Opera at the Kennedy Center

For growing up in a suburb of Paris, my friend Mathieu has had no exposure to the opera. It is shameful. Are you sure you are even French Mat?

Now I can’t really say much because I have only been to 3, maybe 4, operas in my entire life. My wonderful friend Michelle Kirby arranged for us to go see La Traviata in California when I was in high school. I really enjoyed it, especially because they provided supertitles. I don’t understand anything about singing or composition, but I know I liked what Verdi put together.

In Austria, Seabreeze, Shelley, Elise, and I watched about half of an opera (something in Italian) at the Vienna State Opera House (we only watched half because we had to make the three hour drive from Vienna to Maria Alm) and it was a beautiful production. If you are visiting Vienna, go to the opera house about an hour before the performance and you can get standing tickets for 2 Euro. It is a great deal and the Vienna State Opera House is beautiful.

What might count as an opera is a Spanish form of operetta and folk opera called Zarzuela. In Madrid Seabreeze, Shelley, Katie and I saw a Zarzuela performance that was fantastic. It isn’t as heavy as opera and often introduces some comedy. I would say it falls more on the Gilbert and Sullivan side of theater. I was impressed that I understood as much as I did of the performance. Poor Katie had to have one of us translate for her. I bet she missed a lot of plot points because Seabreeze, Shelley and I all speak cheap, gringo Spanish.

And my latest opera was back in May – Siegfried. Mathieu decided that he needed to see an opera and I am always game to participate in something that makes me sound cultured and smart. I don’t actually have to be cultured and smart – I am merely looking to appear cultured and smart. So Mat picked Siegfried. Siegfried is the third of a four part opera series by Wagner called Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). It is essentially part of the plot of the Lord of the Rings trilogy with less fighting and more sword forging. Siefried’s father had a sword that was broken and Siegfried has to reforge it so he can fight the dragon Fafner (best name ever) that has a ring that gives the owner the power to rule the world. Sound familiar?

Overall it was a great night and good performance. Let's fact it, any night at the Kennedy Center is a good night. At four hours, it was definitely on the long side, but I still felt like I learned something - mostly that German isn’t a very pretty language. Also, if I have to listen to a story about “One ring to rule them all…” it is going to be on DVD and have Viggo Mortensen fighting orcs.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our night at the opera.

Mathieu and Andrew


Emily and Me


Andrew, Mathieu and Emily