a night at the opera

Opéra Garnier, that is. But we actually attended a ballet there, not an opera. Marc got tickets for all of his interested students to attend a modern ballet performance, and we went on Saturday night for a stand-out date. This is the kind of thing that makes you excited to be in Paris.

(Incidentally, I attended another performance at Opéra Garnier many years ago with my friend Katrina -- that time it was an opera.)

The opera house is all glitz and glamour, inside and out. It is fun to look at, and it's fun to see the people there, many of them dressed to the hilt. We saw several people drinking champagne before the show started -- I found it funny that you can order things like potato chips and candy to go with your champagne.

This is what I would expect the ceilings to look like in this building (this is the main hall).

So the first time I saw the Chagall ceiling in the theater room, I was taken aback. To me, it just doesn't seem to go. But then, I'm not a big Chagall fan, so I'm sure others think it's fabulous.

I think the rest is fabulous.

We were sitting in the deuxième loge, which is a second balcony box. It sounded great, but our box was a narrow, cramped one with a column obstructing our view. I was sitting in front of Marc, and there was also a Japanese couple, a woman from England, and a woman from Greece in our box.

It was shocking, really, how little of the stage we could see (maybe 1/4), and we were really disappointed. After intermission, however, I moved a chair to the back of the box onto a raised step, and suddenly I could see everything! Funny that I could see so much more from the back than at the front seat. Anyway. The woman from Greece took my front spot and Marc took her seat back by me. Needless to say, we enjoyed the last part of the show much more than the first.

There were three different sections with three separate choreographers. The music, costumes, and choreography was very obviously very different in each of the three parts. It's hard to say if what contributed to our liking the last part more -- the production elements or the increased visibility -- but it was stunning. At one point, they had images projected on a screen of text, beautiful old handwriting, natural history photos, etc. and then a dancer would come in front of the screen and the projections would be on the dancer as well. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that that was a highlight for me.

If you ever have the chance to attend a performance at Opéra Garnier, take it!