We filled each other in on what had been happening with other members of the family - a lot can happen in 20 years and had an altogether pleasant afternoon. I dragged him to the National Gallery - which I have never been to -despite having lived in London for over 10 years and entrance into Gallery is free (no excuse really). My friend helpfully pointed out which paintings were by famous painters. I recognised a couple of them.
Then there was the highlight of my evening!
I've never been to the opera. It has a reputation of being boring, pretentious, appreciated only by classical musicians. I've heard snatches of opera on TV, and once in church, and not been too terribly impressed by the warbling and vibratto. I don't understand half of what they are singing, even if it is sung in a language I understand. But the reason I've never been to the opera boils down to… cost. Opera tickets normally cost about £160+ each for decent seats, and I'm not that keen on making an expensive mistake, if youknarrmean!
It came as a bit of a surprise when my friend Beth (from the previous day) invited me to go along with her to the Royal Opera House to see the Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi called 'Il Trovatore' (The Troubadour). She had somehow secured cheap seat tickets to the opera of £6 each.
"Wanna come?"
"At £6, hell yeah!"
Never mind that we'd be lucky to even see the stage.
Now for the benefit of the uninformed, I defer to Terry Pratchett's superior definition of opera in his book, Maskerade
… Well basically there are two sorts of opera, ' said Nanny, who also had the true witches ability to be confidently expert on the basis of no experience whatsoever. " There's your heavy opera, where basically people sing foreign and it goes like, "Oh oh oh, I am dyin', oh, I am dyin', oh, oh, oh, that's what I'm doin" ', and then there's your light opera, where they sing in foreign and it basically goes " Beer! Beer! Beer! I like to drink lots of beer!", although sometimes they drink champagne instead. That's basically all of opera, reely.'
'What? Either dyin' or drinkin' beer?'
'Basically, yes,' said Nanny, contriving to suggest that this was the whole gamut of human experience,
"And that's opera?'
'We-ll… there might be some other stuff. But mostly it's stout or stabbin'.'
'Il Trovatore' is in the heavy category. The singing was powerful, but I couldn't help but notice that the actors (sorry… singers) were a bit wooden. Their voices were poweful and full of passion, but they just stood there looking at the person who was singing! In fact my favourite scene, is when the lead tenor sings a song to fire up his motley rebels to defend his town from the evil Count.
Yeah, Now that's what I'm talking about
The other songs were a bit mushy. Sung in Italian, but there were English surtitles (like subtitles only these appear on a screen above the stage) for the benefit of those who can't be bothered to learn another language. Saying that, the only line I understood was... "Il suo fratello" (it was your brother!) in the 'twist' at the end which we'd seen coming for at least a couple of hours! Roll eyes!
Okay so maybe Il Trovatore was not the best choice for a first time opera, but now, I'm interested in opera. Especially after I told M about it the next evening, and he became animated! M studied Music at the Royal College of Music, so he's in the lot who would appreciate opera. He told me that perhaps I should watch a comedy like 'The Marriage of Figaro' (so that would be a light opera? ... See... I'm practically an expert now), and that we should go together to see it.
Now that's what I'm talking about!
