Tranquil Japanese harmony in Saratoga

Hakone Gardens is a privately-run estate garden in Saratoga, near the south-western edge of San Jose, California.  It is a tranquil piece of Japanese harmony hidden along Big Basin Way (State hwy 9)  just south of the Saratoga Village centre - a gem not to be missed if you are in the area or driving through.  The Gardens, created in 1917, have been around for almost a century and some of its trees for even longer.  I was there for a wedding and took these photos before the event.  The bamboo garden turned out to be the best backdrop ever for the wedding photos with just the right amount of shade and light filtering through.

Picture-perfect

Kois and turtle compete for attention

Complete with waterfall and lily pads 

Bamboo garden

The "Marilyn Monroe Towers"

Amazing condo buildings are a common sight in Chicago, but who would expect to see such spectacular buildings in Mississauga, Ontario?  Well, it's only a half hour drive from Toronto and the past couple of years when I visited the Mississauga City Centre for an annual concert, I couldn't help but marvel at the way these two buildings look - the voluptuous shapes, alluring from every angle and particularly dazzling in late afternoon.  I'm sure if I had hung around for sunset, they would look stunning.   They won the Best Tall Buildings in the Americas prize in 2012, awarded by the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.  I will follow with some equally stunning Chicago buildings in the next posts.

The Gardens - Almost free concert

We were at the Gardens again tonight.  Fabulous concert in the Edwards Summer Music Series with Suba Sankaran and her father Trichy Sankaran, master drummer.  The master had the drum in total control, manipulating the rhythm and the sound with such dexterity it's totally awe-inspiring.  You can hear a sampling on his website.  I had not gone back to Indian music after I fell asleep at a Ravi Shankar concert many years ago - my mistake.  Tonight, I'm quite content just listening to the drums - it's complete in itself.  But Suba Sankaran has a lovely voice - a pleasure to listen to but the drummer is the star tonight.  And the gardens in the evening light provided a suitably dramatic backdrop - wrapping up a gorgeous summer day in the city.

The Gardens

Right in the middle of uptown Toronto is a green oasis of beauty and calm - Edwards Gardens.  I'd always loved its accessibility and the peacefulness it offers - the expansive grounds and the walk down the valley provide ample opportunities for the photographer.   With the adjacent Toronto Botanical Gardens, there is the bonus of seasonal changes in the floral displays.  You can see some of them here.

One of many giant willows in the Gardens

A Monet!

Toronto - A very creative Semele

We travelled to an amazing world of opera love and passion taking place in the restored ruins of a 16th century Chinese temple, amidst dazzling stage effects and playing to the strains of the baroque music of Handel's Semele at the Four Seasons Centre, home of the Canadian Opera Company.

I was awestruck by the many creative ways the temple on stage was transformed and wish I was allowed to take photos of each of the scenes.  Two particularly memorable scenes took place on the roof of the temple.  One was Semele singing on the roof with a moon behind her and eventually taking off with the moon - a very recognizably Chinese myth.  The other was Somnus, the god of sleep, waking up on a gigantic red quilt spread out on the temple roof with a sleeping balloon giant beside him.  Then to the audience's surprise, a nymph emerged out of the red quilt.  It was awesome!  Yet another scene has a whole mirrored wall on stage as a backdrop for the aria "Myself I shall adore, if I persist in gazing" - it provides a giant reflection of the orchestra and the audience.  Dazzling!  You can go to the COC website to see more scenes. 

The costumes by Han Feng were stunning - a rich blend of Asian and baroque aesthetics with some Hellenistic flavour persisting throughout the opera.   Other than her very Asian marital costume in the first scene, Semele wore flowing Greek goddess gowns throughout.  There were ethereal scenes with haunting arias by the gorgeous soprano Jane Archibald as Semele.  In marked contrast, there were rowdy scenes which included one with riotous sexual romps on the temple grounds with the strains of the familiar Handel oratorio music vigorously playing in the background.  It was the sacred and the profane all in one!  

This production of the mythical story, under the bold direction of Chinese artist Zhang Huan (previously staged in Brussels and China) is hugely sardonic, heavy on stage machinery but also richly creative.  He took out the last scene with the triumphant chorus, choosing to end the story with the chorus' lament of Semele's death.  The opera began and ended with a person sweeping ashes off the floor of the temple, attributed to Zhang Huan's buddhist belief in the impermanence of all things.  Critics didn't like the loss of the last chorus, but a recording of it was played as the audience exit the theatre.  I could live with that - given how memorable the rest of the opera was.

The final bow 

I share below some of the photos of the Four Seasons Centre which I took when I first visited it during its Open House, June 2006:

The Four Seasons Centre atrium

The glass staircase

The hall with perfect acoustics.  If you're visiting Toronto, it's worth getting a ticket just to hear the hall.

Outside the hall