Die Walküre

A friend of mine invited me to see the opera Die Walküre last night with Placido Domingo. It was quite an experience. The place was packed with elegant people dressed in long ball gowns and drinking champagne (albeit out of a plastic cup). Too bad we were dressed in our work clothes. It would've been fun to dress up!

My friend was under the impression that it was a two hour opera, but....it wasn't. (And I probably should've gathered that something was not quite right when we saw an elderly man get out of a taxi with a pillow in hand.) We arrived and took our seats and immediately started leafing through the program. Suddenly, my friend starts pointing frantically at the program. Speechless at what she was reading.

I look at where she's pointing and there it is in the fine print: The performance will last approximately 4 hours and 45 minutes. YIKES! The opera was to start at 6:00pm and we hadn't eaten dinner!! Not to mention that that was a long time to be sitting down in cramped little orchestra seats listening to opera.

At the first intermission, we ran to a nearby cafe and grabbed some sandwiches so our stomachs wouldn't start grumbling in protest throughout the performance. We washed it down with a mini $6 bottle of red wine that we shared. That certaintly lightened the mood. :)

All in all it was a lovely performance with amazing singers and set designs. Towards the end, however, people were getting up and leaving and you could hear more than one person snoring rather loudly (maybe the elderly man with that comfy pillow?). I think someone should've told Wagner that 4 hours and 45 minutes was just a tad bit toooooooooooooooooo long for an opera. I didn't get home til midnight and my dreams were full of people stumbling around singing soprano.

After last night, I don't think I'll have to go to another opera for, I'd say, ten years. I'm pretty much aaaall set. Thanks, my friend!