A NIGHT AT THE OPERA

I have been to the opera only three times in my life. The first time was a long time ago: in Warsaw, Poland in 1989. That was quite an event. Poland was still under communist rule and the opera and other cultural events were incredibly cheap. Because it was so cheap we decided with our group of law students from Utrecht University on a "study trip" to Poland that it was a good idea to go to the opera on the first evening after our arrival.

We had nothing suitable to wear and nobody had any Polish money; only I had changed illegally some Dutch guilders to Polish zlotys in the hotel lobby that afternoon (an unexpected talent of mine). Both clothes and money turned out to be no problem at all; the audience was dressed as if they just came from the supermarket and I had paid for all the 12 tickets. If I remember well it was only €0,16 per ticket !!

I do not remember that much about the performance. Only that it was a Polish composer and that there were a lot of people on stage (just like it should be in an old-fashioned opera). It was crowded and I still can see old ladies knitting as if they were sitting in front of the telly.

The second time was last year on my birthday, February 19th, when I saw with a friend "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" by Mozart. I am not a big fan of Mozart: It is too frivolous for me. But OK, Johan Simons was the director and he is the shooting star of European opera. So let's see what it is and it is always a nice night out. Unfortunately it was a disappointment, may be the expectations were too high. The opera was sung technically beautiful, but it simply was not my taste. We had good seats, but we paid also € 90, which could have bought tickets for 540 people back in 1989 in Warsaw !

Last time was last week when I saw Nabucco by Verdi in the Lucent Theatre in The Hague. They made a modern version of the storyline and it was now set in some Latin-American banana republic instead of Jerusalem. But the rest was in my eyes (I am no connaisseur) quite straight-forward opera: with a large choir, great bombastic music by Verdi, famous melodies, a rather sturdy diva, lots of melodrama, great lighting and decor (at least in my opinion; there were other opinions) and a standing ovation, which is these days unfortunately more rule than exception. Great for a saturday night out.

To end this I added a clip of the überfamous chorus Va Pensiero sull'Ali Dorate (the Slave Choir)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BZSqtqr8Qk