Ashland Springs Hotel - Oregon Trip, Part 5

We stayed three nights in Ashland Springs Hotel for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  This hotel was a historical landmark building with a very grand looking and dominated the skyline of the city.







It had classic facade and understated architectural details on all sides.









The lobby was just as impressive as the exterior and the breakfast and late evening after show snacks were served on the mezzanine with the view of the grand lobby:







There were many interesting curio showcases in the lobby, along with other wonderful furniture such as the fireplace:









Our room was not big, enough to move about and nicely decorated with a sliver view of the street and rolling hills in the distant.





If one temporarily forgot that this is the Bard's hotel, this wallpaper on the lobby surely would have reminded the guest otherwise:



We had heard that the hotel was somehow connected to the Scientology organization but other than this little booklet, sitting along a Bible in the drawer, we could not tell it from any other professional hotels:



It was a nice stay.  People who want to stay there could also investigate some package deals they had with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.


Related articles:
--> Coastal Northern California and Wine Country - Oregon Trip, Part 11 (The End)

--> Arcata, California - Oregon Trip, Part 10
--> Idyllic Parks and Cute Animals in Ashland - Oregon Trip, Part 9
--> Art in Ashland - Oregon Trip, Part 8
--> Natural Bridge and Crater Lake, Oregon - Oregon Trip, Part7 
 --> It Got Better - Three Plays at Oregon Shakespeare Festival - Oregon Trip, Part 6
--> Ashland Springs Hotel - Oregon Trip, Part 5
--> Ashland, Oregon - Oregon Trip, Part 4
--> A Night at McCloud, California - Oregon Trip, Part 3
--> Burney Falls in McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, Shasta County, California - Oregan Trip, Part 2
--> Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay, Redding, California - Oregon Trip, Part 1

Those Nasty Princesses - Turandot and Salome

Early this month, I saw my second Turandot by Giacomo Puccini.  Unlike the first time I saw it in the same production by British artist David Hockney on the same San Francisco Opera stage years ago with the truncated ending by Franco Alfano, this time, San Francisco Opera opted for Alfano's complete ending - Puccini died before he could complete his score for Turandot.  The longer ending made the transition of Turandot from an icy monster to a succumbed lover a bit more convincing, without reducing the bombastically glorious outpouring of the melody based on the "hit number" Nessun Dorma.


Luciano Pavarotti sings "Nessun Dorma"

Even so, the story of Turandot as presented by Puccini and his librettist was still a very hard to stomach and accept.  The story was simple: Chinese Princess Turandot, traumatized by a female ancestor's ravishment in the hands of invading male conquer, vowed not to surrender.  She posed three riddles for suitors - whoever solved them won her, otherwise, lost his head.  A tartar prince in exhile, Calaf won the battle and won her heart with a manly kiss.

Ridiculous stuff for sure.  However, beneath the ridiculousness and operative monstrosity, there were deeper meanings which eluded Puccini, whose specialty was small scaled daily emotion, detached from the social fabric.  His Madama Butterfly, his La bohème could be transport into any similar situation in any social and temporal setting, gaining universality but losing depth of social commentary as in Verdi or psychological insight as in Wagner. 

If it were Verdi, he would not have failed to pick out the elements of cultural clash between the female dominant, docile court of China, though hiding behind a bloody curtain, and that of the intrusive militant, male outsiders.  If it were Wagner, what a drama of battle of sexes we would have gain?  In Puccini's hand, we got a gloriously melodic opera celebrating two most insensitive protagonists on stage.  A lost opportunity, perhaps.  However, we do need our bonbons.

One of the illustrations Aubrey Beardsley
produced for the first English
edition of Wilde's play Salome (1894)

Watching the severed head of a losing suitor, I remembered another princess who liked to lob off head, this time, to gratify her own sexual desire - Princess Salome, courtesy of Oscar Wilde and Richard Strauss.

Awakening sexually on stage, and intrigued by the beauty of John the Baptist, who repulsed her advances, Salome demanded the head of Saint John on a silver platter and kissed the mouth of the severed head and tasted the blood.  In less than two hours time, Strauss presented us a spoiled child growing into a monstrous woman in a highly corrupted court and innocence lost.  His music was much more disturbing, way less heart tugging than Puccini's, but ultimately much, much more satisfying.

San Francisco Opera will present Turandot three more times this November - don't miss the rousing music, despite the gaudy and silly sets and costumes.

Ashland, Oregon - Oregon Trip, Part 4

After the McCloud, California, we arrived at Ashland, Oregon in the early afternoon.  Coming into the town from highway, soon, we spotted the landmark hotel we are to stay - Ashland Springs Hotel in downtown Ashland:



Once we settled in our hotel, we took a stroll and saw another landmark in Ashland - the public library with its original wing of Carnegie Library (built by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie):



The business district had a historic look which combined artisan and artistic styles wonderfully:

























A nice walk in the residential neighborhood near downtown revealed a wonderfully idyllic scene:















Looking beyond the downtown strip, one could see wonderful rolling hills, ever changing colors with the time of the day.















A little bit walking led us to a historical "Railroad District" which boasted a nice park, many galleries and wonderful coffee houses: 







All in all, I was quite charmed by Ashland.

Related articles:
--> Coastal Northern California and Wine Country - Oregon Trip, Part 11 (The End)

--> Arcata, California - Oregon Trip, Part 10
--> Idyllic Parks and Cute Animals in Ashland - Oregon Trip, Part 9
--> Art in Ashland - Oregon Trip, Part 8
--> Natural Bridge and Crater Lake, Oregon - Oregon Trip, Part7
--> It Got Better - Three Plays at Oregon Shakespeare Festival - Oregon Trip, Part 6
--> Ashland Springs Hotel - Oregon Trip, Part 5
--> Ashland, Oregon - Oregon Trip, Part 4
--> A Night at McCloud, California - Oregon Trip, Part 3
--> Burney Falls in McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, Shasta County, California - Oregan Trip, Part 2
--> Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay, Redding, California - Oregon Trip, Part 1