A new park and a masked opera

[kerouac2]

The new Parc Chapelle Charbon is a grand totall of 1100 metres from where I live, but its location was a bit mysterious to me because I have been on every side of it in my neighbourhood peregrinations and yet I had no idea where it actually was.  I checked out the location on Google and finally figured out where it had been hiding.  The rather strange name of the park is the name of the former northern Paris railway freight station, which was connected to the tracks of both Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est by spur lines.  The biggest part of the freight brought to the city was coal from the mines of the north and the east, and all of the coal dealers of the Paris metropolitan area came to get their loads of coal from there.  Well, coal has been forbidden in Paris for decades, which is why the monuments are no longer black like they were during my childhood.  However, I still have a pile of coal in my cellar from god knows how many years ago.

So, the park has been created to replace the old rail lines and is 6.5 hectares.   It is the newest park in the city and just opened in June after the end of confinement.

I'm not sure if it was really ready to open yet, but the local population was more than ready to have a new park and hey, the municipal elections were happening at the same time.

I'm glad I had checked the map before coming because there was nothing obvious about this place.

At the moment, it doesn't even open before 13:30 which proves that there is still a lot of work to do.  Most Parisian parks open at 8 am at this time of year or are open 24/7.

They have kept some of the rail infrastructure, and I'm sure it will be extremely useful during inclement weather.

Plenty of families had already found their way to the picnic tables.

The building in the back is the huge Boulevard Ney warehouse complex -- one of the things that was hiding the park from me.

The entire neighbourhood is undergoing total transformation.

The large prairies have not been tamed yet.

They are off limits for the time being.

Some users are not complaining.

[kerouac2]

Okay, that first part was photographed Saturday. It was just a scouting trip for the main event on Sunday -- a performance of the The Magic Flute with full orchestra and chorus.



People were beginning to gather. One of the weed zones prairies had been opened specially so people could spread out.



The performers were starting to gather in the staging area.



They were clearly excited to be able to perform for the first time in six months. We have had it easy compared to people in the performing arts.



The chorus was doing its warmup exercises.



Some people preferred to sit in the shade. It was quite hot yesterday.



Other still appreciate the sunny days before autumn sets in.





The sophisticated décor was ready to be deployed.



The overture begins.





Prince Tamino arrives on the scene next to the narrator.



Although he quickly suffers from snakebite, I was excited as hell. I've seen Die Zauberflöte on film before, but this was the first time I have seen it in person.

[kerouac2]

The mischievous woodsman Papageno appears on the scene.





The queen of the night isn't far behind.





Then there's the strange ogre. Forest stories always have an ogre. Monostatus is holding onto the princess for her mean mother.



Conflict!



Forest sprites have things to sing.





Mysterious Sarastro is also a powerful player.





The audience was transfixed.

[kerouac2]

               

               

               

Papageno reassures everybody that things are working out.



He had given up on finding love until suddenly Papagena appears.



Love is in the air/aria.







After lots of applause, it was time to start drifting away.





I wonder what this park will look like in a year.



And if you would like a bit of music from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, here it is.

[mossie]

About time something was done to that area. I can always remember on one of my first visits to Paris when my wife was mobile we were directed to visit Sacre Coeur from Laumiere by the 60 bus and the Montmartrobus. She was seriously worried by the area we were travelling into, it was not her conception of Paris at all.

I must say it doesn't look very park like, prairie is a much better description.

[kerouac2]

Yes, it definitely opened too early. However, one thing that amused me in the category of "you never know what the future will bring" is the fact that a lot of the social housing facing the park has blind walls instead of windows. For example:

I'm sure they thought they were preserving the residents from an unbearably ugly view. I'm wondering if any of the buildings will be retrofitted at some time in the future with new windows opening on to the park.

Meanwhile I forgot to mention that what really impressed me about the performance was not at all the quality. These are semi-professional, pre-professional and amateur artists working for next to nothing. The mairie of the 18th gave them a bit of money, and I think they were supposed to "pass a hat" at the end, but I had already departed. I don't think that any of them will be leaving their day jobs.

[tod2]

This was wonderful Kerouac! I loved all the voices but The Queen of the Night managed extremely well not to falter on any of those high notes. And as for the chorus of masked singers. How well they did to sing with a little air restriction.
Thank you for bringing us this lovely day, even if the park is not quite ready, I'm sure it will be when I visit!!

[lugg]

Great fun. Whilst I have become mostly inured to these strange times, sometimes it strikes me anew, and this happened as I read this report and in particular watching the video.

[kerouac2]

The whole idea of a masked peformance (although not entirely masked, thank god) definitely perturbed me. As things now stand, it is impossible to calculate hom much longer all of this will last.

[bixaorellana]

This is just outstanding, Kerouac, especially your video. What great sound, even though it was outside and super editing. The park indeed isn't much to look at yet, but opening it up and offering a performance which, judging by the pictures of the audience, was a big hit with everyone had to be a real morale booster.

I think it's funny that your park was hiding in plain sight. I guess now that you know where it is, we can look forward to an update one of these days.

Do you know why the sprites were not masked -- is it because they're kids? I like the snake guy. It's hard to be snakeish when you have arms and legs, but he did a great job.

[cheerypeabrain]

Fabulous, looks like it was reasonably well attended altho numbers would have to be restricted. My son was drawn to the video (he is an opera fan) and is very jealous. Wonderful. It's lovely to see a performance happening live after 6 months of nothing but online performances by zoom and the odd concert without an audience on tv. It will be interesting to see how the park develops too.