A Night at the Opera!

Hello all! Last week I went to my first ever opera! I was pretty excited about it, but unfortunately the guy from the newspaper who got us the tickets bailed on me last second, and everyone I knew had already made other plans for the night...so I went by myself.

*mild sobbing*

No I am just kidding! It really wasn't a big deal. The opera was at The Hippodrome in the city center. I had never been there before, and let me tell you it is not located in the nicest looking area. However once you get inside it is absolutely stunning. The outside lobby is sophisticated and modern while the theater itself is grand and beautiful. I got my tickets from the box office and sat down in the extremely comfortable seat.

Unfortunately on the other side of the isle were two absolutely repulsive women. First off, they came in late. Secondly, they TALKED LOUDLY during the performance to each other. They also were eating food out of enormous plastic/tin bags that were so flipping loud. Also they smelled pretty bad. But of course this is England where no one is going to tell them to shut up, so everyone around them suffered for like 20 minutes before someone politely tapped them on the shoulder and asked them to stop. HOW ARE YOU SO OBLIVIOUS????

*ahem* Anyways, moving on to the actual show. The opera was being put on by The Welsh National Opera. They were performing a play called "The Magic Flute". Now I will say that the singing was gorgeous. It was definitely impressive and beautiful. Of course the live orchestra was fantastic as well. Nothing really beats live music. But on the other hand.....the play itself was pretty bad.

It was bizarre, never really explained anything that was happening, was wildly sexist, and just overall was really boring. The entire moral of the story was that women are liars and cannot be trusted, and that they need to be led by men or else they are evil. Men of course are logical and wise. Spare me.

Putting that aside the story was just not interesting. It started out okay but then it got wwaayy too complex. It introduced complicated ideas and settings that were never explained and it was just so anti climatic. If I hadn't been reviewing it for the paper I would have left at intermission...which many of the people who had been sitting around me did.

It really was a shame. I had been looking forward to going to an opera ever since I got here, and the one I did manage to go to was..this. Bit disappointing really. (And by "bit" I mean extremely)

Next week I am going to see Hamlet performed on all ten floors of the city Library, and also a Cirque de Sole style circus! Hopefully they will prove to be better than this theater experience.