When we last left our friends, the boy from Rochester had gone to do his own thing, and I met up with yet another friend under the clock on Peavey Plaza. It’s Sommerfest, and he and I went to Orchestra Hall that night to enjoy the festivities there. Out on the plaza, it’s more of the festival atmosphere, with a few vendors hawking hot dogs, ice cream and beer, all at over-priced fees, and jazz combos putting everyone in fun mood.

We, however, were on our way inside, to hear the Minnesota Orchestra perform Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, followed by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev dueling each other with selections from their versions of Romeo and Juliet. Interestingly, the orchestra alternated between the two composers’ versions, while four actors performed selections from the script. It worked very well, and I realize more and more that I’m a lot more familiar with orchestral music than I think. I recognized so much from the performance, with little “aha!”s happening in my head as I discover the origins of the music I hear here and there. It has its drawbacks when I can’t listen to a certain theme in Piotr’s Romeo and Juliet without thinking of a butter commercial, however.

The performance was amazing, I saw a conductor (Andrew Litton) who I had never seen before, and both during the performance and afterwards, I got to spend some time with a friend who I really don’t spend enough time with. All in all, an evening well-spent starting with with pop and ending with panache, all within twelve square blocks.

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4. UFO’s in MPLS?
5. Wanted: Downtown Restaurant for Two Couples’ Night Out