Cultural Extravaganza
The Sunside Jazz Club is considered one of the best jazz clubs in Paris and attracts top international jazz talent. The most popular club in Paris is probably The New Morning, but Sunside is a lot more intimate. I was there to attend a performance by the Agathe Jazz Quartet – I was very excited about seeing them live after having watched all their YouTube videos. Agathe does the pleasantries in French and I don’t understand anything, but most of the songs are in English. The first song is a slow, groovy jazz song, but the performance picks up pace really fast. She does all her popular numbers, including Between the Bars and Hit the Road, Jack. When she breaks the performance with more incomprehensible French, I go up there at the risk of embarrassing myself, speak to her and get an autograph; she tells me there are two sets left. Phew! For the next three hours, I close my eyes and drown in the jazz. All the jazz improvisation is in tandem and the pianist, cellist and drummer seem to have magic in their fingers. I catch the last metro train back home, with the music still resonating in my mind.
The Palais Garnier (Opera House) is simply majestic. It has a history of its own and had its claim to fame as the setting of the book
The Phantom of the Opera. Some advice to the regular backpacker – don’t spend money paying for a visitor’s ticket that allows you to see around. Instead, for about the same price, one can get tickets to a three-hour ballet, with respectable seats. The Opera House has a wonderfully high ceiling adorned with chandeliers and beautiful carvings on the side. There is a warm red tinge to the whole place and everything looks exquisite and royal with golden borders. There are a mixture of people – Paris high society with their trailing gowns in luscious colours and prim bow ties, the tourists in drab jeans or shorts and sunglasses, the regular ballet connoisseurs who head straight to the floors above to take their seats and people like me, who have a stray free Saturday and a friend visiting from Aachen to be entertained. The best seats, right across the stage, cost a third of my monthly stipend and hence is not really a viable option. The seats get progressively cheaper, and the view worse, higher up; the arrangement is a smaller, more royal version of the Quidditch stands during the World Cup. From the top floors, around sixty percent of the stage is visible, which is still a good deal: the stalls have red velvet and golden lining and the seats are comfortable, and the semi-top view isn’t half bad.
The first piece is Dances at a Gathering by New York based Jerome Robbins. It is choreographed to Chopin’s music which is played beautifully by a female pianist– occasionally, I feel that the sole piano is insufficient to satiate the entire hall. I am very confused throughout the performance and find solace in others who are shooting the same perplexed glances (I read later on that there isn’t really a connecting thread between the different sections). The dancing itself is vividly graceful, mercurial and full of emotion. The second piece is Psyche by Ratmansky and completely makes up for anything lacking in the first piece. The orchestra’s strings resonate and I would have enjoyed just the symphony and the choir. Psyche is a traditional love story with a happy ending, the kind I like best, and this time I had no problems understanding the premise. The story did not distract the audience from the dancing, which might have happened if the narrative was more complex. The costumes are radiant, chic and adequate. There is abundant dancing and acting with minimal props and setting. Another evening well spent.
