a day at the races
i went to the opera on Friday and saw 'Don Giovanni'. it was fine. it is in English, which i hoped would help me appreciate it more. however, when you know what they are saying it's quite repetitive and silly and distracting, 'vengeance! vengeance! i must have vengeance! he broke my heart! with the smell of his fart! vengeance!'*
the story is Don Giovanni is a totally scoundrel who spends all his time abusing women, using his flesh and his song. meanwhile, an increasing number of abused women spend their time crying for vengeance. SPOILER! Don Giovanni eventually gets what's coming to him and disappears into a hole in the stage. he does this because - and this is hard to understand - a statue invites him to.
anyway, doing it 'posh' we went out to wine bar beforehand and then to the Supper Inn (which is good, but there are one thousand good Chinese restaurants in Chinatown so you'd feel a bit silly queuing to get into one. well, you'd think.) and so having spent most of our money opted for the cheapest Opera tickets sitting with 'the Gods'.
it was more like 'Gods and Monsters' up there.
firstly, when the lights went out there was the usual shuffle, as people in cheap seats at the back sneak down to empty ones in the front. and some guys and their tarts decide to climb over MY chair and i got a good flash of fanny.
then about halfway through act one a woman's mobile rings. and SHE ANSWERS IT.
then another woman started hissing at everyone to stop tapping their feet.
then towards the end of the opera a guy taps a woman's knee and asks her to stop talking. the woman's boyfriend takes offence to this guy handling his girlfriend and cries for vengeance. heated argument begins, guys both stand up and... ushers come over and tell them to sit down.
anyway, after it was finished i commented to my friend that opera seems to attract a low class of person, and she replied, 'no, it inspires a low class of behaviour'.
which, judging from the ONE TIME i've been to the opera, is true. if you can actually see past the overweight singers, corny lines, weird stories, ugly costumes and feeble sets, and LISTEN to the music... well, you might be a worse person for it. i know i certainly stole a program.
* not actual line from Don Giovanni
Fin
11 years ago
4 comments:
SPOILER!
For some reason that word really made me laugh. Great summary of the opera. My parents once took me to see Figaro and it was four hours long. Of course I pretended to love it because i was just that sort of pretentious teenager but truth be told, I couldnay understand a bar of it.
Ohhh... did you see Teddy Tahu Alexander??? He is so HOT!
"bitterly weeping, my punishment for loving too much"
Crazy plot really and when you step away from the performace its rather stupid
http://mirroronthe.blogspot.com/2005/08/opera-sydney-life-love.html
I saw Don Giovanni August last year - I have issues about the attendees at the opera. its just that its the opera. dress! I saw thongs, jeans, sneakers Grrrrrr!
It must have been the night for opera on Friday i saw Turandot - so beautiful. i prefer it in italian, when 'i will kill you if you don't correctly answer 3 riddles' is interpreted it kinda looses all emphasis and romantisim...
I SO hear you about the strange people in the cheap seats. There was this one strange guy sitting infront of me who, as soon as the music started, was bopping his head back and forth as though he were totally and utterly rocking out. AND, and, he kept it up for the ENTIRE show. Plus it got seriously hot up there by the end.
I went to the Opera for the first time this year. I had just moved to Brisbane and cara and I had spent the day looking at apartments for me to move into. Exhausted, we went to see a movie and ended up seeing The Benchwarmers. Cara was so appalled with the badness of it all, that we went to the Opera to purge the memory. We happened upon the opening night of Romeo and Juliet, everyone was super dressed up and we were looking, well, normal. In the cheap seats section though, anything seemed to go. We had kids standing on their seats in front of us, backpackers with their whole big backpacks, and old lady who took the entire first act to find her seat.
I didn't enjoy it much, it was in French (maybe Italian) which was funner because I could read the subtitles, but overall, it was just kind of boring. I actually thought Opera was Ballet so I was a bit disappointed with the lack of prancing.
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