Sunday, April 28, 2013

the flying dutchman

I love performances, especially when they involve music, so I was more than a little excited to see an opera in Italy.

We got dressed up.

 


We grabbed some friends.

 

We went to a gorgeous, old, Italian opera house, the San Carlo Theater.

 

We sat at the edges of our seats only to be bored to tears. The opera went on and on and on and just when the soprano would hit a high note and fall to the ground and make you think the curtain was about to fall, she would get back up and keep on singing. And singing. And singing.

 

It was particularly boring because the opera was in German with Italian subtitles, so we had difficulty following along, even though I'd read the story of "The Flying Dutchman" prior to going. The story seemed simple and wonderful. The opera seemed complex and not as wonderful.

We got hungry and had to make our dinner reservations, so we left before it was over. I've never walked out on a performance before. I felt so un-classy.

 

 When we returned home, our babysitter, who is a member of the Navy Band and has played this opera before informed us that sometimes "The Flying Dutchman"  can run up to 4 or 5 hours...

Consider yourself warned.

2 comments:

  1. I love this--such a great story.

    Once at BYU this guy took me to the opera in salt lake city. I totally fell asleep--it was a first date mind you--and I was like snoring, drooling totally OUT. But seriously, it was SO boring! I love your honestly here--even though it may not be sophisticated or 'classy', does anyone REALLY enjoy sitting through 5 hours of that? Ugh...poke out my eyeballs.

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  2. Ha-ha, hee-hee, Katie G.!! I'm kinda surprised that you and my Katie do not fall in the catigory of, "opera lovers", considering the fact that you two sing so beautifully. (Remember the scene from the movie "Pretty Woman"?)

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