High Culture

I realized that I haven't really shared any of my "high culture" experiences since I've been here in Madrid, so I figured why not now? The third week of January I went with my theater/cinema class to see a show at Spain's oldest, open/running theater (Corral de Comedias) which happens to be right in my town! The theater is tiny and has a really great intimate feel to it. You are practically right on stage with the actors, so it's a great way to see a show...and it definitely helped me read their lips so I could understand better! We saw Auto de los Reyes, a comedy about the 3 kings trying to find the baby Jesus to bring him gifts. It was a really interesting spin on the biblical story, and despite the fact that it was in Catalan Spanish we were all able to follow it pretty well. The background music was really unique. There were instruments that kind of looked like bagpipes but sounded very Arabian, and there was also an instrument that looked like an 8 string guitar mixed with an accordion and a jack in the box? he positioned his left hand on the neck of the guitar, then pushed down on keys under the sound hole with his right hand and then used his right forearm and elbow to wind a crank on the side...weird but very cool to see and hear!

I've also been to the Prado museum multiple times now. It's such an immense and amazing building that I feel like I could live in Madrid my whole life and go every weekend and still not be able to take it all in. The paintings, the sculptures, the tapestries...it's just all so surreal to walk through. To see paintings that we have discussed in my art history classes and spanish classes in person is just so incredible. It just really gives life to the work and to the artist, and I appreciate everything so much more. It's impossible to really take in a piece by Goya, El Greco, or Velazquez until you are actually standing in front of it. The immensity of the works and the amount of talent and effort put into every cloud, figure, etc. is just amazing. I've yet to see the Reina Sofia because my classes go so late during the week, but I plan on going soon. I can't wait to see Guernica in person!

Palacio Real! Feb 1st

I know I'm extremely behind now, but our internet has been acting up so it's been difficult to post. On the first of this month we went into Madrid for the day with our professor to go on a tour of the Royal Palace (Palacio Real.) We took the train into the city and got off to find ourselves in the middle of a blizzard...yea we were told winters are mild in Spain so we couldn't help but laugh at how horribly wrong our program advisers have been...anyway we got to the palace and decided to first check out the Real Armeria where there were armor and shields from the 13th century and the spanish civil war. It was really interesting to see how different every piece was because they were all engraved with elaborate scenery and epic battle scenes. I can't even imagine how heavy some of it must have been to wear during battle.

After that we took a tour of the actual palace. It was sooo ornate and beautifully decorated with frescoes and gold and chandeliers(the gala room is used now for state occasions and the table comfortably seats 150 people! and has 15 chandeliers!). Some rooms were almost too overdone...silk walls, tons of clocks (Fernando VI was a collector), sculptures, paintings...it was almost overwhelming how many things were crammed into every room. I thought one of the prettiest rooms was the music room. It wasn't as overdone and had beautiful wood floors. The room had the world's only complete Stradivarius string quintet, and the instruments were just absolutely gorgeous. They have a specialist come in to do tuneups and play them, and he makes sure that the humidity in the room stays perfect so that they don't warp. Sounds like a pretty cool job to me!

We then went a grabbed a cheap bite in madrid before heading back because it was still pretty nasty weather, but overall it was a really cool visit!