Sheherazade \approx Shahrzad
Last weekend (v)Alentino and I went to watch the symphony play Sheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. The music is based on the one thousand and one night fable where a jaded king believes all women are dishonorable and dishonest. So every night he would get a new wife and in the morning, he would kill her. Until that is, he married Shahrzad (the correct Persian pronounciation -- and she was a persian queen). On the first night, to farewell her sister, she told her a story. The king overheard her and was in awe and wanted to hear another story. However Shahrzad said the king would have to wait for the next night. For 1001 nights Shahrzad told stories, at the end of which time it seems that the king had 3 songs with her and had been taught about morality and kindness. (everything up to here is plausible except for that 3 sons part. Is that even theoretically possible in 1001 nights?)
This is a very beautiful piece. The above video is the beginning of the piece where you can just picture the king having made his royal decree and then you hear the beautiful and sweet voice of Shahrzad bewitching his with stories. Really beautiful.
We also had a very special seats! we were sitting right at the front, on the 3 row in te orchestra section, on the right edge. We had very good views of the back of the double base players, the conductor and the first violin!! Fortunately, there were a lot of violin solos and the conductor was fun to watch!
A great night, ending with a quick stop in Carl Jr's for a bite to eat in all our finery :-P
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