Amy and I went with our friends Dave and Maureen to the opera last night. Yes - the opera (the music thing, not the browser.) Now that I'm 40, I've decided it's time to make sure I do more "grown up things" and the opera seemed like it fit the bill.
Amy is a classical music fanatic and loves the ballet, so I've always spent plenty of time at the symphony and the ballet. I particularly like ballet as it's usually a little warm in the theater which generates a deep nap (one of those sloppy sweaty ones) if the ballet isn't captivating me (I love modern, I fall asleep during story ballet.)
So - I expected to enjoy the opera for a little while and then fall into a deep sleep. We saw The Abduction from the Seraglio and I was blown away. The Ellie Caulkins Opera House is phenomenal. The seats are comfortable (we had great ones), the acoustics were awesome, and the set was beautiful.
Abduction from the Seraglio is in German, which was a little weird since the "radio opera" I usually hear randomly is usually Italian. There were these cool little electronic translation screens on the seat backs ("The Figaro System") that translated the opera into English, which made it really accessible.
I loved it. Even though I was wiped out from my week, I stayed fully engaged. The music (Mozart) was engaging and the performers were stunningly good.
Of course, we started with dinner at Kevin Taylor's at the Opera House in the basement of the Opera House. The food was awesome and the decor / environment was really interesting.
It's always great when your "first time" of something goes well. Last night was really fun. Thanks to my friends Dave and Maureen for making this event happen.
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