A night at the opera

I went to the opera last night with Catriona. We went to see La Traviata by Verdi. It was amzing, so beautiful and fun and tragic! Two hankies worth!!! I cried in the middle and at the end. I also laughed but that was because of the impromptu ballet performance of the night! As anyone who knows me will realise that I can not by any means watch a ballet with a straight face, and this performance took the cake in badness. Because the backdrop of La Traviata is the sort of a night-club scene we are used to today, they went a bit far with the bawdiness and lewdness in some cases and especially the ballet. A man dressed as a matador twirling around the stage and then strangely enough way to often gripped in weird spasms and grinding of the hips in the most obscene and suggestive movements was ridiculous and hugely funny. Catriona was surprise by the restraint I showed of not howling with laughter, but that was because I nearly rammed my fist into my mouth to prevent any sounds escaping. I hardly noticed the guy dressed as 'the bull', yes of course, the matador had to have his fight with a bull, but it just turned out to be this strange on-and-off gayness of a dance, when they were embracing on the stage in between the matador peaking under the skirts of the ladies. The bull was mostly preoccupied with writhing on the floor more like a fish on dry land than a macho beef on two legs. It was hilarious, I wish they allowed camera, although you wouldn't have seen anything because I was laughing too much to have been able to hold it steady.
But the opera itself was quite nice and very emotive, the soprano was fabulous and very talented. The lead tenor was a cultured voice, reminded me of Domingo with his technicality and Careras with his voice. Not a bad combination but it also lacked the force the presence these two tenors exude.
I don't know if it was because we were sitting near the rafters and were looking down on the scene very literally but the ladies of the performance all seemed to be extremely well endowed and the low bodices of the gowns, revealed to us the answer to why there were so many men present in the audience ...seemingly willingly and often without a female partner.
Yes, the audience was just as much fun as the opera itself. Beside us sat two ladies, who shortly before opening act brandished out a pair of fans!!! Suddenly I felt like an extra in Gone with the Wind! It became apparent that they had some sort of 'heating' problems because they used these fans regularly as well as some cooling sticks but this was still hilarious. After the first act I switched places with Catriona and in the second interval I asked her how it was there in the hurrican section, she replied quite modestly 'its a north easterly direction'.
A fabulous night in all! I hope I will not have to wait another twenty years to go to the opera again.