Chris and I aren't serious opera buffs, but we do enjoy it occasionally, and if something interesting is playing, we'll usually try to make a night of it with opera and a really good dinner afterwards. This isn't precisely why we chose to go to Pagliacci. The Pagliacci decision was more along the lines of a "best of the worst" scenario, as the current opera season doesn't look too promising. Mozart's Magic Flute is playing in March, but that's a long time from now, and the other three shows aren't really piquing our interest.
For us, opera is always a very last minute decision, an attitude encouraged but not entirely inspired by the way the Pittsburgh Opera Company handles student tickets. They have a program called "Student Rush" which is basically a fire sale of every seat still available. Two hours before the show, college students can get any unfilled seat for 50% of the original ticket price. Since we generally don't know if we can go until about 2 hours before the show, this is quite convenient.
Last night was a near thing. Chris and I both have lots of school work to do, so we almost didn't go. Fortunately, we made it, and through some stroke of luck we got first row seats for about $40 each. Traditionally, we've been in the balcony somewhere.
We found our seats and indulged in a bit of unadulterated amazement at our good fortune: "You can see the harps! You can see the harps!" "I've got leg room!"
The actual show was quite nice. The plot is simple, and Pagliacci is mercifully short. The whole thing was about 1:35 including a 25 minute intermission. I do enjoy opera, but I've always felt it's supposed to be a mix of theatre and music, and often the composers will sacrifice the visual for the auditory, resulting in 10 minute death scenes and endings that add whole additional acts to the production. There are no surprises in opera. Not for the American opera crowd anyway. No one actually speaks enough Italian to be able to understand the actual dialogue, so everyone has read the plot beforehand and is diligently watching the subtitle screen. And even when there is supposed to be a genuine surprise, like when the husband storms in on his wife and her lover, the whole suspenseful vibe is lost because the soprano has to finish her aria before her husband can start yelling. So the point is that watching opera isn't like watching a play, and you shouldn't go into it expecting such.
After the show we headed down the street to ELEVEN, a classy American restaurant, for a late dinner. ELEVEN is a part of Big Burrito, a company that owns many restaurants including Mad Mex, a very popular chain of Mexican bars. And it's really really good. With excellent service. I highly recommend it.
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