My trip to the Opera

Thursday I wrote about Economics books, Friday about football, so it only makes sense that today I should write about the opera.

Yesterday I went to a local movie theater at 10:30 in the morning to watch the HD broadcast (is it really a "broadcast" when it is received in so few places?) of the live matinee performance of "Carmen" from the NY Met opera (not to be confused with the NY Mets......otherwise the actors would have made errors all day and one of them would have torn an acl!). Needless to say, attending this was not my idea. And I will admit that I was not at all sure I would enjoy an almost 4 hour performance in a language I do not speak. So, I will say that I am pleasantly surprised to tell you that I enjoyed this performance a great deal.

If there is opera music you are familiar with at all it is probably the music from Carmen. Hell, the castaways on Gillgan's Island even sang "Neither a Lender nor a borrower be" to the music from Carmen. I am sure that familiarity helped me enjoy the production. However, it was an impressive show in many ways. The music and vocal performances were outstanding, and the whole production quite mesmerizing. In addition, the HD cameras give you a view of the action that you would never get if you were at the Met watching (If you were a member of the Mets watching, you likely would have stumbled over the person next to you getting to your seat and torn your ACL). Kip had seen 4 operas this way in the past few months, and says this was her favorite.

Now, you are probably thinking, I bet you were the only ones at the theater. Not true. In fact, these programs sell out quickly in this area, and you have to get there about an hour before it starts so you don't have to sit in the front row.

You may have noticed a variety of strange listings in recent months if you have checked movie times on line. A company called Fathom Events is responsible for bringing a variety of one-time events to your local theater. In December, I went to see "Riff Trax Live" in this format, and along with the opera you can also watch things as diverse as a upcoming performance of "Prairie Home Companion" and some kind of babbling non-sense from Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck. I'm guessing the same folks aren't buying tickets to both those shows.

What does a well rounded guy like me do after attending the opera? Of course, I headed to the brew pub next to the theater to enjoy a beer and watch the end of the hockey game. And I'll still take hockey over opera, but man can not live on ice alone!