A Night at the Opera

We set off home this morning. Unusually Flora became suspicious before Tom did and she hid in the bedroom cupboard while he was still strolling around the garden, blissfully unaware of the journey ahead. So I picked him up and carried him to the car, and Flora didn’t put up much resistance when we came to get her. I would like to think that they are getting used to the four hour journey, they don’t seem so upset when they are taken to the car; more resigned. The journey was pleasantly uneventful which is the way we like it.

In the evening we went to see La Traviata at the Theatre Royal. We got the tickets on a whim about eight months ago; it’s many years since we have seen an Opera, not since we were in our thirties I think. La Traviata was a good choice because it has great songs and is visually very attractive with much partying and dancing. It has a sad ending of course, but the singers, whom my Dad would have described as “well built,” looked so hale and hearty that it was difficult to believe that Violetta was in anything but robust good health!  The singer who played Alfredo was so moved however that he was still crying his eyes out at the curtain calls! 

I had forgotten that I had booked the very front row of the stalls, not a row that I usually book because it can result in having to crane your neck to look up at the stage. However this time it worked very well because we could see right into the orchestra pit and saw all of the musicians playing their instruments, the conductor expertly entwining their music with the singing that was going on above them. The stage was on a slope towards us so we could see all of the performers very well, although we did need to crane our necks a little to see the English supertitles above the stage. The singing was so expressive that I didn’t feel the need to look at the supertitles very often. However there was one unexpected outcome of sitting in the front row. At the beginning of the second interval I put my glasses on a wee shelf in front of me and they slid off and fell right down into the orchestra. Luckily they didn’t hit any of the musicians, one of whom handed them up to James. I was very embarrassed but we had a laugh about it and when I came back to my seat after the interval a man said to me “Hang on to your specs!” which I thought was very funny. James and I both thoroughly enjoyed our night at the Opera.