Figaro, Figaro, Figaro!

A night at the Opera. My first!  My sister-in-law has been arranging events for our "year of culture".   We have been to the symphony, the ballet, Jazz and so it was time for Opera and a girls night out.  For our Opera we decided on "The Barber of Seville" which was playing in San Francisco.  We were dressed up but not to the nines. There were some women in LBDs, some wearing fur, quite a few guys wearing tux's, and one guy in skintight mottled blue and white jeans.   As we were driving by there was a little girl all dressed up in a princess type dress freezing and her brother was marching ahead of them in his suit. There  were a lot of people attending the performance young, old, kids and teens, families, couples, groups of people.

We were seating in the Circle level which is on the 3rd floor.  As we were waiting for the elevator we saw my mother-in-law, sisters-in-law and my niece-in-law in the over crowded elevator so we decided to walk up the stairs.  We walked up to the next level because some of us needed to use the restroom before the show so we stood in line for that and my sister-in-law sat on the kitchen to catch her breath.  My 2 sister-sin-laws took the elevator up the rest of the way and my other niece-in-law and I walked up the stairs.  We were seated second row from the railing and over to the far left which was a little hard to see the left side of the stage where all of the action was.

It's a comedic Opera in Italian -- 3 hours long with one intermission.  There were super titles in English at the top of the stage, but it was hard to watch the singers and read at the same time!  LOL!  I wished my Dad taught me Italian. The first act was slow and was hard to follow because I didn't know the story (and they were all singing in Italian!) but the second half picked up a bit.  But the gist is Rosina is being courted by Count Amalvivia first disguised as L, then as a drunk soldier and then a singing teacher.  Figaro employed as barber and doctor to Doctor Bartolo who is Rosina's guardian who has his own designs on her decides to help the Count in his courtship and various disguises.  Figaro is just Figaro all the way through but he gets the best songs.

The second act was easier to follow. It was more light hearted and comedic.  Everything gets resolved in song by the end of the Opera.  The Count and Rosina are married and drive off in a shiny red jaguar.  Did I mention that the staging was nontraditional? For the most part all of the characters were dressed in white expect Figaro were was dressed in brown, Doctor Bartolo was wearing an smoking jacket, Rosina started off in a white sequined gown with a hoop skirt then she changed into a flowered skirt.

So that was my first Opera.  My husband says I have to see another Opera with him since he wasn't invited along with the girls.  Maybe La Boheme which seems to be some operatic chick flick. No w when is that playing?