19/11

Last night I saw an unbelivable production by the same director who di Daemon called Opus 7. It was a two part show. The first was about the directors family, his heritage and there disaperence durring the Holocaust. It was done through a Chorus singing different songs while moving and forming different parts of the history. My favorite part was they took buckets of paint and threw them on the cardboardwall and from the splatter they created the Jews. They then took a knife and cut around the upper half of their body. They were then backlit as the paintings had a glowing circle of light around them; then the bodies fell and the center and all these ripped up news paper clipings came flying out everywhere. This led into what I think was the news of the holocaust as picture of Jews flased againts the walls. The second part was about a Russian compser during the stalin era, who barely escaped with his life but was the pride of Russia. To composer was played by this woman who has a beautiful soprano voice and was the lead in Daemon as well. The composer was just a child when he began and was quite young while he was being hunted by stalin. Russia was represnted by a giant woman puppet. Who started with the composer teaching him how the play the piano, as the woman climbed and painted and tipped over a wooden sturcture of a piano. Then the puppet was given a hat a gun and pictures of famous poets, actors, and artists of the time were brought out. One by one they were all shot except for the composer who ran away and barely escaped. It ended with the composer on display for everyone as the Puppet came back again as Mother Russia and embraced him. It was really amazing the woman was fearless she was doing the most amazing things with her body climing up things and working with the other cast members she had unbeivable control. I had so much fun and it was really mentally stimulating which I think is amazing when theater can do that.
I will try to finish a little bit about Petersberg although it'll be quick. The picture will be easier to tell the story with. I don't remeber what I said about the Summer Palace but it was beautiful. The summer palace is mainly about the archetecture. It was built for Catherine the Great and was mainly constructed in the Baroque style, although part of the palace which was done by her son in a later style but I can't rember what it is called. The rooms are all beautiful gold is everywhere and hand painted tiles and dining sets. The ball room litterally glitters. The most famous part of the Palace is the Amber room. I don't have any pictures because they are very strict about photos there. It is one of Russia's crowning joys which was a gift from the Germans, all the wall panals are made of pure amber of colors ranging from bright yellow to deep red, it is a magnificint work of art. The sad thing about the winter palace is that most of it is not original. When the Natzis invaded Russia they were headed toward Petersberg and they set up fort at the summer palace. As the Russians though closed in the Natzis knew that they couldn't hold their position so they burned the palace diminishing the main building and one of the winds to rubble. Luckly some things were saved by the musuem workers who as the Natzis approach shipped as much as they could of to Siberia. One of the things destroyed was the Amber room, the Natzis ripped the amber slabs of the wall and either destroyed them or hid them somewhere in Germany. The Russians never tracked them down, it was one of the most expensive projects completely recreating the amber slabs exactly as they had been before.
Probably the most moving place I saw was Saint Peter and Pauls catherdral in the fortress. I have never been to one of the grand catherdrals in Europe, this was my first one and it was completely overwhelming. Peter the Great built it for he, his family, and future rulers final resting place and it was stuning. Painting on the cealings, the tomb of Peter and alter that could not be desribed in words or shown in picture. The artist created a complex scene or sculpture I don't know how to describe it in gold, you could stand for hours and never get bored. We heard a choir sing; in the seagull there is a line by Nina,"My heart is overflowing with you." I didn't understand what it ment until I was this. The room filled your sould with a energy that moved you to tears. It was the true meaing of beauty.
Everything else is still going really well. We have been kicked into high gear in order to make the most of are 4 1/2 weeks left. My body is very sore but very happy. Still so much work to do.
Love
Kirsten