The Rolling Stones’ drummer, Charlie Watts, died on Tuesday and several airports, including Philadelphia International Airport and Dublin Airport – and Seattle’s Museum of Flight – went into their archives to share photos.
Seattle Museum of Flight
An opera about being stuck at the airport filmed at Seattle’s Museum of Flight
Like so many arts and cultural organizations, the Seattle Opera has gotten pretty darn creative with finding ways to bring its productions to the people.
The newest production is a great example of that and will be of interest to opera fans and avgeeks alike.
For the 2020/2021 season, the Seattle Opera was planning to present a performance of “Flight.” The three-act opera was written in 1998 by composer Jonathan Dove and librettist April De Angelis and has been performed around the world.
Here’s the story of the opera:
“An omniscient air traffic controller watches over a departure lounge bustling with relentlessly cheerful flight attendants, an excitable couple on vacation, a mysterious older woman, and a diplomat and his expectant wife, all of whom must spend the night to wait out a storm. At the heart of the show is the Refugee, a character inspired by Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who lived in Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris for almost 18 years.”
The pandemic means that the Seattle Opera can’t perform the show live. But rather than pass on the opportunity to present it, the Seattle Opera teamed up with Seattle’s Museum of Flight and filmed the opera there.
Brilliant, right?
The live stream of the Flight runs April 23-25. And tickets are just $35.
Below you’ll find a trailer for the opera and a pre-flight/pre-show talk full of tidbits on how the project came to be.
There’s also a fun interview with Museum of Flight curator Matthew Burchette sharing some of his favorite aircraft in the museum and talking about the control tower exhibit, which plays a role in the opera.
Enjoy!
Astronauts invade Seattle
Peter Reiquam – Space Tourist
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Seattle’s Museum of Flight has placed 25 life-size, space-suited astronaut statues around town. Each statue began as a white fiberglass statue and was then transformed by a local artist into something new.
SpaceSquatch Explores the Pacific Northwest – by David Newman and Ruth Cielo
The museum is encouraging locals and visitors to find astronauts around town, take selfies and post them on Instagram (tag: #astronautsonthetown) for a chance to win a pair of tickets on Alaska Airlines, good to any Alaska Airlines destination.
The statutes will be in town through mid-September, but an on-line auction for all 25 astronauts runs throughout August – in case you want an arty-astronaut for your home or office.
Here’s a link to a gallery featuring images of all statues in the Astronauts around Town project.
Happy Concstellations -by Fin’es Scott
Area 51 items at the Museum of Flight – maybe
Area 51 Warning Sign –
Seattle’s Museum of Flight, which brought us an exhibit of Wonder Woman’s invisible plane just about this time last year, has cooked up another special exhibit set to open on April 1.
Due to the heavily redacted press release, it’s difficult to tell exactly what will be on display, but it appears that some never-before-seen items relating to Area 51 just might be on view.
Or not.
Style in the aisle: exhibit of vintage flight attendant fashions
This should be fun:
At the end of January, Seattle’s Museum of Flight will open up the clothes closet again for a fresh new exhibit of vintage flight attendant uniforms and airline memorabilia.
‘Most of the uniforms on display in the exhibit are from the flamboyant 1960s and 1970s. The collection includes creations by Parisian designer Jean Louis, Italian designer Emilio Pucci, and Hollywood designer Oleg Cassini. Trans World Airlines, Western Airlines and Braniff International represent a few of the airlines that flew the groovy garb featured in the exhibit. Rare articles also include a 1936 United Air Lines uniform, and a 1945 Northwest Airlines ensemble accented with a mink stole.”
The Museum of Flight had a similar exhibit back in 2008 that included “stewardess” uniforms ranging from “nurse togs” from the 1930s to the fab fashions from the 1960s and 1970s. So many flight attendants who visited that first exhibit Donated memorabilia and uniforms they’d saved that the museum decided to expand and bring back the display.
Style in the Aisle will be at Seattle’s Museum of Flight (a short bus or taxi-ride runs from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport) from January 29 through May 30, 2011.
Check back soon for a slide-show featuring more fashions from the exhibit.
All photos courtesy the Museum of Flight