A night at the opera

I had recently heard that Lima’s National Theater was reopening and that Friday night was the inauguration day. I looked at the advertisement for the Opera with longing at one point, but its always better not to think about the things you can’t have, so I didn’t after that.

But, on Friday, when Cynthia casually said that she was given two free tickets and didn’t want them I jumped into action mode, went home, changed into something nice, and hopped into a taxi to get there on time.

I felt sorry for the wasted opera ticket. It would have enjoyed being in the hands of one of my family members but none were in Lima at the time. It would have fluttered with joy to be grasped by the fingers of my music loving friends, but by the time I had called them, they already had plans for the night.

This was my first opera, so I have nothing to compare the rendition of “Barber of Seville” to, but I was very impressed by the blend of instruments, singing, composition of music, backdrops, costumes, and props. There was a giant pair of scissors, a set of 4 fake fireworks that exploded throughout the whole theater, as well as a scene where someone is carried away up into the air while he is holding onto his umbrella. The storyline I wasn’t too impressed with (just your typical forbidden love story) but I don‘t know if the storyline ever gets much better than that in an opera.

One of the best parts was seeing all the rich people schmoozing around. The grand opening pulled them in like a weekend trip to Miami. I probably saw some famous Peruvians, or got in the background of their pictures.

I snuck around snapping photos of the elegant environment, but wasn’t too impressed. The fire that burned down the theater twelve years ago must have consumed the history the building had collected over the years.

During the intermission I got up. A group of old ladies would not move their legs to let me go by much, so I just lifted up my legs and walked over all of them wherever I could fit a foot in. The last old lady scolded me for it, “Here, I will get up for you, what you are doing is not at all appropriate!” So I guess next time I need to take my time and attempt to coerce the old ladies to move their legs as a Peruvian would rather than risk making myself a spectacle at the opera.