During one of my music classes we were told that we would go on an excursion to Zwolle to see an opera. The opera was called Penthesilea written by my music teacher, Mr. Benedict Weisser. The opera tells the mythologic story of Penthesilea, queen of the Amazones, who falls in love with Achilles, the hero of the Trojan war. We would not see the real performance, but the general repetition.
On the December the 3rd, the day of our excursion, we gathered at the central station of Hilversum, where the wife of Mr. Weisser was waiting for us. She would guide us to the theatre and bring us back to the station in the evening. The train trip was long, but passed nicely, without any problem; everybody was too busy chatting and eathing candy. We left the train at the central station of Zwolle and walked to the theatre, enjoying the beautiful city. When we arrived at the theatre we first got an introduction to what we were going to see by the head of the theatre and after that went to the where to opera would be performed.
The first thing that came to my mind when we entered was: what a mess! The stage was covered with all sorts of broken object, for example destructed couches, tables, glasses. Also the colour black was very present. The walls were black, the roses on the ground were black and so was the furnature. I liked this decor very much, even though it was a chaos. When I sat down in the row that was assigned to our class, I noticed that the orchestra existed only out of five people: a contrabass player, a percussionist, a trumpet player, a guitarist and a forte-pianist. I expected a big orchestra but liked this as well, it made me curious, I did not have a clue how they would sound like together.
After approximately 5 minutes the lights went down and the music started. Pethesilea came up and set in. Her voice was very beautiful and sounded very good together with the modern classic music. Then Achillis, the bariton Alistair Shelton-Smith, joined Penthesile. Their voices were in perfect harmony with eachother and with the music. I thought the piece was very impressive, my idea of opera completely changed though. I always thought that they would have a large orchestra playing soft classic music, not like this modern music Mr. Weisser composed. I also thought the costumes to be different. The actors/vocalists wore modern cloths, not 17th century dresses. It was a very good experience.
After the performance we were allowed to speak with the member of the orchestra, which was fun. They told us about their instruments and played for us. It were talented, warm people. Especially the forte-pianist was very nice and joked with us. It was a good experience.
We decided to go to dinner somewhere with the group and Mr. Weisser's wife. We ended up in the city-centre of Zwolle in an nice Italian restaurant. Mr. Weisser would come a bit later. Almost everybody ordered pizza, but some prefered a pasta. We had a lot of fun and it was really cosy. Just when the dinner was served, Mr. Weisser joined us. He asked our opinions about the piece and we told him what we thought about it. The food was very nice and when everybody was finished we payed and walked to the station. It was already 8 o'clock, so we took the first train to Hilversum.
In an hour we were already in Hilversum, so everybody thanked Mr. and Mrs. Weisser for everything and said goodbye. Instead of going home I went to the cafe across from the station, because there I would go to see some jazz like I did before on Thursday. Again the music was great and the atmosphere nice. So, a good day full of music for me, I had a really good time!
See ya!
