Manon Lescaut

Thursday, February 24

I went to my very first Italian Opera tonight. Well, my first Opera in general... Italian or not.

My class and professor, a 27 year old Italian whose English is sub par and communicates mostly with smiles and head nods, went to see Manon Lescaut performed at a local opera house. I want so badly to say I loved it; that it was so beautiful and I am a cultured genius of the arts. Honestly, I could barely hear them and when I did I had no freakin' clue what they were saying. It didn't help that the subtitles above stage were all in Italian. The performers were very talented singers and had pretty costumes, that's all I can confidently say about it.

During intermission, two girls in the class and I went to get cappuccinos and chocolate bars at the bar downstairs. The cappuccinos were delicious but we lost track of time and ended up missing the beginning of the third act. As we raced back to our seats, the ushers stopped us and said we could not disturb the audience by going in late. This lady clearly did not understand we were students surrendering our Thursday night for a class field trip... was this an invitation to leave? Nope, quite the opposite. This was an invitation to follow her to a lower level private box.

Our new seats were fabulous... and way more comfortable. The three of us spread out in the comfy box with an Italian couple that could have hidden their lack of enthusiasm to see us a little better. I think the rustle of our candy bars and glowing Blackberry backlights bothered them the most.

Experiencing the Opera from our new seats felt like a whole different ball game. We could see their facial expressions, hear them clearly, and pick up on the subtleties of the performance.

Upgrade! Lovez it!