A very urban classical music concert

Today I went with a group of expats to see a classical music concert in a park. No one was sure what the park was called, but it was at "la flor", the flower, a very large metal sculpture. Apparently la flor isn't so well know, because our taxi driver wasn't quite sure where it was. It's quite a large sculpture, and nice enough, but as someone in the group said, it's not going to put Buenos Aires on the map:


It was a hot sweltering day here in BA -- around 95 degrees F -- so it was nice to spend the evening out in the park. The expats were great, there were plenty of blankets to sit on, and there was more than enough food and wine for everyone.

The orchestra is the orchestra from el Teatro Colon, the famous opera house here. It is an accomplished orchestra apparently, but they kept their music selections very mainstream -- Bizet's Carmen, Dvorak's New World Symphony, a very famous argentinian piece that escapes me, and, for the grand finale The Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner. The latter featured a little laser show, like something out of a 1978 Pink Floyd Concert.
Because Buenos Aires is a big crazy urban jumble, we appropriately weren't left alone in peace with our classical music in the park. As the concert was starting, there was this crazy thumping coming from about a quarter mile away, heavy throbbing bass, like a rave or something. But a rave it clearly wasn't, because it was too early, and somehow it ended after about a half hour. We were also only a couple hundred yards from an above ground train that went by about every 10 minutes, but that wasn't too loud. Lastly, we were only about a mile from the local airport, and every once in a while a plane came in our direction. This was loud, definitely a distraction.

But it's Buenos Aires, a gigantic urban agglomeration, and people are just used to lots of distractions, and remarkably tolerant of them. This is the lesson of big cities, after all -- we live with each other in close quarters, so we have to learn tolerance. If there's a plane going by, well, it's good we have the airport handy, people need to fly in and out. If there's a party in the park next door, well, it's good that those people, whoever they are, have a place to have a party.

Maybe i'm just being idealistic, but that seems to be the attitude here. It's certainly a different feel from the "not-in-my-backyard" gated community attitude so prevalent in the US.