly impressed with Budapest’s music scene and standards!

I also visited Turkiye for the first time, and happened to be there over their opera festival, where a dear friend was in the orchestra. Loved Istanbul and all the rest that I visited. And speaking of friends’ performances, it was quite a treat to go to an intimate recital evening in a private home outside Cancun.

In New York, was very moved by Leopoldstadt; couldn’t pass up a Tom Stoppard work, as I think I caught everything of his on stage when I lived in the city. In London, I went to my first Proms concert, at beautiful Royal Albert Hall. In between, I was impressed by the Concert de rentrée in Montpellier, where I actually enjoyed a couple of very modern works, as they were so well performed!