A night at the opera

Got out the velvet trousers and fur-cuffed shirt and trotted off to see La Boheme at the St James theatre tonight. My god! It was amazing. I’ve studied it during my music degree, heard it loads of times, seen it on video lots and seen it live several times and it was still such an experience. I looked like a raccoon by the end of the first act – trying not to choke while tears were streaming down my face as the main characters fell in love. It was only the second opera I’d dragged the Mister along to and he was frantically patting my arm hoping non-one would hear or see me dabbing away with my bright orange hankie.

Actually it was a great production of it – it’s originally set in the Bohemian Quarter of Paris – 4 poor students pawn-shopping their way through winter in a time when people wore muffs and a night out on Saturday involved dancing a passedoble but this production took on a modern theme in a rather Dunedin-esque flat with a tweed-cushioned couch with a wooden frame, takeout coffee cups and pizza boxes strewn about, a game of Twister and a bong on the bookshelf and an English lit student tapping away on a Mac. The details were amazing!

Have to say the lead tenor Jesus Garcia was a bit of a hunk and met every expectation when that damn death chord at the end that I’d almost forgotten about filled the theatre with torment and loss and he wailed out for his dead love who was the stuff his dreams were made of.

Sob!

Oh and I forgot the smell of moth balls that’s always at the opera as all the oldies get out their best coats!