More Images from Granada (Seville tomorrow!)
Breakfast for Janet....
...and breakfast for the birds.
The courtyard of our hotel (Casa del Capitel Nazari) - a restored 16th century Renaissance palace.
The Manulife Gardens at the Alhambra. It was in these gardens that we saw a performance of the Berlin Ballet. The choreography was magical and the setting of course was perfect.
The Palacio de Carlos V in the Alhambra, where we saw two performances. The Staatskapelle Berlin Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, simply blew me away! In the first half they performed Schonberg's Erwartung, Op. 17, with the help of soprano Angela Denoke. Such powerful, turbulent music! Schonberg himself described this piece as 'a representation of the most terrifying psychological stress a human being can experience compressed into a single second, with everything that happens in that second detailed in slow motion.' When it was over, I could hardly breathe! The second half was Mahler's Syphony No. 1 in E Major, and while it was very good, I was still reeling from Schonberg so it probably didn't have the impact on me that it normally would.
The second performance we saw was that of the Whirling Dervishes of Istanbul. Imagine closing your eyes and turning around and around in circles for a half hour without stopping and without falling over from dizziness. The Sufi drumming and singing is trance-like and allows the performers to go to a place beyond this earth. I have read that to keep from getting dizzy they focus on their outstretched thumbs. Amazing! I must admit that part of me felt uncomfortable watching this....it was as if I had stumbled upon a very private gathering and was seeing a ceremony that wasn't for my eyes. The above photo was taken from this web site.
The last performance we saw in Granada was by flamenco dancer Belen Maya. Without a doubt, she is one of the most charismatic dance performers I have ever seen. This photo was taken from this website.
6:28:02 AM 
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