Friday, January 22, 2010

A night at the opera

I've always heard a lot about Mozart's The Magic Flute, and of course know the Queen of the Night's famous aria from the second act. But although I enjoy opera, and would like to enjoy it more through knowing more about it -- isn't that the only way?

I had never actually seen a production of La Flûte Enchantée, so I was attracted by the colorful posters all over Rodez for the production by l'Opéra Eclaté, and decided to buy a ticket at the door.

Although the show was far from sold out, I was quite impressed by the number of people willing to go to the Rodez Amphithéâtre to see an opera during the week.

The necessarily pared-down staging didn't make for an all-out spectacle, but the musical quality was quite strong, and I am happy to say I indulged in a "night at the opera" in my home town.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Sounds fantastic and I love the colorful costumes. What a great thing to do in the middle of the week.

Tinsie said...

It certainly looks colourful :-)

TJ said...

i saw carmen in angouleme, and i thought i was great! while the small town productions can be hit or miss, they can be worth it

tut-tut said...

I love those costumes. And rallying and being a champion of local productions is so important to the arts.

My WV is adisive; sounds like a worthy word, doesn't it? I'm sure one of my local news people will be using it soon . . .

deedee said...

That sounds fun. I think there are so many good cultural "sorties" for those of us living outside of Paris. When I hear people say "Oh, there's nothing to do" I want to ask them if they've looked at their town's/region's cultural agenda lately.

Jann said...

I bet this was really fun to attend~so many talented people in the world,some famous and not so famous,nevertheless,doing what they enjoy. And, you didn't have to go to the ig city!!!

Berowne said...

Did they do it in French or German? I'm trying to figure out how "Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-Papageno" sounds like in French. :-)

Laura in Paris said...

Daring! My best Magic Flute was at the Aix en Provence festival some 10 years ago!

Katie Zeller said...

What fun costumes! There is always something special about seeing a live performance, even is it is the local live performance (or maybe, especially so)
We have friends from Andorra living in Rodez....

Betty Carlson said...

@katiez Have they recently moved here? You should send me an email telling me something about them. Who knows, we may even know each other -- it's a small town.

Veronica said...

One of the productions of the Magic Flute that I enjoyed most was done in a church, with a piano, no scenery and just a few simple props. It was brilliant; passion (and talent of course!) makes all the difference :) And I think the Magic Flute lends itself particularly well to this kind of pared-down performance.