So, at the opera last night...
I don't think anybody expected this blog to begin like that.
Seriously though, I went to an opera last night at Lincoln Center, Falstaff was a name of it and it was operacized version of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor with some King Henry IV thrown in for good measure. And it's the damndest thing, I really liked it. It's not that I expected not to like it, it's just that I didn't know what to expect. The only opera experience I've had prior to this was La Boheme but that was a Baz Lhurman production so that was really like a big elaborate lazer show really. No, that was really good to but you know how he is, everything's gotta be boom boom boom! Getting back to falstaff though, it was a beautifully designed, lavishly decorated, and seriously well sung performance. The ending was something out of a great screwball comedy, come to think of it shakespeare is sort of the grandaddy of all screwball comedies, and somebody should thank for him for that. Opera has always puzzled me in that it's just so hard to put a human face on that singing, it doesn't sound natural. This is not a criticism of any kind, but being the simple minded person that I am, I still marvel over the fact that these are human voices making these sounds. I just can't comprehend how someone finds and develops that gift, it just seems so extraordinary, I guess a lot of singing is like that though. I remember reading somewhere that Rufus Wainwright gets heaps and loads of musical inspiration from Opera, not just in his singing style and musical taste, but in his lyrics as well. So much of what he has seen in opera, he has translated into his words, hopefully someday he can write an opera that will stop all the world. That will show everybody. But yeah I had a fabuloso time last night, and one more thing before I wrap this up, that Lincoln Center has one grand old theatre, to see a full blown opera up on that stage is something I'm really glad I got to see. Plus I was with ravishingly beautiful company so that didn't hurt. There was one little minor fib on my part, apparently and if somebody wants to break this down too me this, now is the time: I chew my gum too loudly. Right after the first scene in the first act, the woman in front of me asked me if I could stop chewing my gum because she could hear it the entire time. I half expected a chorus line of oompa-loompa's to come cartwheeling in singing about the horrors of chewing and chewing all day long. I guess since I don't chew gum as often as I used to I'd forgotten about proper etiquette, so wherever that woman is I apologize. Remember that kids, gum and opera just don't mix, and I can't be taken anywhere.
That unfortunate business aside...
I want to say one more time and I promise and absolutely swear this will be it. Thank you, dev.
"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is...and felt how awful goodness is."
(This quote really has nothing to do with the opera, I just saw it on a website and felt like posting it)
Okay, I'm off...
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