It’s wonderful in this day and age to have ready access to all sorts of recordings, but the experience Saturday night was yet another reminder of the power and immediacy of a live performance. It took me back to 1982 when I heard Von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic do Mahler 9 at Carnegie Hall. This performance was different (and the sound very different), but, IMHO, in the same league.

A much more interesting and important question is at play here than simply whether one liked the Malkovich production. Consider – of all the performances you choose to attend, what percentage would you like to love? Like? Tolerate? Hate? If you want to love 100% of those you attend, you probably won’t be expanding your artistic horizons very much. We all have to make our own decisions about how often we are prepared to go to a performance that we really, really don’t like. But we have to take that chance in order to be blown away by something that we unexpectedly find that we really, really love.

Sorry to hear you left – we started in the rain at 3:30 on Saturday afternoon and had a marvelous experience. The rain made the play even more intense – I think it would be much better than in sunshine. They distributed excellent umbrellas to take around, so getting wet was no problem. Watching the rain on Fleming Creek while listening to the performers at location 4 added a a wonderful touch – and the blue heron that flew past us we apporached location 7 was an omen of events to come.

Susurrus is an experience not to be missed – rain or shine!