A Night at the Opera

Last evening Bill & I went to the opera...

Like a lot of red-blooded (I did NOT say red-neck!) American men, Bill prefers country/western music and wasn't real crazy about going to the opera.  But I really wanted to go...  and, we had met the main singer (as well as a few of the others) over the past few days, and were curious as to how they would perform.

The flyers and program we got when we bought our tickets a few days before the show.

This is  Mayuko Sakurai, the soprano who was Carmen

Rather interesting...  Mayuko is Japanese, studying in Milan, Italy, but working for the Seville Opera here in Spain for the season...  singing an opera in French.  

She is a tiny person and one wonders how in the world she has a voice with such power and volume.  

I have to apologize for not remembering the artists "real" names... 

This was Don Jose, the Corporal of Dragoons who fell in love with Carmen, the Gypsy girl.

And this is... 

 Escamillo, the toreado

And the whole troupe on stage...

including Micaela, the village maiden.

And, the final scene... 

 Don Jose has just stabbed Carmen.... and realizes what he has done.  Even though the entire performance ran nearly 3 hours, which included 2 intermissions, the entire opera "Carmen" was not performed.  I believe just selected (and especially the well known..  dah dah..de..dah dah.....  dah de dah de dah...  heck, you know what I mean) were part of this performance.

Did I mention that this was a dinner theater?

 Two courses were served during the first intermission, and a third during the second.  Now... remember, Bill & I are kinda country folk...  dinner for us is 5:00...6:00 at the latest.  Here we were eating dinner at 10:00 at night.  Even more than that... this was WAY past our 9-10:00 bedtime ;-)

I dressed in my finest...

 Okay... so I had to layer a bit to keep warm.  At least I was color coordinated (Hey, Mitch...  this photo's for you ;-)  no plaid hot pink pants with a neon green polka dot top)

Okay...  on to the 2nd part...

A few selections from "The Barber of Seville"

And then... our favorite little singer with a big voice... 

 That's Mayuko again...  filling the room with her big voice.

The entire group taking a curtain call...

 The pianist (who, by the way, was very good) is on the far left, then the rest of the cast.  

This is the same theater where we saw the Flamenco last week.  This is only their second year in operation... with Flamenco on Tuesday and Thursday and the opera on Wednesday, Friday and Saturdays.  They are in a very large theater that would seat many.  In my opinion, their Flamenco shows far excel those we've seen at the flamenco museum and the place on Cuna St.    I hope they get lots of visitors...  they have very good performances.

And... after the show..

A kind of fuzzy shot of Bill and Mayuko.

Isn't she lovely?

There were only about 30 people attending this performance.  We purposely chose last night because weeknights usually aren't as crowded..  and also, with Semana Santa being next week, we weren't sure if the schedule would be changed. 

After the performance there was an informal "meet the artists" time...  looks like there may be some autograph signing...

I can only say that our night at the opera was quite memorable... because of our proximity to the stage (which, by the way, the performers used both the stage and the aisle leading to the stage...  even leaning into the audience at time), the artists talents, and because we had become personally acquainted with some of them before the show.

Bravo!

That's All For Today!