Dear everyone,
This letter is a bit late, and I have a lot to write
about. Jasper and I just got back from a
4 day ski trip, but first a few words about Gounod’s Faust, which
Cindy and I saw 10 days ago as our last opera of the season.
Years ago Roger had a vinyl recording of either this or Boito’s Mephistophele. I
doubt I ever listened to the music, but I can recall being fascinated by the
album cover that had a photograph of the devil himself. I went back to Barbara and Roger’s recently,
but alas, all of his records have been given away, so I couldn’t ascertain what
performance Roger owned, and he didn’t recall himself at that time. This
one looks similar to my memory, but is from a performance by the great bass
Samuel Ramey, which I
think took place in the 1980s, long antedating any album I would have seen as
an innocent.
Cindy and I were really impressed by the set, but I agree
with the Chicago Tribune’s review
that it was sometimes distracting. There
were four characters that played the devil’s imps who were quite creepy and
often present right in the middle of the action. There were also strange, often ironic
animations plating in the background throughout the opera, probably not to
Gounod’s original intention. I think we
both thought the plot of the opera was a bit strange, Faust seems to regret his
bargain with the Devil almost immediately and for some strange reason
Marguerite was played as a cripple. The
singing, especially by the soprano, was as excellent as usual to our ears.
I was struck that every opera we saw this year (Rigoletto,
the Valkyrie, Cosi Fan Tutti, and Faust) all have women’s sexual (mis)behavior as
major themes: their fickleness, their loyalty, their redemptive or malicious qualities. Is this just an obsession of opera, or part
of the patriarchy? Clearly it is still a topic of political interest today. Anyway, we had a lot of fun seeing these
despite their absurdly compressed plotlines.
The music was great, and the whole event is such a spectacle. We are looking forward to seeing a few more
next year.
Anyway, to our ski trip.
I met Jasper at Midway as he deplaned from a Pittsburgh flight, and we
picked up some food and went to the gate for Denver. Our flight was uneventful, and Jacob picked
us up at the baggage claim area.
Supplied with some snacks (memorably baked
cheese things from Trader Joe’s) we drove directly to our large
house 5 miles south of Breckenridge.
Steve Minn arranged this rental.
The house lacked no convenience - - from heated garage, entertainment
room, two separate kitchens, fireplace, hot tub (it did lack a sauna). It was ample housing for the eleven of us
(three Browns, five Minns, and three Roths (friends of the Minns)). However,
the house’s location did require us to drive to and from the ski area each day,
which did prove to be a bit of a consistent hassle.
The Minns had taken possession about an hour before our arrival,
which was about 9:30 PM. They had gone to
the grocery store in Frisco and loaded up on all of the essentials: beer, wine,
alcohol, beef jerky, salt loaded crispy snacks, breakfast cereal, juice, milk,
coffee, etc. We had some beer and snacks and went to bed. Our ski rentals (for Alex, Jasper, and me)
were going to be delivered the next morning at 8, and we wanted to get to the
mountain by 8:30.
Alex was up early on Saturday, cooking breakfast turkey
sausage and eggs. There had been 2-3
inches of new snow overnight. Our ski rentals came on time and we were supplied
and set by 8:15. Sadly, some of our
party were slow in the morning, and after the chaos diminished we were on our
way into town in two cars. Two things
happened on our way in - - our cars got separated. Jacob’s car made it to the Beaver Run lot
where we wanted to park, but the lot was full by 9:20. The Minn car was lost, but made it to the Tiger
Dredge (Riverwalk) lot, which had ample parking. So we met them there. The issue with the Dredge lot is that you
have to take a free shuttle bus to the lifts, which is a hassle in ski boots -
- but we made it. We did our first run
together, but then split up. I spent most
of the vacation skiing with Alex, Zach, Jacob and Jasper, sometimes joined by
Steve, two of the Roths (Tom and Daniel, Susannah was not a skier), and Peter
and Tina Horwich (other friends of the Minn’s).
We spent most of the time on the first day on the Falcon chairlift on
peak 10, which on the south side had some moderately steep runs with moderate
moguls. It started snowing at the end of the day, so he headed in. We managed
to reconvene at the bottom, and went back to house for a soak in the hot tub.
We were joined that evening by the Roths (who brought more
food) and by April. Lucy made a
tremendous linguini with meat sauce, salad, and garlic bread. We also ate many appetizers.
Steve was the early riser on Sunday. At breakfast we were
joined by the Horwichs, who own a condo in Breckenridge. They took the two Roths with them to start up
at the middle of the mountain, and the six remaining skiers went to the Beaver
Run lot, which is conveniently located next to two chairlifts. Lucy, April, and Susannah stayed back to go shopping
in town later. We skied peak 10 again,
and were joined by the Roth/Horwich party around 11 AM. This time we went down some of the heavily mogulled
slopes on the north side of the peak. We
took a break around noon, and then headed back to peak 10. People were feeling tired, so he headed back
in.
Sunday night we went into town where we ate at the Kenosha (!) steak house. The seating plan was a bit weird, and I ended
up at the “kid’s” table, but I had an amusing conversation with Jacob and
Jasper about our favorite elements (Carbon, Nitrogen, and Cobalt, let alone ‘surprise’),
and how Gravity isn’t really real.
Monday we decided to go ski the imperial lift (a bowl at
about 13,000 feet), and some of the chair 6 runs. Imperial was much easier than two years ago,
probably because there was less snow this year, and hence the moguls were smaller.
After a couple of runs Jasper’s shin was hurting from his boot, so he headed
down the mountain with Zach. On the other hand, there were more exposed rock
faces, as Alex, Jacob found out when we went down a chair 6 run, and found
ourselves above about 15 feet of exposed mud and rock. Somehow, Alex and I got down, but Jacob had
to de-ski. AS we went up another lift, I
thought some of the other runs looked ok, so we tried again. The results weren’t as disastrous, but we had
had enough of that slope. We headed off
to the Overlook for lunch, and as I took off my goggles, the screw popped out
of my glasses on the left side (it has been loose for a while now). I recovered the lens, but the screw was gone,
and I was left half blind. We ate a
snack, and Alex and Jacob led me down the mountain to safety where we met up
with Jasper. Jacob kindly decided to
stop skiing, and drove us into town to an optometrist put a new screw in the
frame (and surprisingly charged for it!).
We walked around town for a while, going into art galleries, T-shirt stores, and beef
jerky emporiums. We met up with the
Minns at 3:30, and headed back to the house.
Jacob, Jasper, and I packed up and headed back to Denver,
taking the Loveland Pass home. The drive
was fine (no one got sick). We got to
Jacob’s house where we were joined by the lovely Christine. We had a beer, walked around the capital, and
then headed to a local vegetarian restaurant, City o’ City.
Tuesday morning Jacob took us to the Denver Biscuit Company for breakfast, we
walked to an anarchist
bookstore and coffee bar (poorly organized, but with lots of pinball
machines for some reason. It is no
Powell’s, however). Jacob took us to Denver’s
cute Union station, where Jasper and I got onto the 'A" train to the airport. The ride was great, but I noticed that at the
points where the tracks cross the road, not only did the train sound it’s horn
repeatedly, not only were there gates that closed at the crossing, there was
also a human being standing in front of the gates, with fluorescent clothing,
holding a big stop sign. We must have passed at least a dozen crossings - - I
shudder to think what the expense of this was not a temporary measure.
Happy Pi day!
Love, H.
Top of the world: Jacob, Alex, Jasper, Zach, Henry
1 comment:
sounds like a beef jerky fest!
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