jaala

I saw this opera today. It took the whole day to see the show and get to and from Toronto (on a bus provided by the Kingston Opera Guild) but it was completely worth it. I would have found it even more affecting if...

...If the theatre hadn't been filled with jerks who insisted on coughing every five seconds during the most achingly emotional parts of the opera. I've never seen a new(ish) opera before, but this has happened to me many times when witnessing even quite tamely avant-garde ballet or music. You can be sure I wouldn't have heard a peep if it had been a quiet moment during Lucia di Lammermoor (next week's opera). I swear, I got so pissed off that I was wishing someone would run on stage and tell them all to shut up; it would have been less disruptive than continuous coughing. And I nearly got up to strangle one person who let his/her cellphone ring for at least a solid minute, to all appearances making no effort to find the damn thing and turn it off. Assholes.

...And if I'd been able to hear the singers clearly. I was sitting in what were most likely the best seats I've ever had in the Hummingbird Centre and the Commander sounded like he was whispering. The opera is in English (the English libretto predates the premiere's Danish one) and I could tell when I looked through my binoculars that these people were enunciating their heads off, but I still had to read the surtitles most of the time. Now I truly realize why the COC has been so desperate for a real opera house all these years.

Anyhow, I really recommend The Handmaid's Tale. How good it was is just beginning to sink in. If it's playing near you, and if it's a good production--and you can handle sex, rape, birth, hangings, gang murder, nudity, disturbing photographs, graphic language, etc. etc. on stage--see it. Bravo to the Canadian Opera Company for beginning their season with something unconventional. Here's hoping a recording of the English version is released some time.