Birthday Opera

One thing that I always wanted to do was to see an opera.  Guess what, I saw one last night.  La Traviata.

Nadalene bought me tickets for the opera for my birthday.  It was wonderful, magnificent, intense, and divine.  The set was brilliant.  The opera singers, I don’t even know what you would call them, but their voices were angelic.

I am at the end of the evening; I need to waltz many dances back with Nadalene to get to the beginning.

Nadalene looked stunning in a teal sweater dress with a black shawl draped in some kind of stunning fashion.  I looked stunning in black pants and a top with rhinestones (thanks Liz, I don’t know if you knew that you left it at my house or that I was going to wear it, I didn’t either).

The evening started with dinner which was maple chicken and roasted carrots and potatoes.  We both kissed our husbands goodbye and walked out the door.

Just when we reached the opera it started to rain with thunder that shook us in the car.  (Charlton did tell us to bring the umbrella.)  Of course, we didn’t have an umbrella so we had to run for it.  My run is a little slower than a snails pace so needless to say we got wet.  It was wonderful.

We got there and ordered our drinks for the intermission.  A fancy little trick that allows you to pre-order so that you don’t have to wait in the line-up.  I learnt this at my savvy daughters’ knees.

I get to our seat which was marvelous.  We were in the 19th row on the main floor, almost dead center.  The view was glorious.

Before the opera started, I was sitting in my chair and Nadalene had stepped away.  I saw her come back and in front of her were an elderly man and woman.  I watched for approximately 10 minutes while Nadalene in her beautiful dress was trying to adjust the man’s walker so that he could sit and then I saw her get it to the side and the man was holding on to both her hands while she tried to help him in his seat.  All this time there were about 15 people behind her waiting for the man and woman to sit.  I was really surprised to see that no one else helped them.

Okay back to the opera.

La Traviata is about a courtesan (Violetta) who allows herself to fall in love with one of her patrons.  Violetta moves to the country with her young man, after three months his father appears and tells her that if she really loves his son, she will give him up, because after all he is from a good home and she is a courtesan.  She gives him up.  He disappears and she ends up very ill and is dying.  He and his father come back on the scene the day she dies to tell her that the father was mistaken and she and his son should be together.  She dies in her lover’s arms.

Favourite quotes from the opera (they have it in subtitles above the stage).

While they were dancing “Life without pleasure is madness.”

While she was dying “The roses on my cheeks have faded."

Thanks for the birthday opera Nadalene.