Go to the Opera

Go to the Opera
February 1, 2014

I love this artwork

In January of 2013, Chris (hubby) and I were at Mark & Kristi's house for supper and we started talking about the orchestra and the opera.  Coincidentally, someone from the orchestra called a few days later with a discounted rate for the upcoming orchestra, which featured opera singers.

We bought 3 tickets (Chris & I plus Mark, Kristi wasn't interested) and were excited to attend.  The show was a couple of months later and Mark ended up not being able to join us, which was too bad.  However, it was not a full opera experience.  It was beautiful, but there were no costumes or sets.  I wanted more. 

Mark and I decided to ditch the spouses for the night and go on our own opera adventure.  Tickets went on sale in September, but our show of choice wasn't till February 1st.  We chose The Flying Dutchman.

Mark is a dapper gentleman and we decided it was best to let that shine.  In anticipation, I purchased a blue gown and Mark purchased a cane, top hat and monocle.  He also made sure his pocket square and tie matched the color of my dress.  Seriously, dapper.

We met at the Jubilee and got to our seats right away.  We were about 15 rows from the stage, right in the middle.

My knowledge of the story was almost completely null, so I was in for quite a show.  It started off with some incredible lighting on an iridescent curtain, made to look like crashing waves.  It was fantastic!

Luckily, there was a screen above the stage that translated the vocals, so we could understand what they were saying.

So here's the story:  A man is searching for a woman who will be faithful to him for all of her life and he says aloud, "I will find a faithful woman before I die" and the devil decides to hold him to this, placing a curse on the man and his ship.  He becomes immortal in his search.  However, he can only step on land once every 7 years and only for 24 hours - of course finding a wife in that time would be tricky!

He happens upon another ship that is just about home and makes a deal with the captain - all of his riches for the captain's faithful daughter, whom he's never met or even seen.  The captain is a greedy man and agrees.  

The next scene is of the daughter (Senta) at home with her friends.  She is involved with a man (Erik) who is a hunter, while all of her friends are with seamen.  They mock her for this.

Senta has heard of the curse on the Flying Dutchman and dreams that she will become the faithful woman he's searching for.  She becomes obsessive and falls in love with the Dutchman, again without having met or seen him.

The ship arrives home and Senta meets the Dutchman for the first time.  Within a few minutes she agrees to be with him and swears that she will be faithful for the rest of her life. 

Of course, Erik is not happy.  He believed that he and Senta were in love.  He confronts her and tries to make her realize how illogical she's being, reminding her of their love and the promises she has made to Erik.  While this is happening, the Dutchman walks into the room and sees them talking.  He takes this to mean that Senta is already unfaithful.

The Dutchman tells Senta that he can't trust her and he leaves in his ship.  She jumps into the ocean after him. 

And that's the end. 

As I'm sure you're doing right now, Mark and I spent a lot of time crinkling our faces and making 'what?!' hand gestures. 

The costumes were incredible, the set/lighting was beautiful and the performances were outstanding, but the story was odd.  Mark and I had a hard time understanding a lot of the reasoning behind the character's actions, specifically Senta.  I guess that's the age we live in.  You know, where people get to know each other, can talk to people aside from their spouses and don't jump into the ocean after men they've only just met.  

Overall, I'm so happy with this experience.  It was a great production and I really enjoyed a night out with Mark.