Yes, I went to an opera this afternoon. At the Bastille--the modern opera house across town from Le Garnier.
Opera is not a favorite of mine. I saw "The Student Prince" when I was five, in a little theater in the round, in New England. My mother and father, opera aficionados, loved it. I was brought along as a treat. I understood the honor. So I was well-behaved...I think. But aside from "The Drinking Song", which roused in me a bit of excitement, I was struck numb with boredom.
I've been to opera since, of course. And this I have gleaned. The Chicago Opera House's ladies rooms, yellow and silk odes to roses and cream crown molding, are to die for. And that time we had box seats in Brussels for "La Traviata" when I was thirteen, I learned that box seats curtained with olive green and gold brocade and velvet, are the way to go.
Today I saw "La Petite Renard Rusee", which in English is called "The Cunning Little Vixen." It's about a beautiful red fox who dies in the end. Yes, even though the heroine is a fox, she still dies in the end. They all die in the end--
But you knew that.
The sets were utterly charming, and since animals were the focal point, with one of the humans finally seeing the soul in the animals at the end, I enjoyed it. I didn't love it.
I thought the music somewhat dull, but watching the orchestra was as usual, wonderful.
I found the French illuminated subtitles (or whatever they call them in opera) disconcerting. My eyes kept sliding up to them, and I was shocked every time to be confronted with French.
There were a lot of children in the audience. The topic wasn't of interest to them I am sure, but the animal characters were totally charming, fun and funny...and were played by children, in all cases besides the main animal characters, which I guess is why parents were sure this was an opera for them.
The little boy in this picture, at intermission, was eating a cupcake and wafting enthusiastically to his grandmother, who obviously thought every word he uttered was perfection personified.
I absolutely agreed. Meanwhile noting to self that the parents had it right. The "Cunning Little Vixen" was a charming fairytale.
In spite of that dead little vixen at the end.
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