The Eyes Have It

 

Back in February I photographed the dress rehearsal for Opera Southwest's production of Rossini's Le Comte Ory, starring Christopher Bozeka and Lindsay Ohse.  The opera is Rossini's only French-language comic opera, and it is hilarious.  You can read a brief synopsis of the opera here.  Suffice it to say, however, that Rossini's musical brilliance, coupled with a typically French comedy plot, make for a rollicking good show.  

Le Comte Ory is a lecherous but somewhat clueless Count who invents ridiculous schemes to win the preeminent object of his lust, the virtuous Adèle.  In Act I he poses as a phrenologist who offers counseling (and, implicitly, sexual satisfaction) to the women of the town . . . including, he hopes, Adèle.

By the end of Act I, Ory's identity is eventually revealed, much to the disgust of the women he has "counseled."

In Act II, Ory disguises himself and his men as nuns to gain access to Adèle's residence.

Needless to say, after lots of hijinks, things don't go well for the Count . . .

. . . and Adèle is united with her true love, Isolier, the Count's page.

In the course of reviewing and selecting the best images (from over 3,000) to document the performance, I began to notice a common feature of many images that seemed to capture and illustrate the wacky spirit of the opera:  namely, broad facial expressions and, more specifically, the eyes of the performers -- not just the principal singers, but others as well.

These expressions might be visible to people seated in the first few rows, but for those further back in the hall perhaps not so much.  And the looks are fleeting -- they appear and disappear in (dare I say it?) the blink of an eye.

But with my proximity to the stage -- roaming from side to side along the empty front row of seats, immediately adjacent to the orchestra pit -- and my camera's ability to stop time, I was able to capture some of those looks that might otherwise have gone unnoticed and unappreciated.

Some obvious examples:

And some not-so-obvious (and perhaps more interesting) examples.  Check the woman on the far left . . .

. . . and the man standing in the background:

Many looks of astonishment or surprise:

A few sidelong glances:

And lots of other emotions appear throughout:

Last but not least, a crucial ingredient of any comedy:  plenty of faux surprise and faux innocent faces.

Now of course the enjoyment of an opera in real time doesn't arise from stopping to note a gesture or a look. It's a holistic experience that relies primarily on the music and the singing; the action and staging; the costumes; the lighting; and the sets.  As Alexander Pope wrote in his An Essay on Criticism,


                    'Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call,
                    But the joint force and full result of all.


After the fact, however, photography gives us the ability to see and appreciate some of the details that contribute to the "joint force and full result of all."

If you would like to see these and many more images from the complete dress rehearsal, please visit my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.
 
Enjoy!

Utah Photo Adventure, Part 8 - Lagniappe

  (NOTE: This is the eighth (and last) in a series of posts about a photography trip I took in early November, 2022.)

On this seven-day trip to Utah, I made over 3,000 images.  In the previous seven posts (and associated website galleries), I've shared only 135 of them, primarily because (a) most of the 3,000 aren't great and (b) many of the good ones didn't fit neatly into the narrative arc of the posts' subjects.

So this post consists of images that I like for various reasons but didn't find a home in any of my previous posts.  I hope you enjoy them.

I'll start with some of the features/formations in the vicinity of Factory Butte.  Here we go . . .

For our sunrise shoot on the first morning we were at Factory Butte, we stood on a raised area east of the butte.  Here's a satellite view:

Here's what Factory Butte looked like from that location before sunrise that morning:

The images below are of two formations on that raised area, looking away from Factory Butte toward the southeast and northeast, respectively:

To give you a sense of the size of the features, here's Alan below the feature in the image above:

Here are two other views of the same feature from a distance.  First one is looking east over the ocean of soft round foothills at the base of the easternmost "arm" of North Caineville Mesa.  Factory Butte is out of the frame to the left.

This one (below) is looking south from the northeast side of Factory Butte, which is out of the frame to the right.

Next is an image of some of the Factory Butte foothills at sunset, with North Caineville Mesa in the background on the left (with classic "Blue Hour" light).

On a much smaller scale, my eye was frequently caught by some little detail amid the giant landscape features.  Here are two from the Mars Desert area, both sculpted by water:

Here's an interesting detail from the interior of a large piece of sandstone caprock that had broken off and fallen from the top of North Caineville Mesa:

And in the dry, cracked, and mostly barren argillaceous soil of the plain surrounding Factory Butte, life still finds a way:

For a behind-the-scenes look at how my friend, Alan, and I set up shop in the Factory Butte wilderness, here are a few images of photographers at work:

At Factory Butte for sunrise

At Moonscape Overlook

At Moonscape Overlook
Image courtesy of Alan Postelnek

At Moonscape Overlook

At Mars Desert

At Carl's Critter Garden

And for fun, a couple of beauty shots of my Subaru:

Maybe Subaru would like to use these for advertising?

Oops, it looks like GMC has beaten Subaru to the punch!  Here are two screen shots from a GMC truck commercial that ran during the recent NCAA basketball tournament.  Do the features in the backgrounds look familiar?

Factory Butte in the background

Moonscape Overlook

Finally, I'll close with two moonrise images.  The first one looks out over the plateau that surrounds Factory Butte (which is out of the frame to the left).

This one is an homage to Ansel Adams' famous photograph, "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico":

Moonrise, South Caineville Mesa, Utah

Thanks for coming along on my Utah Photo Adventure!

If you would like to see these images in a larger format, please visit my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.