Enduring Memories of Hangzhou (8/29)

Though an apt title for the week’s reflection, this was actually the title of a spectacular show performed outdoors in the West Lake Park. Like the Pingyao show, difficult to describe. Some 200 performers in the shallow waters of the lake with a booming sound system playing the recorded music mixed with some solo singers, violin player, pianist with music ranging from Tschaikovsky, Debussy and Beethoven to classical and folk and contemporary Chinese music. All of it illuminated by the dazzling artistry of a light show creating extraordinary effects. 

 

As mentioned about the Pingyao Show, the overblown spectacle is not my favorite art form but have to say that the section with the ending of Beethoven’s 9^th raised goosebumps. The power of that Ode to Joy, amplified 10,000 times by all these special effects! I imagined doing this with a live orchestra and singers, perhaps a thousand or so artists, surrounding the White House and blowing the walls of Jericho down with positive, life-affirming, love-affirming vibrations. Anyone game? 

 

Post concert, we walked to the lakeside, my hosts and a friend from Shanghai who came just to see me. It was so lovely, but hard to wholly appreciate in the hot humid air. At 9:00 pm, the temperature had lowered to a mere 95 degrees— but still not exactly comfortable. Had we been able to jump in the lake, that would have helped. But swimming in that spot was forbidden. 

 

And so ended my “enduring memories of Hangzhou.” Would love to come back someday in September or October. Tomorrow, up early for the flight to Guiyang, the next chapter in my China short story.