Bryan Pinkall's World of Opera, Olympics, and More: Kansas City

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Back to Work - Learning Life

Upon returning to the states, I had an overwhelming media schedule from newspaper reports, to radio interviews, television appearances, speaking engagements, but most of all, I had to catch up on all the lessons that I missed while in Russia. As I write this (February of 2015), reflecting on the events of 2014, I can't help but also mention all that I missed writing about in 2013.

Partly due to my own insecurities, it was a difficult two years to be a public person. I dealt with severe depression, divorce, the rather violent death of a friend, coming out of the closet (while afraid to be "out" in Russia - a notoriously horrible location for LGBT folk), and several rounds of discriminatory actions against me that left me quite helpless to address. All the while, I had a crazy international performance schedule, trips to the Emmy's and Grammy's, being offered a professorship (at the age of 27!), the Olympic experience, and other surprises like being named Distinguished Kansan of the Year last year by the Topeka Capital Journal. It was a strange time to describe and live, and I was terrified of dealing with some of these issues in the public light. It was impossible to avoid being a public person.

So, having settled into a "new normal" I want to take you through some of the moments that have dotted the last few months.

These balloons greeted me upon my arrival back at K-State on my office door - "Welcome Home Dr. Pinkall"

My new boyfriend Patrick and I visit the Varsity Donut food truck in Manhattan, KS (a foodie's dream!)

Patrick and I take little vacations nearly every week. Here we are at the top of the Liberty Memorial at the National World War I Museum overlooking Kansas City.

A visit to Kansas City's Union Station

My rather successful attempt at making my Volga German family's favorite dessert - Kuchen - pronounced by them as "Kooguh"

An hilarious hate mail letter sent to me from a pro-Russian person obviously angry that I commented on my poor treatment while in Sochi

A day in the park in Kansas City

On a trip to Western Kansas to teach a masterclass, I stopped in Victoria, KS at the Basilica of the Plains

A purple evening sky in Spring overlooking Anderson Hall at K-State

Monday, September 24, 2012

Rafal Olbinski: Opera Paintings for Opera Geeks

So this past weekend was the enormous Plaza Art Fair here in Kansas City. Artisans filled the streets of the beautiful Country Club Plaza in Midtown to sell all kinds of things - some were cheesy crafts and others were ultra-expensive original oil paintings. Even if you don't understand a thing about art, you would definitely find something that is attractive - especially after drinking some cheap wine on the street. But if not, well, there were several live bands, plenty of booze and high quality food, and hundreds of dogs to stare at as they were dragged through the crowds by their owners (just as some husbands were!) Trust me, craft fairs aren't always on the top my entertainment list, but for one day a year, with some nice weather, it's worth going just for the novelty of it all.

While we were there, my wife and I were reminded of an amazing gallery we saw at the Venetian in Las Vegas three years ago featuring the works of Rafal Olbinski. It caught my eye, because the first painting I saw, reminded me of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, and sure enough, it was exactly that - a painting used as the cover art for some opera company.

The Magic Flute

Without the title printed, you can easily tell that this was made for The Magic Flute. Papageno plays a flute (even though he is given pipes in the opera, Tamino plays the flute). He's obviously Papageno since it portrays him as part bird, catching another bird. But Olbinski, set the painting in this manner to show that Papageno becomes the music and the music becomes a character. Something that anyone who knows the opera should agree!

Of course great detail and understanding of the opera went into these paintings. The following are all the operatic ones I could find. Some are absolutely brilliant in my opinion! Certainly my favorite part is that it takes some time to figure these out, and certainly a very educated opera geek. If you are having trouble, just click the title to read a synopsis - maybe that will help.