More Opera

It was a cold, rainy day in Oslo.   We went to the Vigeland Sculpture Park, where the eponymous sculptor worked from 1925 - 1945 creating a huge amount of stone and metal sculptures of human figures.  It was impressive in its panoramic view of humanity, but the individual sculptures reminded me a little too much of the kind of things that Facist art did; at times we could have been in Mussolini's Rome.   It brought back memories of Socialist Realism for Vera.

At night we went to the Oslo Opera House to hear Monteverdi's Return of Ulysses, an opera written in 1639.  The malfunctioning subtitles in the first half made enjoyment difficult for me, but when the titles were working, it was a pleasure.   Excellent singers and a very large orchestra of with lots of unusual early Baroque instruments.  The production was the usual European updated mess;  we were in some kind of modern shipping office, and the Gods had waiter's uniforms with wings, etc.

The Oslo Opera House is a truly spectacular building.  Built on the waterfront, it has slanted marble planes which go all the way from the water to the roof.   You can walk all around on top of the roof.   Can't imagine what it would be like in the snow...
Brings up the usual thoughts about the cultural priorities in Vancouver vs. Europe.   For 500 million dollars, we got a new roof on our sports stadium.   Oslo got an opera house.

Pictures:

Off to Copenhagen tomorrow on our high speed tour...