Most of Saturday morning and the early part of the afternoon was spent recovering from sensory overload. Goldie and I kept talking over and over about the wondrous events of the night before. We would remember little things and talk about them all over again. You know how that goes. We had planned to go to see the Vietnam War Memorial but really we lacked the energy to do that so we went and had a late breakfast and relaxed for a few hours. Then it was time to shower and don the dinner jacket again for our trip to the Kennedy Center where we were to be the guests of Washington National Opera at a performance of Hamlet. I had seen the Met HD transmission a couple of months ago so was not totally unfamiliar with the piece and was excited that the performance was to be conducted by Maestro Domingo.

We arrived at the Kennedy Center at around 6:15pm and collected our tickets. Michelle Pendoley had, once more, spoiled me and provided fabulous orchestra seats. The Kennedy Center is pleasant without being sumptuous and the opera house itself very nice, but in no way glitzy. Before the beginning of the show we ran into Timm Burrow's partner Larry in the lobbby.  Goldie had met him at the ball the  night before but I had not.  He is tall, very handsome, funny and charming.  They make a fabulous couple.  I enjoyed the opera performance enormously. Elizabeth Futral, who we had seen sing the role of Violetta in La Traviata at San Diego Opera just a few weeks ago, sang the role of Ophelia. She looked and sounded terrific and showed no signs of the real-life drama soon to come. I had hoped that my new friend Liam Bonner would be singing the title role but his appearance was delayed for a few days and we saw Michael Chioldi in the role. He was fine but I am sorry not to have seen Liam. Sam Ramey played Claudius and, really, the less said about his voice at this stage, the better. Elizabeth 'Betsy' Bishop was formidable in the role of the queen. The orchestra responded well to Maestro Domingo and the chorus was as good as I have heard in a long, long time. The production was very different from that at the Met and was set in some sort of totalitarian fascist regime. Somehow this whole conceit worked very well for me. The sets and costumes were impressive and much of the staging was almost breath-taking.

After the intermission, we were informed that Elizabeth Futral had allergy problems and would not be continuing the performance. Her place was taken by Micaëla Oeste, a singer from the WNO young artists programme. I cannot imagine how she must have felt, knowing that without the benefit of having had the first two acts to warm up, she was going to have to go pretty much straight into the mad scene! I am happy to report that her appearance was a triumph and would have been a star-is-born moment had she sung the whole opera. The audience responded accordingly.

After the show Goldie and I went backstage where we met Maestro Plácido Domingo. He was gracious and friendly but looked tired and really not well. The dude abides but he needs to take a rest! We then joined Timm Burrow and Larry and Larry's sister for a late supper at the Club 600 in the Watergate complex. There were Oysters Watergate on the menu. I wondered what would earn the bivalve that appellation; harder to open than a Watergate door, perhaps?


Finally it was time for bed again, knowing that Sunday morning we would be entertaining 30 people to brunch in Georgetown. And of that you may read tomorrow.