JWG

Since May 18 we have watched 26 evenings of MetOpera streams. 27 operas since one night had two of them. That is in additon to the 22/23 we had watched before. And more to come. Although in 3 weeks from now we will have probably have the nightly showing of the RedSox opera.

Mozart: Idameneo
Wagner: Lohengrin
Mozart: Don Giovanni
Gounod: Faust
Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust
Verdi: Ernani
Bellini: La Somnambula
Strauss: Salume
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euiridice
Puccini: Tosca
Adés: The Exterminating Angel
Verdi: Otello
Tchaikovski: Iolanta / Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle
Corigliano: The Ghosts of Versailles
Handel: Rodelinda
Gluck: Iphigéni en Tauride
Verdi: La Forza del Destino
Verdi: La Traviata
Saint-Saens: Samson et Delila
Massenet: Manon
Massenet: Cendrilla
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte
Wagner: Die Walkũre
Shostakovitch: The Nose
Bizet: Carmen
Mozart: Don Giovanni

It's hard to believe that it was 5 months ago when we returned from our Southern Africa trip. It was a Road Scholars trip, our first one, with a bit of time on our own on the way.

We started out with two days/one night in London and went to some museums and popular sites.

Then we flew to Johannesburg and spent a couple of days there - visiting among other places, the Apartheid Museum and Constitution Hill - some very interesting history explained there - especially with what is happening here now.

The we flew to CapeTown to join the tour. We had an excellent very knowledgable guide for the trip - a native Southern African (white) who gave us lots of information in small spurts and a few formal lectures. After several days we flew to Pretoria, spent a short time there and then embarked on a 3 day luxury train trip to Victoria Falls. I've always wanted to see it. There were various short safaris in vans and boats sprinkled througouht the trip. We got to see lots of animals - some in the distance and some up close - we did go to an elephant spot where we got to touch them.

We'll definitely do more Road Scholar trips when it is possible to travel again - just got a new catalog - mostly US trips.

So we got to add three countries to our list: South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. (On previous trips we were in Egypt, Kenya, and Tanzania.)

The cabin we stayed in for the last two nights of the trip at the Zambezi River Lodge



And something?

Chobe Narional Park in Botswana had lots of fine birds and animals.

Some more creatures in Botswana

In our last full day of our Southern Africa trip (in January) we went into Botswana and among other things we saw lots of elephants.

One of the few good things about the current situation are the daily Met Opera streaming operas - a different one each night/day.

Thus far we have watched 22 shows (23 operas):

Verdi: Don Carlo
Verdi: Macbeth
Bellini: Norma
Verdi: Aida
Verdi: Falstaff
Mozart: Cosi fan tutti
Mussorgsky: Boris Goudunov
Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur
Puccini: Tosca
Verdi: La Traviata
Muhly: Marnie
Verdi: Aida (different production)
Verdi: Luisa Miller
Borodin: Prince Igor
Mozart: Le Nozze di Figero
Thomas: Hamlet
Puccini: La Bohème
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo: Pagliacci
Adès: The Tempest
Britten: Peter Grimes
Verdi: Rigoletto
Verdi: Nabucco

more to come

And Bartholomew who is one of ours.