For Christmas, I bought us tickets to see the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. I’ve never been to the NJ PAC before, so this was a treat for everyone. My wife and I made plans for our big “date night.” I asked my mother-in-law to watch the kids over night. After surviving our usual Saturday nonsense, including the big Pinewood Derby race, we got the four of us ready. We dropped off the kids, then raced up to Newark for dinner. Earlier in the week, we had looked around for somewhere really nice to eat, and eventually settled on having dinner at 27 Mix, which was not far from my office. I’ve walked by there a few times, and had been told it offered nice selections. We checked out the menu of “Southwestern, Asian, and Italian Fusion” items, and said, “Sounds good to us.”
Dinner was very nice, though I wasn’t too sure about the choice of late 90’s rock music playing in the background. During dinner, we discussed the convenience and safety of sticking with our free street parking on Halsey St in front of the restaurant and walking to the NJ PAC 2-3 blocks away, or driving the car to the parking garage under Military Park, paying $15, but having a closer walk after the concert. Also, how safe would it be to walk around that part of Newark after 10pm on a Saturday night? And how cold? We decided to move the car, park for $15, and be safer and warmer. In the end, it was a $15 worth spending.
We made it to the NJ PAC with plenty of time before the 8 pm concert: conductor Jacques Lacome conducting three pieces in LACOMBE CONDUCTS BEETHOVEN & TCHAIKOVSKY.
One of the most famous thunderstorms in symphonic music lies among the idyllic scenes Beethoven portrays in his great Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral.” Actors from The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey join forces with the NJSO to create a tempestuous collage of music and drama in Sibelius’ The Tempest.
JACQUES LACOMBE conductor
THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE OF NEW JERSEY
Bonnie J. Monte artistic director
NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
- TCHAIKOVSKY The Tempest Fantasy-Overture
- SIBELIUS The Tempest
- BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral”
The concert was very nice, and I was intrigued by the portion of Shakespeare’s The Tempest that these performers from The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey performed. I’ve never read “The Tempest”, so I started wondering why I’ve only read Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet? A little sad. It made me think that I need to expand my horizons further.
The concert ended a little after 10 pm, and we headed off to the car, hit the road, and got home sometime around 11:30 pm. A full day, but it ended well. The Ipes survived another weekend, and we did it with a little style and class. Booyah!
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