Lighting the candles

It's a tradition of the music group to meet in Ron's place at Advent. Ron comes from Germany (Lake Constance, to be exact), but has been in Ireland so long now that he's (as the saying goes) more Irish than the Irish themselves. Advent rather than Christmas is what's made a fuss of in Germany, and it's  time of the year which still means a lot to Ron.

Here he is lighting the candles which made the Advent roundabout revolve. He also lit two of the four Advent candles (the third would be lit the following day on the third Sunday). We'd normally stay on for Christmas goodies and glüwein, but Ron and I were both rushing in to town for the live screening of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg from the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Screening started at 5:00 pm and finished around 11:00.

Meistersinger is my favourite opera, so there was no way I was going to miss this screening of all that form the 2014/15 season. It was wonderful, though the lead tenor, though blessed with a glorious voice, was desperately disappointing as Walther who's vying for the hand of one of the Mastersingers and has to prove him self worthy by composing and singing a new song according to the strict rules of the Mastersingers guild.

His mentor is Hans Sachs, one of the most well-rounded character creations in all  opera. Fortunately for us, this rôle was sung by Michael Volle, considered the best in world for the part. He was wonderful, as were Paul Appleby as Sach's apprentice and Johannes Martin Kränzle as the bumbling Bechmesser, Walther's rival. A wonderful, long night visit to New York.