“All Stalkers Are Obsessional—As Well As Delusional”

Below is the daily record of our stalker’s visits for the week of December 17.

All stalker visits for the week originated from ISP address 71.36.205.124, registered in Cottage Grove, Oregon, and Elmira, Oregon.

All times are Pacific Standard Time, the time zone of our stalker.

Visits longer than twenty minutes in duration are noted.

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Monday, December 17, 2012

1:01 p.m. PST

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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

11:27 p.m. PST ***

*** This visit by our stalker was twenty-one minutes in duration.

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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

2:39 p.m. PST
11:49 p.m. PST

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Thursday, December 20, 2012

11:07 a.m. PST
9:37 p.m. PST
10:25 p.m. PST ***

*** This visit by our stalker was twenty-nine minutes in duration.

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Friday, December 21, 2012

3:08 p.m. PST
4:14 p.m. PST
9:59 p.m. PST
11:07 p.m. PST

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Saturday, December 22, 2012

10:04 a.m. PST
4:28 p.m. PST
10:13 p.m. PST

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Sunday, December 23, 2012

12:54 a.m. PST (i.e., very late Sunday night/very early Monday morning)

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Our stalker is a middle-aged, mentally-ill woman from Springfield, Oregon, who works on a part-time basis for the Eugene Symphony and the Oregon Bach Festival.

I have already recounted our stalker’s creation of a new screen name, Andrew VanZ, in order to post comments at Minnesota Post.

I have also recounted our stalker’s creation of a new screen name, Andrew VanZ, in order to post comments at the Minnesota Daily.

I have further recounted our stalker’s creation of a new screen name, Andrew VanZ, in order to post comments on the website of Minnesota Public Radio.

Yet there is more.

Our stalker created a new screen name, Andrew VanZ, on the website of WCCO, the local CBS affiliate, as may be seen here and here on the WCCO website. Pursuant to her normal operating procedure, our stalker also posted comments under her real name on the very same threads in which she posted as “Andrew VanZ”—and, in the case of the second linked thread on the WCCO website, our stalker kept the comments flowing for weeks and weeks, entering multiple “Andrew VanZ” comments over a period of time in excess of two months.

Our stalker is a sick, sick, sick woman.

In January, our stalker began to send us private messages, as I shall recount in due course.

And things were to get far, far worse once the year-end holidays were over, and our stalker was able to resume her stalking on a full-time basis.

“Enter Madame Arcati, Wearing Barbaric Jewellery”

According to law-enforcement authorities, our stalker has a fondness for cheap costume jewelry. It is, in consequence, appropriate that I appropriate Noel Coward stage directions for my heading.

Below is the daily record of our stalker’s visits for the week of December 10.

All stalker visits for the week originated from ISP address 71.36.205.124, registered in Cottage Grove, Oregon, and Elmira, Oregon.

All times are Pacific Standard Time, the time zone of our stalker.

Visits longer than twenty minutes in duration are noted.

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Monday, December 10, 2012

10:21 a.m. PST
12:34 p.m. PST
1:21 p.m. PST
3:48 p.m. PST ***
10:29 p.m. PST **

*** This visit by our stalker was twenty minutes in duration.

** This visit by our stalker was sixty-four minutes in duration.

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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

10:06 a.m. PST
12:28 p.m. PST
2:41 p.m. PST
10:08 p.m. PST ***
11:42 p.m. PST

*** This visit by our stalker was thirty-four minutes in duration.

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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

8:53 a.m. PST
10:12 a.m. PST
3:09 p.m. PST
6:31 p.m. PST
9:30 pm. PST

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

9:20 a.m. PST
12:56 p.m. PST
10:59 p.m. PST ***

*** This visit by our stalker was twenty-four minutes in duration.

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Friday, December 14, 2012

8:44 a.m. PST
4:07 p.m. PST
9:36 p.m. PST

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Saturday, December 15, 2012

9:42 a.m. PST ***
10:49 a.m. PST
5:26 p.m. PST
12:44 a.m. PST

*** This visit by our stalker was thirty-one minutes in duration.

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Sunday, December 16, 2012

3:36 p.m. PST
6:58 p.m. PST
10:34 p.m. PST

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Our stalker is a middle-aged, mentally-ill woman from Springfield, Oregon, who works on a part-time basis for the Eugene Symphony and the Oregon Bach Festival.

Our stalker spends each day online, all day, in an organized campaign of defamation and harassment against the Minnesota Orchestra—as well as anyone associated with the Minnesota Orchestra. Our stalker is neither an educated nor an intelligent woman; she regurgitates the same foolishness without end.

I have already recounted our stalker’s creation of a new screen name at Minnesota Post: Andrew VanZ. (For readers that follow the second link: akadams1984, which appears in the address bar, is one of our stalker’s email addresses, a valid email address being necessary to create a Minnesota Post account. Our stalker graduated from Centennial High School in Gresham, Oregon, in 1984, a fact that explains her email address.)

Our stalker has also created a new screen name in order to comment on the website of the University Of Minnesota student newspaper, the Minnesota Daily. Once again, our stalker’s new screen name: Andrew VanZ. As readers who follow the link will note, our stalker also entered comments under her real name on the very same thread, always her standard practice.

In addition, our stalker created a new screen name in order to comment on the website of Minnesota Public Radio. Our stalker’s new MPR screen name was, once again, Andrew VanZ—but Minnesota Public Radio, on its own volition, deleted our stalker's comments shortly after I published my May 12 post.

Andrew and I have three readers who work at MPR. (We know the number is three because the three persons visit at different but predictable times each weekday and because the visits originate from three different computers.)

One of our three MPR readers took action after reading my May 12 post, and deleted our stalker’s “Andrew VanZ” comments from the MPR website.

Paris

In Paris, they simply stared when I spoke to them in French. I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.

Mark Twain

Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris

Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, where in January we heard an Orchestre National de France concert.

Théâtre du Châtelet is a theater, not a concert hall, and it is far from an ideal venue for orchestra concerts.

Orchestre National de France normally performs in Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, itself a theater and not a concert hall.

The only traditional concert hall in central Paris is Salle Pleyel.

My Final List

Below is a chronological listing of orchestra concerts Andrew and I attended within the last twelve months.

I last updated this list on July 1, 2012.

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Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Edo de Waart, Conductor
Christian Zacharias, Piano

R. Strauss: Serenade In E-Flat
R. Strauss: Metamorphosen For 23 Solo Strings
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2

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Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Thomas Dausgaard, Conductor
Alexander Fiterstein, Clarinet

Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
Nielsen: Clarinet Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

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VocalEssence
The Cathedral Of Saint Paul
Saint Paul

Helmuth Rilling, Conductor

Bruckner: Four Motets
Mendelssohn: Two Motets
Bruckner: Mass No. 2

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Philharmonia Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Chicago

Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor

Beethoven: Symphony No. 2
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

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Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
Uihlein Hall
Milwaukee

Christoph König, Conductor

Weber: “Der Freischütz” Overture
Lutoslawski: Concerto For Orchestra
Schubert: Symphony No. 8 (“Unfinished”)
Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

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Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Chicago

Charles Dutoit, Conductor
Gil Shaham, Violin

Britten: Variations And Fugue On A Theme Of Purcell
Walton: Violin Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

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Orchestre National d'Île de France
Salle Pleyel
Paris

Enrique Mazzola, Conductor
Cedric Tiberghien, Piano

Panufnik: Katyn Epitaph
Azarova: Mover Of The Earth, Stopper Of The Sun [World Premiere]
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 3 (“Polish”)

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Orchestre National De France
Théâtre du Châtelet
Paris

Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Arabella Steinbacher, Violin

Mozart: Symphony No. 35 (“Haffner”)
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5
Sibelius: Symphony No. 3

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Orchestre De Paris
Salle Pleyel
Paris

Paavo Järvi, Conductor
Krystian Zimerman, Piano

Schumann: “Genoveva” Overture
Lutoslawski: Piano Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”)

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Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Chicago

Cristian Macelaru, Conductor
Yefim Bronfman, Piano

Debussy: Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun
Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 2
Bartók: Divertimento For Strings
Stravinsky: The Song Of The Nightingale

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Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center
Dallas

Jaap van Zweden, Conductor
Heidi Melton, Soprano
Clifton Forbis, Tenor
Eric Owens, Baritone

Wagner: Prelude To Act I Of “Lohengrin”
Wagner: Prelude To Act III Of “Lohengrin”
Wagner: Prelude To “Die Meistersinger”
Wagner: Act I Of “Die Walküre”

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Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Edo de Waart, Conductor
Isabel Leonard, Mezzo-Soprano

Adams/Liszt: The Black Gondola
Berlioz: Les nuits d'été
Adams/Busoni: Berceuse elegiaque
Beethoven: Symphony No. 2

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Despite the fact that the Minnesota Orchestra did not perform a single concert last season and despite the fact that the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra offered only five or six or seven weeks of concerts, Andrew and I nonetheless attended twelve orchestra concerts, well within the range of our usual concert-going pattern. Over seven years, we have attended seventy-eight orchestra concerts, an average of eleven such concerts per year.

We heard two works more than once last season: two performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2; and two performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No 7.

Except for four compositions, I was hearing each work live for the first time. The four works I had previously heard in live performance: Bartók’s Divertimento For Strings (Boston/Dohnányi); Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 (Buchbinder/Dresden/Luisi and Denk/SPCO/Boyd); Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 (Leipzig/Chailly); and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 (in a frighteningly-bad authentic-instrument performance in Boston, a performance I instantly shoved from my mind).

The finest of the year’s concerts was the Chicago/Dutoit concert—although the finest of the conductors was König, who is going to be a huge star in the next half-decade. I, for one, would jump for joy if the Minnesota Orchestra were soon to name König to replace the shopworn Aksnav Omso.

I have no idea how many concerts we might attend next season.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has announced a 2013-2014 season that is formulaic and tired. We may write off the season.

I question whether there will be a Minnesota Orchestra 2013-2014 season—unless the American Federation Of Musicians national union is forced, for financial reasons, to halt the healthcare coverage it has been providing to musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, effectively ending the current impasse.

Very tentatively, we are looking into spending a weekend in Boston next season, and a weekend in Dallas, and a weekend in New York—so no doubt we shall hear at least a handful of orchestra concerts.

Concert Hall Of The Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center

The concert hall of the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center in Saint Paul.

I dislike the hall intensely.

The hall is cramped, and exceedingly unattractive. It may be the most unattractive and most unpleasant concert space I have ever experienced.

At the Daniil Trifonov recital, three rows of chairs circled the back of the stage, leaving very little room for Trifonov and his piano—and concert-goers occupying the stage seats were virtually breathing down Trifonov’s neck. I do not understand how Trifonov managed to perform under such conditions.

Not only are the Twin Cities home to one of the world’s ugliest concert halls, they are also home to one of the world’s ugliest theaters. The McGuire Theatre at The Walker Art Center is an aesthetic horror.

Minneapolis/Saint Paul is one of the global centers of bad design and bad architecture. I cannot think of another city I have visited in which design and architecture are so undistinguished.

In Houston, there is great design and great architecture everywhere the eye turns.

Why is Houston a design-and-architectural Mecca, and Minneapolis/Saint Paul a design-and-architectural wasteland?

And Yet Another List

Below is a chronological listing of the recitals Andrew and I attended in the last twelve months.

I last updated this list on July 1, 2012.

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Karita Mattila, soprano
Martin Katz, piano

The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

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Simone Dinnerstein, piano

Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center
Saint Paul

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Baiba Skride, violin
Lauma Skride, piano

Saint Anthony Park United Church of Christ
Saint Paul

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Stephen Hough, piano

The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

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Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Inon Barnatan, piano

The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

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Daniil Trifonov, piano

Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center
Saint Paul

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James Valenti, tenor
Danielle Orlando, piano

The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

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Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
Lambert Orkis, piano

The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

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I do not believe Andrew and I had ever before attended eight recitals in a single season. Perhaps the number of recitals we attended was elevated because there were no Minnesota Orchestra concerts last season.

The two vocal recitals were unremarkable—but in no way offensive. Opera singers, as a general rule, are not successful on the recital platform, and Mattila and Valenti may be at home in the theater but they are nowise convincing recitalists; the song literature calls for a different set of skills than that necessary for a major career on the world’s opera stages.

Skride, Trifonov and Mutter are exceptional artists, and their recitals were nothing but pleasures. We considered ourselves blessed to be in the same halls with them.

The other three recitals were more or less disasters—and probably the three worst recitals I have ever attended.

Dinnerstein’s gifts—if she has any—are very modest; her recital was a complete waste of our time.

The day after Dinnerstein’s recital, Andrew came down with influenza. Andrew’s explanation: Dinnerstein’s recital would have made anyone ill.

Hough, if anything, was even worse than Dinnerstein. At the intermission of Hough’s recital, we did something we had never done before: we walked out. By no means were we alone as we exited.

Not long after his Twin Cities appearance, Hough offered the same program to a New York audience. Hough’s New York reviews were brutal. At least one New York writer questioned why Hough even had a career. I share that view.

Weilerstein’s recital was an exercise in camp. Amid the monstrous displays of hair-tossing and head-tossing, and melodramatic and hokey facial gestures and melodramatic and hokey bow gestures, there was no music-making worth hearing. Andrew’s father’s judgment of Weilerstein: “Well . . . I guess it’s nice to know what a Marcel Marceau cello recital would have been like.”

Weilerstein had a fantastic pianist. He is scheduled to give a solo recital in the Twin Cities next season. We intend to be there.

Civic Opera House, Chicago

The auditorium of the Civic Opera House, Chicago.

The Civic Opera House opened only days after the 1929 Stock Market Crash (Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis also opened only days after the 1929 Stock Market Crash).

With almost 3600 seats, the Civic Opera House is far too large for opera performances (a defect it shares with Northrop Auditorium, built to accommodate a whopping 4850 patrons).

And Another List

Below is a chronological listing of the opera performances Andrew and I attended in the last twelve months.

I last updated this list on June 30, 2012.

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The Shaw Festival
Court House Theatre
Niagara-On-The-Lake

Leonard Bernstein: Trouble In Tahiti

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Minnesota Opera
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Giuseppe Verdi: Nabucco

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Lyric Opera Of Chicago
Civic Opera House
Chicago

Giuseppe Verdi: Simon Boccanegra

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Lyric Opera Of Chicago
Civic Opera House
Chicago

Jules Massenet: Werther

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L’Opera Comique
Salle Favart
Paris

Marc-Antoine Charpentier: David Et Jonathas

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L’Opera National De Paris
L’Opera Bastille
Paris

Modest Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina

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Lyric Opera Of Chicago
Civic Opera House
Chicago

Giacomo Puccini: La Boheme

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Lyric Opera Of Chicago
Civic Opera House
Chicago

Giuseppe Verdi: Rigoletto

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Minnesota Opera
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Giacomo Puccini: Turandot

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Nine opera performances in one season: that is the highest number Andrew and I have ever attended.

A frightening prospect: we might have attended more. We skipped three Minnesota Opera productions (“Anna Bolena”, “Doubt” and “Hamlet”), we skipped two University Of Minnesota Opera Theatre productions (“Falstaff” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”), we skipped two Minnesota Concert Opera productions (“I Puritani” and “Il Trovatore”), we skipped an opera offered by VocalEssence (“Paul Bunyan”)—and we might have caught another three operas while we were in Paris (“The Birthday Of The Infanta”, “L’Enfant et les sortileges” and “Street Scene”).

In addition, we had tickets for an October performance of “Otello” at the Metropolitan Opera, but we had to cancel our New York trip because of Andrew’s influenza.

The best thing we saw and heard last season: “Khovanshchina” at the Paris Opera. Everything else, more or less, was pretty feeble.

The quality of the four performances we attended at Lyric Opera Of Chicago was not high, and we shall not return. Despite its pretensions (and high prices), Lyric Opera Of Chicago is not an international-level house—and Lyric Opera Of Chicago certainly does not have anything approaching an international-level audience. (At a “Rigoletto” intermission, Andrew turned and asked his father, “Was this audience bussed in from the Ozarks?”)

No one knows whether Minnesota Concert Opera remains a going concern. Minnesota Concert Opera cancelled its final scheduled presentation of the 2012-2013 season, and has yet to announce a 2013-2014 season—although it has announced, at least on its website, two performances of an abridged, four-hour “Ring” for September (with Jane Eaglen and a chamber orchestra). I doubt whether anyone believes the potted “Ring” performances will actually occur—but, at least on paper, the whole notion sounds totally hilarious.

The 2013-2014 season for Minnesota Opera: “Manon Lescaut”; “Arabella”; “Macbeth”; “The Dream Of Valentino”; and “The Magic Flute”.

Wisely or no, Andrew and I bought a subscription . . .

And, depending upon our schedules, we may try to catch the new production of “Prince Igor” at the Metropolitan Opera next season. We have been listening to the Tchakarov and Gergiev recordings of “Prince Igor” for the last month or more (each recording uses a vastly different edition of the score), and I love the opera—despite the fact that all available editions of the work are problematic if not corrupt.

An Iconic Painting For An Iconic Holiday

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Arrangement In Grey And Black No. 1
(“Portrait Of The Artist's Mother”)
1871
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Oil On Canvas
56 13/16 Inches By 63 7/8 Inches

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The most iconic American painting owned by a non-American museum is Whistler’s famed 1871 portrait of his mother. For the last 122 years, “Whistler’s Mother”, as the painting is commonly known, has been owned by the French government.

“Whistler’s Mother” is now on permanent display at Musée d'Orsay, where in January I saw the painting for the first time. It was hanging alongside a Winslow Homer painting.

Until January, I had had no inkling that the French greatly appreciated Whistler and Homer, and that French art collectors had begun acquiring Whistler and Homer canvases during the artists’ lifetimes.

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Happy Fourth!

“All About June In The Orpheum Circuit, Gimme A Chance And I Know I Can Work It”

The Orpheum Theatre in downtown Minneapolis.

During Northrop Auditorium’s multi-year renovation, the Orpheum Theatre has served as primary venue for local appearances by visiting ballet companies, all the while continuing to host touring Broadway productions too large and too complex for the State and Pantages theaters.

I believe Northrop is scheduled to reopen in 2014, but I may be wrong—I have made no effort at all to keep up with Northrop’s progress, as I truly am not all that interested in the matter.

Another List

This is a chronological listing—a very, very short one—of the dance performances Andrew and I attended in the last twelve months.

Dance performances worth attending last season were few and far between—never before had Andrew and I attended so few dance performances—and the upcoming season in the Twin Cities promises no better.

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New York City Ballet
Orpheum Theatre
Minneapolis

Polyphonia [Christopher Wheeldon/György Ligeti]
Duo Concertant [George Balanchine/Igor Stravinsky]
Herman Schmerman Pas de Deux [William Forsythe/Thom Willems]
Zakouski [Peter Martins/Various]
Hallelujah Junction [Peter Martins/John Adams]

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Joffrey Ballet
Orpheum Theatre
Minneapolis

Son of Chamber Symphony [Stanton Welch/John Adams]
In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated [William Forsythe/Thom Willems]
The Rite Of Spring [Vaslav Nijinsky/Igor Stravinsky]

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MOMIX
The Cowles Center
Minneapolis

Botanica [Moses Pendleton/Various]

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Our primary bout of ballet-going for last season, planned for October, had to be cancelled owing to Andrew’s influenza. We had tickets for three performances at New York City Ballet—six Balanchine/Stravinsky masterworks alone—and we had to give the tickets to friends.

I last updated this list on June 30, 2012.

Bloomington Civic Theatre

Bloomington Civic Theatre’s state-of-the-art facility for the presentation of musicals, the Schneider Theater.

I cannot explain why Bloomington Civic Theatre uses two different spellings of the word, “theater”, for its various facilities (just as I cannot explain why Minneapolis’s Theater In The Round suddenly became Theatre In The Round sometime during the last year). In the United States, the word, “theater”, in all its uses and forms, should always be spelled “theater”; no other rule makes sense.

It is convenient for us to go over to Bloomington to catch BCT’s shows; we attend fairly often. BCT’s productions of musicals are generally presented to a very high standard, and they often sell out. We have seen some very good things at BCT.

One thing we very much like about BCT: the company uses a full orchestra of professional musicians for its productions. No watered-down orchestrations are used, no synthesizers are used, no electronic amplification is used, no soundboard technician is responsible for mixing and balancing the sound.

Updating My Lists

I am, by nature, a maker of lists.

Each year, over July 4 week (which we always spend up at the lake), I update my lists.

Below is a chronological listing of theater performances Andrew and I attended over the past year.

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Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off”, at Jungle Theater, Minneapolis

The John Kander-Fred Ebb-Bob Fosse musical, “Chicago”, in The National Touring Company version of the 1996 Broadway production, at The Ordway Center, Saint Paul

The Harry Warren-Al Dubin-Michael Stewart-Mark Bramble musical, “42nd Street”, at Bloomington Civic Theatre, Bloomington

Terence Rattigan’s “French Without Tears”, at The Shaw Festival, Niagara-On-The-Lake

Noel Coward’s “Present Laughter”, at The Shaw Festival, Niagara-On-The-Lake

George Bernard Shaw’s “The Millionairess”, at The Shaw Festival, Niagara-On-The-Lake

Githa Sowerby’s “A Man And Some Women”, at The Shaw Festival, Niagara-On-The-Lake

Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler”, at The Shaw Festival, Niagara-On-The-Lake

The Stephen Flaherty-Lynn Ahrens-Terrence McNally musical, “Ragtime”, at The Shaw Festival, Niagara-On-The-Lake

John Guare’s “His Girl Friday”, a stage adaptation of the 1928 Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur play, “The Front Page”, as well as the Hecht-MacArthur-Charles Lederer screenplay for the 1940 Howard Hawks film, “His Girl Friday”, at The Shaw Festival, Niagara-On-The-Lake

George Bernard Shaw’s “Misalliance”, at The Shaw Festival, Niagara-On-The-Lake

William Inge’s “Come Back, Little Sheba”, at The Shaw Festival, Niagara-On-The-Lake

Aaron Sorkin’s “A Few Good Men”, at Bloomington Civic Theatre, Bloomington

John Logan’s “Red”, at Park Square Theatre, Saint Paul

Christopher Hampton’s “Tales From Hollywood”, at The Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis

Tennessee Williams’s “Summer And Smoke”, at Theatre In The Round, Minneapolis

The Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical, “Company”, a presentation of Theater Latte Da, at the McKnight Theatre, Saint Paul

The Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical, “Sunday In The Park With George”, at Bloomington Civic Theatre, Bloomington

James Roose-Evans’s “84 Charing Cross Road”, a stage adaptation of Helene Hanff’s bibliophile memoir, at Theatre In The Round, Minneapolis

Carlo Goldoni’s “The Servant Of Two Masters”, in a Yale Repertory Theatre production, at The Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis

The John Kander-Fred Ebb-Joe Masteroff musical, “Cabaret”, at Bloomington Civic Theatre, Bloomington

Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”, at The Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis

Ron Hutchinson’s “Moonlight And Magnolias”, at Bloomington Civic Theatre, Bloomington

William Shakespeare’s “The Taming Of The Shrew”, in a production by a British theater company known as Propeller, at The Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis

Alan Ayckbourn’s “Life And Beth”, at Theatre In The Round, Minneapolis

Ira Levin’s “Deathtrap”, at Jungle Theater, Minneapolis

The Cole Porter-Guy Bolton-P. G. Wodehouse musical, “Anything Goes”, in The National Touring Company version of the 2011 Broadway production, at The Ordway Center, Saint Paul

The Leonard Bernstein-Betty Comden-Adolph Green musical, “On The Town”, at Bloomington Civic Theatre, Bloomington

Crispin Whittell’s “The Primrose Path”, a stage adaptation of Ivan Turgenev’s novel, “Home Of The Gentry”, at The Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis

Nick Stafford’s “War Horse”, a stage adaptation of the Michael Morpurgo children’s novel, in The National Touring Company version of the 2011 Broadway presentation of The National Theatre Of Great Britain production, at the Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis

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By my calculation, Andrew and I attended thirty theater performances over the past year, exactly the same number we had attended the previous year. Nine of the thirty performances occurred during a five-day stretch when we visited Canada’s Shaw Festival.

By my calculation, Andrew and I have attended 151 theater performances over the past seven years.

I last updated this list on June 29, 2012.

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Five of the presentations we were seeing for a second time: “Noises Off”, which we had seen in Hamburg in 2006; “Present Laughter”, which we had seen on Broadway in 2010; “Sunday In The Park With George”, which we had seen at The Shaw Festival in 2009; “Cabaret”, which we had seen at New Repertory Theater in Watertown in 2009; and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”, which we had seen at Theatre In The Round in 2008.

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Eight of the presentations we attended were musicals, a very unusual state of affairs for us—and surely a record. As a general rule, we avoid musicals.

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For the second year in a row, we did not go to New York within the past year. (We had a New York trip planned for October, but Andrew came down with influenza, and we stayed home.)

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Our visit to the McKnight Theatre in Saint Paul was my first—and last—visit to the theater. The McKnight Theatre is currently being demolished to make way for a new concert hall for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

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We attended only one performance at Park Square Theatre. Apparently the company’s 2012-2013 repertory did not much interest us.

Park Square Theatre is in a major growth phase, and is greatly expanding its already-excellent facilities. The company’s intention is to emulate The Guthrie, and offer two productions simultaneously on two stages (The Guthrie, like London’s National Theatre, offers three productions simultaneously on three stages).

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The best thing we saw, by far, was The Shaw Festival’s production of “The Millionaress”.

“The Millionaress” is a great play, thought-provoking and entertaining in equal measure, and I am surprised the play is so little-known. The Shaw production was exceptional, beautifully and boldly designed, well-cast and well-directed—and the actress who portrayed the title character was sensational.

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There were two other productions I enjoyed without reservation.

Bloomington Civic Theatre’s production of “Cabaret” was dazzling. It was, perhaps, the finest staging of a musical I have ever seen (only the Sally Bowles and a couple of small character parts disappointed). The company had staged the original 1966 version, now mostly ignored, and I found the 1966 version sweeter and more subtle than the cynical and acidic revision that has taken precedence in recent years.

Theatre In The Round’s production of “Life And Beth” I found captivating. The play is very small-scale, on the surface nothing more than an intimate, domestic comedy-drama, but “Life And Beth” has meat on its bones and may be a minor masterpiece. The company did justice to the material.

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I think it is fortunate that Andrew and I live in a theater town.

Nonetheless, it must be stated that theater companies in the Twin Cities rigorously ignore challenging material. Only easily-digestible fare is offered here.

One learns not to expect Gerhart Hauptmann plays, or any of the French classics, in Minnesota. Only works considered “commercially viable” ever see the light of day in the Land Of 10,000 Lakes.