Year One of 365, I was living in Berlin and had bought a ten-ticket train pass so traveling all around. I was on a dining car of a Polish train with only one other passenger, and that person is Víctor Campos-Leal, a Mexican tenor who I later traveled to hear sing the lead role of Alfredo in La Traviata. Who knew that two years later, I would be living in the same town, and able to hear him sing every week! Here, a triumphant conclusion to the role of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoore which he sung with such passion and conviction! During my year one, I worked at taking photos in difficult situations, and I especially tried hard to take good stage photos at the conclusion of a performance when lighting is tricky and the people are moving.
I'd say you've nailed it re photos in tricky lighting situations. This looks like it was a great event! What a coincidence!
PS -- am nibbling continually while waiting...if you don't want to wait for dinner tonight since I get in so late, I'm guessing I'll be fine.
@taffy Unfortunately, Victor isn't performing while you are here (can you believe I've already seen him perform four times, and I've run into him around town twice!) We can decide when you get here, no problem. This town is open late!
Your picture reminded me so much of my childhood - having grown up in Saint Petersburg, I ended up going to a lot of ballet and opera performances as a child. And despite enjoying the music and the performances every time, there was one thing that very much disturbed me back then - that after each dramatic conclusion, the tragic deaths of main characters, duels, hatreds, fights and wars, every one of the performers would come back out to the stage "safe and sound", smiling at each other as if they were not arch enemies, or weren't just stabbed to death by each other minutes ago. Every single time, I had a feeling that this part of the theater experience is just plain "wrong" :) . The blood on the actors in your picture just brought all those memories back! :)
@vera365 -- wow, Vera, you give me a lot to think about! I see your point -- that the drama of the ending is wiped out when this happens. Yet you can understand the singers wanting to me recognized for their roles. So perhaps more BRAVOS during the performance, and not at the end? Hmmm .. . it's such a tradition that I hadn't even considered it yet I completely understand what you are saying.
:) I think, what was challenging for me as a young viewer, was the necessity to exit the world and the atmosphere of each piece right after the the curtain flew up one final time and the actors came up to receive applause already as "actors" and not as "Romeo" and "Julia" or whatever roles they played. It was very hard to give up the idea right away that everything you've just witnessed on the stage was just a performance, and that the people on the stage could "enter" and "exit" their roles in such a quick time. For me as a child, it was both fascinating and a bit confusing. :)
Junko -- can I use this in the camera setting challenge I'm setting up? Hoping it's okay. Let me know ASAP if it is NOT okay. Assuming beyond EXIF info that this was handheld, not tripod. Right?
@taffy -- sure; I typically do ISO 3200 f 5.0 and slower shutter speed but the problem this night was that the singers were moving backwards and forward for the applause, and I was getting motion blur at the setting I was originally trying to use. Perhaps my favorite "stage photography" I've done is this one: http://365project.org/jyokota/365/2014-01-02
and this one, in which I could use slower shutter speed because the singer was holding a note for a long time: http://365project.org/jyokota/challenges-and/2013-09-12
"lighting is tricky & people are moving"! That sums it up! I SO wished to take photos during the performance, but it would be frowned upon... How incredibly fortuitous your meeting was on that train, and how lovely to attend the opera so often! I have a huge amount of envy!
@Weezilou -- of course I'd never take photos during a performance, but it seems like it's quite acceptable to take photos of curtain calls and many people do so. I feel VERY lucky to have met Victor and now his lovely family, and to get the "black hair family discount" as I call it whenever I go to the opera in Wroclaw!
October 6th, 2015
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PS -- am nibbling continually while waiting...if you don't want to wait for dinner tonight since I get in so late, I'm guessing I'll be fine.
and this one, in which I could use slower shutter speed because the singer was holding a note for a long time: http://365project.org/jyokota/challenges-and/2013-09-12