Apr. 25, 2006 - The Opera!!!

We went to the Opera today... The Marriage of Figaro.

To be honest, I thought I would hate it.  I almost didn't go... but I loooooved it!  It was awesome ~~ The sets were amazing, and we got to see how they switched sets in between. They kept the curtains open between the scene changes for us, and someone explained parts of the backstage equipment.  It was really interesting.

The costumes were great, and I loved the singing as well.  I really didn't expect to like it, and we had even bought ear plugs since Sprite hated the opera music ont he video we wtached.  Live, it was a much much different (and better sounding) experience.  I would definitely go to another opera again.

They had the "captions" on a small screen above the stage.  I hadn't expected that ~ but even though I had told the kids the gist of the story on the way there (and we had studied it for our school time last week)  it certainly made it easier to understand!

The guy playing Figaro was great ~ very funny... I hadn't expected it to be so funny either.  I really liked both the ladies playing the Countess and Susanna.

The kids did really well for the first hour and a half.  Jaedin seemed quite mesmerized by the whole experience.  Then hunger, tiredness and fidgety-ness took over for the boys.   They still did well though.  They were just impatient to go.  It didn't help that Jaedin had forgotten to eat breakfast on the way out... and it didnt' help either that we all had to get up earlier than normal.  Everyone was a bit "off" kilter.

Still, I think it was an enjoyable experience, a new thing to have done.  I hope they have a child friendly opera next fall that I can take the little girls to.  I think Abyni especially would love it ~ if it wasn't 2 and a half hours long!:)

We came home, the little girls had stayed at Stephanie's house while I took her oldest with mine to the opera.  By the time we got home around 1:30, it was almost time for the little girls to go to gymnastics with her anyway... so we just kept each other's kids for the afternoon.  I had all the kids do a short paper on their opinion of the opera and their experience... and that was it for school.

Oh, excpet for the girls having to make cookies for the game night tonight.  We discovered how to substitute baking soda and cream of tartar and cornstarch for baking powder...  and the cookies turned out great!