Around New Year's, I just so happened to see that Ballet West was performing The Sleeping Beauty in February. Swoon! I haven't seen a full performance of it in over 10 years, and felt it was high time to see it again. Madelyn was old enough and I knew she'd enjoy it, so I talked Mark into letting be reserve (expensive *cough cough*) tickets.
We had Big Plans for this day. Madelyn and I had the 2:00 matinee, but had to do something in the meantime. That "something" (for Madelyn) was to go swimming in the hotel pool, because if she didn't get to swim, under no circumstances was she going to be happy about going to the ballet. So imagine our horror when we discovered that the pool was closed after breakfast, because they'd had to shock it (with chlorine) the night before. Noooooooo! They assured us that it would be open around 11:00am.
Mark tried to talk her into just swimming that night, after the ballet, etc. but she wasn't having it. I often refer to her as "Your Highness," as in,"Yes, Your Highness, whatever you wish is my command." She just has that certain something (bossiness) about her.....I talked everyone into going somewhere to kill time until the pool opened because I didn't want to just mope around in our room, watching Luke trying to destroy everything. So we hopped in the car and just started driving around. We were going to go to Temple Square, but it was too rainy. We were driving down S. Temple when I casually mentioned, "Look, there's the Cathedral of the Madeleine." And her highness said, "Cathedral of the Madelyn?!? I want to go see it!"
(Ugh. Pretend like this is not a hideously unflattering picture and focus on the stats for the cathedral.) It was built in 1909. I lived in SLC for a year and never actually had gone inside to take a look, but I'd always wanted to. I love old Catholic churches!
Not to knock our LDS churches, but man, are they boring compared to this!
The stained glass doesn't look like much from the outside, but it's STUNNING on the inside.
Luke checking out the baptistry....he was excited about how magnificently his voice echoed with those vaulted ceilings. He was so loud that Mark had to pace around in the vestibule with him for the majority of the time. Hahaha. Vestibule is a funny word.
(Photo credit here)
There's the pipe organ up in the "gallery" and the beautiful rose window. My little point and shoot camera failed to get a good picture of this. To see another interactive 360º sweeping panorama of the whole cathedral, click HERE. It's awesome! And has proper lighting!
Outside view...it has some gnarly gargoyles. They weigh 1,200 lbs and are part dog, cat and bird. I love weird stuff like that.
Then there was this cool Presbyterian church just a few yards away. We walked over to check it out, but it wasn't open. I like that SLC has its share of diversity and am anxious to show my kids that there is nothing "wrong" with these other people or religions--in fact I think they have a lot of good to contribute to the world.
Anyhoo.....
We grabbed some grub from Taco Time and then went back to the hotel to thaw out and let Madelyn take a 30 minute dip in the pool because there was no way I was risking her being a grouch for the ballet. So she was finally appeased and then I had to blow dry her off and get her dressed. It's time to go!
Capitol Theatre! We're here! Eeek!
Michael Bearden and Katherine Lawrence, who played Princess Aurora and Prince Desire for our performance.
Ballet West is a world-class professional dance company stationed in SLC. I attended my first year of college at the University of Utah up there and my roommate's older sister Jessica Harston was a principal dancer in Ballet West. I think we saw every show of theirs that season, plus I saw Les Miserables and Falstaff (by the Utah Opera) there. I was always doing artsy fartsy stuff back then.
Madelyn was impressed by how "fancy" everything was, including herself. During the ballet, she constantly wanted to know what was going on (a lot of mime to interpret) so I had to keep whispering in her ear. She knows the story from the Disney movie and they use the same music for their soundtrack, so she was humming loudly for several parts. She really enjoyed it but ended up in my lap for the second half and actually fell asleep for the last 20 minutes. Those classical ballets do tend to run long....
The Sleeping Beauty ballet is my favorite of all. The story is timeless, straight out of a fairy tale--the costumes are sumptuous, the sets beautiful, and the music (Peter Tchaikovsky) is TO DIE FOR. I literally was brought to tears about four different times. Plus, I've danced a lot of the variations (short solos) over the years, so it brought back memories. The dancers were wonderful, the Utah Chamber Orchestra was magnificent, and it was definitely worth the trip.
I bought a CD of musical highlights (the original score is over three hours long) and I love this quote from Tchaikovsky:
"I think, dear friend, this ballet will be one of my best works. The subject is so poetical, so grateful for musical setting, that I was carried away while composing it and wrote with such warmth and enthusiasm that my feeling must surely be reflected in the music."
I searched high and low for a video of the Grand Pas de Deux from the wedding scene that was A: high quality, B: not from the 70's, C: hadn't messed with the original choreography, D: had a good, classic Aurora, E: had no powdered wigs (really. It's a French thing.) F: had good fish dives. (Those fish dives.....they get me every time. Swoon!) But it wouldn't let me embed!!!!
So click here to get to the video on You Tube of Alina Cojocaru and Federico Bonelli of The Royal Ballet. Sigh! I ♥ ballet!!!!!!!!!!!!
