Week in Opera

Tristan und Isolde

Tristan und Isolde

Wednesday night was Take your Walter to the Opera Day. I believe the initial conversation went something like this…

Me: So you want to do something interesting every day…an opera would be interesting…
Walter: OK
Me: Oooo…we can see Tristan und Isolde. It’s five hours long!
Walter: So we’re going, right?

So I guess it didn’t take too much trouble to try and convince someone to see a 5-hour opera with me.

It wasn’t bad, but not too much happens. It’s mostly just a platform to hear Deborah Voigt. Here are some highlights (or maybe lowlights) in ten items or less:

1. Everyone around us fell asleep at some point.

2. The guy in front of us, who I think was a pretty serious subscriber, said “If they had just stabbed him 45 minutes ago we could get home earlier. I think if they had just given them the right potion they could have all died in the first act.”

3. Apparently my glasses are perfect. I still think they are too big for my tiny head. I only wear them when I go to the opera and foreign films. And then only when I remember to bring them.

4. I absolutely love the community that gets built up at Lyric. When the guy next to us came he said “Oh, you’re not the people who usually sit there, you lucked out with those seats!” then he later asked if we were related to the seat holders. They also kept asking if I liked the opera and said we should walk around see the building. I am pretty sure they thought I had never been to the opera before.

5. There is a door at Lyric that says it houses the fire extinguisher. It apparently goes somewhere because a bunch of people who didn’t work there kept going inside. I have no idea what is behind that door.

6. Walter on the program: “This is like Skymall.” That line made me laugh so hard that my glasses flew off and hit the woman behind me.

7. The best part about taking people to the opera is that we get to sit in seats that normally cost $185 apiece for free.

8. My new pickup line: Will you willingly follow me to the land of darkness?

9. Walter’s favorite line: “If I died, you’d kill yourself too, right?” “Ummmm, suuuuure honey”

10. I think Walter liked it…