For The Love of Travel

August 18, 2016
by Lids
Comments Off on 17/8/16 Rio de Janeiro

17/8/16 Rio de Janeiro

You don’t just get volleyball at Maracanzinho…you get a mighty entertainment package. Strobe, colour-changing, pulsating lights when the teams come on; background music to reflect the volleyball shots from teams – high spirited and funky (good shot); dancers and capoeira exponents during time outs and end of sets..and it goes on….today is Men’s quarter finals day and I have 3 matches to watch.

Men’s USA VS POLAND – what can we say…there was huge crowd support for the Yanks who drowned out those chanting ‘Polska, Polska, Polska’. But on the day, the Yanks blocked and spiked much better and deserved to win.

Men’s IRAN VS ITALY – the teams were very well matched and it was a nail biter of a first set that resulted in 31/29 win to Italy after a 4th set point! While Iran had some standout shot moments, Italy went on to win the next 2 sets. A substantial set of Iranian supporters for their team, and were allowed to be political.

Ivan Zaytsev, 27 years old, no 9 was my fave spiker from Team Italy, who also managed a mean set, oh and a fab reception of the other team’s serve…great all rounder but his spikes were awesomely powerful and expertly placed. He serves and spikes at about 120 km/h. Russian born, of Olympic stock (his Dad was captain of Russia’s national volleyball squad in the 70’s and a gold medallist; his mum a swimmer). He’s been playing with Italy since 2008.

Men’s BRAZIL VS ARGENTINA – as you can imagine, the stadium was fully booked out with a pumped and dressed up crowd. Ear splitting support for each team as they won their respective points. Argentinian supporters must have been hoarse after their team won a set, but Brazil played magnificently and won 3:1.

August 18, 2016
by Lids
Comments Off on 16/8/16 Rio de Janeiro

16/8/16 Rio de Janeiro

Arrived in Rio yesterday, no issues in catching taxi from the airport to accommodation, nor in travelling on metro. The area I’m staying in, Copacabana, pulses with people into the wee hours of the morning, so while always on the alert, feel safe when returning home from matches.

Met up with volley baller friend Liz for from Melbourne, we had lunch and caught up on her travels to date. Discovered that for the match we were going to see together, we had tickets within 5 seats of each other in the same row. Figure the chances of that given we had booked independently.!

We travelled again on the very safe metro to the spiritual home of volleyball in Brazil, the Maracanazinho stadium.

Saw the quarter finals match where USA defeated Japan – much stronger attack and greater height!

Next match, Serbia defeated Russia 3:0; better spiking, blocking, back court defence and serves. So I’ll be seeing them again on Thursday playing USA in semi finals.

On TV in my apartment late at night, watched China’s womens team narrowly defeat Brazil….fab game to watch and a very emotional ending to the host nation’s ( and crowd’s) quest for gold for indoor volleyball, beach is yet to be determined.

July 27, 2016
by Lids
Comments Off on 27/7/16 Roberto Alagna concert, Melbourne

27/7/16 Roberto Alagna concert, Melbourne

With a life that reads more like a libretto, 53-year-old French-Italian opera star Roberto Alagni has triumphed over adversity and built himself a fan base more usually associated with the world of rock music or movies. Born in a garage and largely self-taught, he has come from imitating his Sicilian father’s mates singing the old homeland songs on building sites, later graduating to pop songs in pizza parlours and Parisian cabaret clubs until a meeting with Luciano Pavarotti at a record signing set him on his way to an audition and the world of opera.

His personal life has been dramatic – his first wife died at 29 of a brain tumour, leaving Alagna with their baby daughter. His second marriage, to Rumanian soprano Angela Georghiu, was tempestuous and the couple was famously dubbed “the Ceausescus” of the operatic world. Alagna is probably best remembered for walking off the stage in the middle of Verdi’s Aida after the La Scala audience booed him, all captured on YouTube. No wonder he titled one of his best-selling albums My Life is an Opera. roberto-alagna_c_jpg_681x349_crop_upscale_q95

So with a backstory like this what was the Hamer Hall audience to expect from the superstar tenor’s visit to Australia? If they thought it would be like German star tenor Jonas Kaufmann’s concert two years ago at the Sydney Opera House, in which he performed favourite after favourite from the Italian, French and German repertoire they would be disappointed. Alagna eschewed all other languages for Italian, but even then the only Verdi or Puccini we heard was from the Australian Sinfonietta, conducted by Stefano Miceli — with two Verdi overtures beautifully performed.

Roberto’s voice has a lovely resonance, and I was wanting to hear some classic opera numbers from him. I was disappointed with the latter. Instead, he took his audience to Naples and, for the best part of two hours, he delivered a series of popular light classics — Santa Lucia, O sole mio, Return to Sorrento and Core ‘Ingrato — sometimes accompanied by the orchestra, and sometimes by the often jazz-infused mandolin effects of pianist Giovanni Turcio. All fabulously performed, but not what I was wanting. Pity that performance programs are not released at the time of ticketing….sort of…I have been fabulously surprised in other concerts. Oh, I just need to suck it up. It was an expensive ticket purchase…next time, I’ll research artist a bit more.

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I loved his Australian side kick, the ‘coloratura’, Siobhan Stagg, who was a standout. The young singer from Mildura (Victoria) has been creating a sensation in Europe. She gave us a superb rendition of O mio Babbino Caro from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. I found some of her duets with Roberto somewhat awkward in manner (understand they had only 3 days of rehearsal) and requiring much greater practice, but their sound was great overall.