Yesterday I went to the Opera house to watch “La Bohème”. I really like classic music and opera so I was very excited since it was the first time I would watch it in Europe. To my surprise, people were not dressed super elegant as they do in Brazil when it’s opera night. It’s nice, because it shows it is more popular here (or that people got poorer because of the economic crisis).
Everything was great. Production, scenario, singers. Even the chocolate muffin I ate at the pause was tasty. We got a privileged view from our seats and as usual the opera was in Italian (this one was written by Puccini), but with Swedish subtitles. One of the cool things about going to an opera is that you get to know things about famous classic music you had no idea about before. Like in the aria called “Quando me’n vo”, which means “When I walk/go”. I had always known this one with only the orchestra, never with someone singing. I actually had no idea it was from “La Bohème”. And then one of the characters, an egocentric, good looking and heartbreaking lady starts singing this beautiful melody, saying that, when she walks down the street, everyone looks at her, admiring her beauty from head to feet. It was truly beautiful, the melody, the power of her voice…great!
Anyway…all that beauty didn’t prevent me from listing some things that always happen when we go watch operas, ballets or similar:
-Coughing people: Amazing how people spare all the phlegm they have been gathering a whole day to cough it out at the theater. Not mentioning the ones with no phlegm at all, but that simply swallowed saliva in a wrong way and can’t stop coughing, just to disturb you and the others.
-Crying people: If you look carefully around you can see people wiping their tears. I couldn’t resist it myself.
-Plastic bags: Another classic. People who need to mess with a plastic bag in the important or silent scenes. Put those and the coughing ones together and we have an orchestra.
-Professional clappers: These are the ones who know exactly when to clap, because the act is ending, even before it ends.
-Exciters: Those are cool somehow and very common in Brazil at least. They stand up by the end of an act to clap or to scream “Bravo!” and so.
Well, I went home happy and satisfied with the show. Waiting for the next one!
If you want to check the beautiful known aria I mentioned above, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmSCNFNzMWs&feature=related
Enjoy!
2 comments:
"Quando me’n vo" - Maria callas singed just amazingly ! if you can find it and listen, you gonna be deeply touched !
How was the opera house itself ??
like typical opera houses or typical Swedish, I mean poorly decorated "protestant style :P "?
Forgot to write :d
my friend hate coming with me to the opera, because if i know an aria ,i am "singing" too :D :D
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