Opera: That Classy Italian Thing Where People Sing

Last weekend we went to an opera in Florence called "The Marriage of Figaro."


(I know what you're thinking, but the song with the line  "Figaro Figaro Fiiiiiiiiigaro" is actually from a different opera called "The Barber of Seville." Fun fact.)



Everyone got dressed up, looking fine and fancy... and then we trudged out in the rain. I'm hoping that April showers do, in fact, bring May flowers, or this is just ridiculous. However, it made the night adventuresome, and I got a dark, cloudy picture of the Ponte Vecchio.

Nice and mysterious, right? I do love dusk, even on a rainy day.

The opera was performed at St. Mark's English Church, although the opera itself was in the original Italian. Seated "in the round," I felt a little like Jane Austen in this movie clip. It was all I could do not to clasp my hands together and close my eyes, swept away by many a romantic notion.



"The Marriage of Figaro" tells the story of Figaro and Susanna, who are getting married, but the master of the house is trying to woo Susanna and the mistress of the house is being wooed by another servant. Deception and trickery lead to outlandish schemes to foil the schemes of others, and hilarity ensues. At one point, two people are hiding in bushes and another has jumped out of a window.

Figaro

All of the performers were wonderful. There are only 5 characters in this opera, which further proves the talent of these people. That's a lot of lyrics to remember...

The train ride home was fun as well. We almost didn't make it, because the last train out of Florence leaves at 11:15 and the opera was supposed to end at 10:45 at the earliest. Fortunately, the director of the production did everything in his power to finish on time and we made it to the train station.

On the way home we played all of those games you learn in middle school that require newcomers to guess the rules before they can play. You know the ones: Snaps, Green Glass Doors, Black Magic, Triangles... They kept us entertained all the way back to Arezzo.

Ah, adolescence, that time in your life when you learn the majority of the useless information that you never forget.

Heading to Rome for the weekend... buon fine settimana!