November 9, 2010: Handel's Messiah at Palace of Arts

November 9, 2010: After school today, I met with a private student that Hajni, the director of CETP told me about. This was a one time session since the woman I met with is interviewing for an opening for a medical internship at UC Davis for next year. Her interview will take place on November 10th and will last a total of five minutes. She thinks there are about 20 applicants all vying for one of two internships at Davis. Her English is quite outstanding and needed little correction, but we met to practice what the interviewers (all Hungarian) will ask of her (in English). Her resume is very impressive already for her age (25). She's won several prizes in medical paper competitions and she has already been on two internships in Germany (She claims she's more proficient in German than English if that is possible). Her field of specialization is obstetrics and gynecology, but she did significant research in renal medicine. She described one of her research projects where she collected and examined mouse urine for protein and creatnine (sp?). In addition to being bright, she seemed to be a very interesting and vibrant person. She promised to let me know how her interview goes.

After returning home and eating dinner, I prepared for going to hear Handel's Messiah at the Palace of Arts. One of my colleagues at Ujpest High School sings in the choir regularly but is on break for a couple of months due to other obligations. She wanted to hear her choir perform and asked if I'd like to go along. Of course I agreed to, and I was very impressed with the quality of the concert. Here are pictures of the Palace of Arts Concert Hall at night and the neighboring National Theater building. There's also a picture of the orchestra and choir just before the performance started.

Palace of Arts by night

National Theater of Hungary by night

Handel's Messiah at Palace of Arts

My friend told me that the theater can be reconfigured depending on the size of the concert performance (in other words the ceiling can be raised for a concert where more performers are required, and lowered if the performance is more intimate.) As you can see, the theater is quite modern and has been built to enhance the sound being produced on stage -- although Disney Hall still has the edge on this theater.

The soloists were outstanding -- especially the tenor, soprano, bass, and alto (does that leave any soloist out?) The orchestra had tremendous talent and the choir sounded very much like our own LA Master Chorale. My colleague showed me the calendar for upcoming concerts and it looks like their choir will be performing a couple of major concerts each month through May. Of particular interest to me is Mahler's 3rd which will be performed February 13th. There is a significant part of that symphony that requires a choir.

Another concert that she says will be particularly nice is the swinging Christmas concert on December 21st. Ruth will be in Budapest then so perhaps I'll buy some tickets for that, too. By the way, my ticket broker at school was able to secure two better tickets for La Boheme than expected. Ruth and I will be seated in the second row of the second balcony facing the stage. That is something I'm really looking forward to seeing/hearing. 

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the concert, one trend I notice in Hungarian audiences (I've been to three musical performances now) is that the audience applause eventually results in coordinated clapping, meaning that applause is done together: clap (silence) clap (silence) clap (silence) etc. I realize that this kind of applause shows tremendous appreciation of what has just been performed, but I wonder if the tendency is done a bit too much. At any rate, I did like the concert and appreciate the quality of music available in Hungary.