The Opera

Last weekend (Feb 27th) my husband took me to the opera. We saw Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Right now you are thinking one of two things:

a. Wendell is Husband of the year
b. The company he works for must have sponsored the evening.

I will let you decide on your own which of those is true;)

We were invited beforehand to attend a reception featuring "heavy hors d'oeuvres and drinks" which ended up being delightful. The food was absolutely fabulous, although I wasn't quite brave enough to try the clams.( I don't really believe one should eat clams in a land locked state. Just my humble opinion) I think I ate two days worth of Weight Watchers points (thus the "heavy" in the "heavy hors d'oeuvres";)

I had never been to the opera before and did my research on this particular one beforehand. It was touted as one of the best operas ever written. I was inclined to like it because Mozart was the composer. I read a synopsis online, and even saw a couple of scenes on Youtube. I wanted to be prepared because it was all in Italian. I needed to know what was going on. Luckily there were subtitles , so I shouldn't have worried.


I have to admit, I was surprised by how risque it was for 1787. These people were not prude. It was like a modern day soap opera. Only a little more humorous.

I have to say I enjoyed it. The subtitles were sparse, and sometimes a whole song was accompanied by one line. But you got the gist. Really it was better that way, because it is easier to enjoy a play when you are not trying to read the top the whole time. But it would have been better if I understood Italian.

Parts of it were very clever and I found myself wondering, "was that a true translation? did they really write that in the 1700s?" I think some subjects, and some humor, are timeless.

Needless to say, Abigail was not invited. Jannalee was kind enough to keep her for us. But by the second half of the opera, the baby was having her revenge on me for not being included. I was so UNCOMFORTABLE! (warning:TMI ahead)I hadn't realized I need to bring a breast pump to the opera. I can't even describe the pain that 7 hours away from your baby can inflict. I didn't think it would be that bad, because when I left her with Joy for three days I was able to sleep through the night with just mild discomfort. Apparently the baby eats more in the evening than she does in the middle of the night. Who knew? (by the way, Abigail refused to eat the whole time we were gone. Not even breast milk from a bottle. Stubborn little stinker.)


Overall, I really enjoyed it. There was one character that was really overdramatic. I thought if she cried about how she was "going to die" of grief(literally) again somebody might slap her. But that may have been exacerbated because of how uncomfortable I was at the time.

I'll never know. Because I am pretty sure Wendell will never take me to the opera again. At least until next year;)