Vblurb

Last Wednesday was our first time at the opera, for David and I. We went to the Metropolitan Opera House to see La Traviata. We started by dressing up, mainly because we wanted to look good for each other. It was fun to choose what tie was best for him and to hunt for elegant bags for me :p So here is a first picture of David getting ready. The last final details were finalised in my room and off we went, extra socks and ties in hand so that we must have looked pretty goofy walking on campus to his car all dressed up holding socks!
The place is very beautiful, it's huge and it probably holds 4000 or 5000 people. Which is impressive because you have one tiny little woman on stage holding the attention of all these people all by herself... Well and of the orchestra but that's all we saw from were we were. At least that's what short I saw, maybe David could see more.
Oh btw, here's us there on the left. And if you want to see better, you can click on the image! The huge windows behind us gives on the square outside. From there you can look in and have a very nice view of the lobby.
So to the performance itself. The story is a bit silly and theatre-wise it wasn't great, but the sets were awe-some, and so were the costumes - I swear that dress the lead was wearing must have weighed a ton! Of course the music was very beautiful, it got me pretty emotional actually. I enjoyed it a lot. And what they do with their voices is craaaazy. We were sat quite far back but with a good central view, and apparently that's where the sound is best because of how the opera house is designed but I was still impressed at how far their voices reached. At some point the lead sobs and I swear I hear every one of her sobs! One of them sings from back stage and again, you hear every word. The technicalities are, again, impressive. That's really THE word. It's not only how loud they are, it's also all the variations they put in. I know nothing about it so I can't name it, all I know is you can tell they've worked on these for years to get it there.
The weird part was that we heard so well that at first I had the feeling I was listening to a recording because it was just so perfect. I thought man her voice can't possibly be that clear from that far! But it is... Makes you see musicals in an even less flattering way!
Anyways I enjoyed it a lot, and I think I'll definitely go back and see others - hopefully with a more interesting story, they do Shakespeares, I'd probably love that :p
Another aspect of the show was our neighbours, a couple of absolutely charming 80 year-olds. They were so sweet and full of life both David and I were under the spell! It made me want to spend afternoons chatting with them! I hope maybe we can glimpse them again one day..
So another one of us, just because I like these pics and I haven't gotten to show David off quite enough :p
So here's us looking good at the opera, during an intermission of course!