We went to see Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) at the Metropolitan Opera today. It was incredible. I'll admit that I am not really an opera person, but David really likes this particular opera and wanted to see it for his birthday. Had he been in town a week and a half ago we could have seen it for free (yes, free), but he was in Chicago for work. We knew this was a chance of a lifetime, so we took it. A woman in our ward was performing in it, so that made it even more exciting. She put us on the list to go backstage (never been on a backstage list before) after the performance. We felt like VIPs. Of course, we didn't know where we were going. We stood in line for the ladies room for a few minutes before we realized we were in the wrong place. Once we got past the gatekeeper of the backstage world, we just acted like we knew where we were going, and no one stopped us. She had her own dressing room, and she invited us in. Then she took us on a tour of the Metropolitan Opera House (pictured below). The place is enormous. There was another performance that evening of another opera, so we were able to see them moving the sets around in and out of position. We watched the rehearsal for an upcoming performance of War and Peace which she will also be performing in. She pointed out a famous bass at the rehearsal. As we are not real opera aficionados, we did not know him nor do I remember his name. We saw the costume shop and the wig shop. They make all of their wigs from human hair. Maybe we'll go again sometime (hopefully for free next time) and make this a twice in a lifetime experience.
1 comment:
That's super cool!! I grew up going to opera matinees that were sung in english and explained beforehand so that we'd understand what was going on and also wouldn't think anyone actually died on stage (duh). Never got to go backstage, though, and that sounds like an awesome experience.
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