A NIGHT AT THE OOOOPERA

My next door neighbor sings for the San Francisco Opera Company. He had gotten me tickets for Mozart's Magic Flute a couple years ago, but he didn't perform in that show, so I hadn't seen him in a production until MoFo and I caught the SF Opera's performance of Carmen.

I knew the music from Carmen, but I did not know the story. My god, what an awful story. The soloists were great, but what a horrendous plot. If I'm going to sit through 3 1/2 hours, I expect lots of champage between the acts and a good story at least. We had plenty of champagne anyway... I couldn't get the Harold Hecuba episode of Gilligan's Island out of my head for the rest of the night, though. A musical version of Hamlet with the Carmen score would have been a better show.

(Ugh... I just took a sip from the wrong can [the one I'd been using as an ashtray] - serves me right for being so critical, I suppose.)

A positive note. It was pretty cool to see my neighbor perform. MoFo also seemed to enjoy herself very much. That in itself is enough for me to have a good time. Afterwards, we stopped by Dimaggio's for one of their fancy concoctions. By the time we left, I had completely forgotton about my hang-up over Carmen's stupid ending. I love happy endings... maybe the opera is not for me.