Lighting Moments 5 and 6--

More Cloud Envy--
There is something wonderfully magical about the sky in Vermont, particularly the sky during sunset. The clouds are so dramatic, the lighting so stark and piercing yet warm. There is no denying the sense of sentimentality surrounding a sunset and its metaphor for a loss of vitality and aging. And while there remains a certain stigma around Nature being overly sentimental and too romantic to the point of cheesiness, for me these sunsets embody a daring-ness and devil may care attitude. Today, there was the most gorgeous sunset. Above the blue-hued mountains was a deep caverness slice of golden orange and right above it was a thick blanket of grey-blue clouds. Highlighting the heavy cloud cover were subtle dustings of rosy pink. It literally looked like the clouds had applied blush. The stark contrast of the piercing golden orangy light peeking through the grave clouds and being framed by the mountains was just so intensely gratifying. It calls to the smallness of human perception but also reminds us of the expansive and transformative power of our imagination.

Opera Moment—
I recently saw a production by the Met Opera of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in which I found the opening scene very pithy. A silhouetted figure set in center stage is plucking the petals off of a flower and once the last petal is shed, a mass of autumnal leaves fall from the sky. The whole set is very plain. There are three massive walls and a floor covered fully with leaves. The light is again a warm golden orange/amber—very evocative of fall in the most traditional sense. I loved the simplicity of this lighting and how beautifully elegant those leaves looked as they fell swiftly to the ground. The Romantic period is really striking my fancy as you can see.