Important Event in Washington

I know that you are all waiting for me to make a comment on the very important event of national importance that is taking place today here in Washington. Yes, that's right, the National Symphony Orchestra is premiering a new symphonic work by Philip Glass—his Seventh Symphony ("A Toltec Symphony")—this evening at the Kennedy Center. (See Tim Page, Nothing Less: Philip Glass's New Symphony Is Anything but Minimal, in the Washington Post, January 16.) With Matthias Goerne singing Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, too, it sounds like a great evening. Unfortunately, I can't be there. My plan, if I can make it work, is to see Les Violons du Roy with soprano Kirina Gauvin at the Terrace Theater Friday night, the final performance of the Glass/Mahler program Saturday night, and the matinee of Boris Godunov on Sunday afternoon, with the Kirov Opera.

Oh yeah, something else is going on at the Capitol right now. I'm going to wander over there in a few minutes to see what I can see and blog live from the Open Park free WiFi hotspot by the Supreme Court. They've got some good photos up at their Inauguration Week Blog.