I was at a very special performance of La Boheme, at the Royal Opera House. A friend of mine who is a real culture vulture had a spare ticket because her husband couldn't attend, and she very kindly offered it to me. This production was the 20th anniversary of Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna first meeting in this very opera at this theatre, and the first time they have sung together for 2 years.
It was beautiful....the music, the voices, the stage sets, the surroundings. I even shed a little tear at the end! And even though we were sitting quite high up we saw everything, and my friend even had a spare pair of opera glasses (told you she was a culture vulture didn't I!)
I'm going to say I haven't been to the Royal Opera House before although in truth I went on a school trip when I was about 14 to see La Fil Mal Gardee, and although I remember that I enjoyed it very much, I don't remember much about the theatre itself, except for the little opera glasses on the backs of the chairs that you deposited a threepenny piece in. Here's one of them, in case you aren't as ancient as me!
It was a very special treat....I wouldn't say I'm an opera buff, I like some, but I'm not a real connoseuir (sp?)
I've seen a couple of production of La Boheme over the years, one on stage, and one live screening, and even I could tell that last night's performance was a cut above!
And what I really loved at the end as well was the fact that people really do throw flowers on the stage when the leading lady takes her bows. I know we see it in the movies, but I never really thought it actually happened!
Now here's a very bad picture of the auditorium....
You see those fabulous red curtains? They were the cause of the start being delayed by about 25 minutes. Due to "technical" problems they were unable to open them. So we sat and waited and every 5 minutes or so someone would pop out on stage and apologise and then they would try again and it didn't work, and another 5 minutes or so went by and someone would pop out again and say bear with us for 5 more minutes. Then they decided that they could manage to open them but didn't want to take a chance on closing them in case they couldn't open them again, so they would leave them open and at the end of act 1 we were treated to the crew coming in to change the scenery, it was quite interesting and amusing. They did manage to close the curtains after act 2 though and everything was fine. It made for a late finish though, and I didn't get home till nearly midnight....very late for me on a work night!
