Chopin in Tirana

Chopin was born in 1810, 200 years ago, and as part of the Year of Chopin celebration the Polish and French embassies sponsored a concert at the opera house. The Tirana opera house is small and cozy -- built by the Russians, I understand. It seats about 500. The program was all Chopin, of course. The pianist was Marek Szlezer, Polish, of course, who was brought in especially for the concert. For those of you interested in these sorts of things, this was the program:

2 nocturne, op. 27

4 mazurka, op. 30

waltz, op. 42

ballade, op. 47

polonaise, op. 53

berceuse, op. 57

polonaise fantazi op. 61

sonata op. 35

One of the perks of being here is that various embassies will put on programs such as this throughout the year, free admission. Our embassy has had such things as a blues band. I don't think we've had anything classical; if so, I missed it.

One drawback to the opera is that it is neither heated nor cooled. My feet got a little colder than the rest of me -- next time I'll take a jacket. I guess in August I'll wear a tee shirt.