2026.3.15. Puget Sound Concert Opera - The Consul

3/15, Sunday, 3pm. Puget Sound Concert Opera's 2nd performance this weekend of The Consul by Gian Carlo Menotti (both music and libretto).

The plot is sad. A dissident escapes towards the frontier, leaving wife, baby and mom, who are now monitored by the secret police. The wife goes to the consolate day after day trying to get a visa to join her husband. The secretary of the consul is a heartless burreaucrat who demands numerous documents from all applicants. In the end, baby, mom, wife all die, husband captured.

I liked the songs about "tomorrow, tomorrow", and "papers, papers". Some words are clever. Overall I enjoyed it. A pleasant surprise is that they had laid out some food during the intermission.

This is the first time I ever visited Langston Hughes performance center.

2026.3.5. First Thursday at Seattle Art Museum

3/5 Thursday. Two new exhibitions at SAM.

Beyond Mysticism - the modern northwest is quite a large collection, focus on PNW artist or scenary. However, there're a couple of Dalí's paintings. Quite fun to see. I like fanciful imagery. The local artist Malcolm Roberts is new to me, very Dalí like paintings. I'm very disappointed that Wikipedia doesn't have a proper article on him. I also like Reginald Marsh's fun depiction of indoor scenes in NYC.

In the middle of this special exhibition is a "living room" fit with paintings on the walls and books on shelves. Quite cozy.

Another exhibition is a solor show of Samantha Yun Wall. Very stylish, creative, all black and white. Shadows, hands, eyes. I quite like these. Wall is the winner of SAM's Betty Bowen award for Northwest artists.