An afternoon on the Mall

Alas. Sunday it rained all day. After three days of gorgeous, unseasonably warm days, the cold front moved through yesterday and we had constant mist and drizzle with the occasional outright downpour. Ordinarily, fall rain isn't a problem. But, yesterday was the day of Washington National Opera's annual simulcast on the Mall, this year of Madama Butterfly. Alas.




As you can see, attendance was down a little bit this year.

Last year during the simulcast of Porgy and Bess, there were probably between 12,000 and 15,000 people there for the performance, sitting on the grass, picnicking, and otherwise enjoying what was then a beautiful, sunny, fall afternoon. This year, though, between the rain, temperatures in the 40s, and a cold, piercing wind, there were maybe only 12 to 15 people there for the performance. Such a shame. The opera spent a lot of money getting the screen set up, arranging for what amounted to private port-a-potties for each attendee, security, publicity, and so forth. I just hope they continue the tradition next year!

So, Matt and Robert not being the outdoorsy, hearty types willing to endure harsh weather and adversity like Jon and me (LOL), we opted for an indoor activity, and headed to the Sackler Gallery for the afternoon. The Sackler Gallery, along with the next-door Freer Gallery, is the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art. We went particularly to see their current exhibition, "In the Beginning: Bibles before the Year 1000." And, yesterday afternoon, there was a special lecture demonstration related to the exhibit called "The Aleppo Codex: Chanting the Hebrew Scriptures," featuring a cantor from Baltimore who spent more time discussing notational esoterica than he did chanting. Following the lecture, we went to the Bible exhibit, which was in a really dark, ticket-only-for-admission gallery. Many of the books and page fragments were quite pretty. Of course, the early things in Aramaic, Arabic, Hebrew, and Greek I couldn't read; I was chagrinned, though, that I really couldn't read the Latin books and pages because I couldn't read the handwriting!

After we left the Sackler, we walked down towards the Capitol where the opera simulcast was taking place and stood in the rain long enough to hear the Humming Chorus and the end of act two. Then the guys were getting peckish from lack of food, so we popped into the National Museum of the American Indian and headed to Mitsisam, their cafeteria specializing in American Indian foods from across the continent.