So I went to the met to watch an opera yesterday. Not in the theater though. They are screening operas every night til the 7th of Sept outside the Met at the big open space.

There were 3000 FREE! seats and it is packed(i'm very sure) every single night! I had to sit on the (oh so hard) floor for 2 hrs 10 mins watching La Boheme. It was a pretty good show though. Pretty worth it. The set was so professional and the costumes were gorgeous. Some things about some singers I didn't like though. Like how "Musetta" vibrated her whole tongue and Jaw to get that vibrato! and how "Rodolfo" cut his voice off so abruptly almost every phrase! and how "Mimi"'s hands trembled (don't know whether it was on purpose) a little when she sang. Her breath was a little high.. I always like more grounded voices. That's why I adore mezzo-sopranos. :)

That brings me to tonight's opera !!! Orfeo ed Euridice. I thought Stephanie Blythe (Orfeo) did quite a fantastic job. She was firm, and solid and grounded. Her voice was projected and crystal clear. It wasn't too thick and vibrated that sometimes u can't make out the pitch! I wished she wouldn't swallow her 2nd syllables though. But other than that, she did a great job! Acting wise (As a man. It's not easy. and her expressions were pretty fab. Even though she's got those droopy eyes so she still looks pretty sad even though she's supposed to look happy). :) Hmm.. Amor could have focused her voice a little bit more. It was abit spaced. Euridice did quite a fine job. full-stop. I actually thought the story was abit lame. ha ha.

Hours before the opera today...

I reached the Met at about 6pm, two hours before the screening. There were already a number of people there booking the seats. Wow... I seriously thought I was kiasu enough! I even wanted to walk around the area...y'know.. go into the Met shop blablabla... before coming back to find a seat. When I saw more people entering, I decided otherwise. I sat next to the aisle. Great seat. Well... great choice. :) An old couple sat next to me. Fortunately, I had a book with me. I crossed my leg and started reading it.

Then came along this lady... (Oh I'm so kind to call her lady). Anyway, she wanted to get pass me to a seat in the middle. So I politely pushed the right leg that stuck out all the way in so she could get pass. And when I did, she asked rudely, "can I pass?" What kind of a question was that? There was so much space for her and she still asked. So without looking up, I answered, "YES". So she passed.

A minute, or rather, less than a minute later, she wanted to pass me again to get out. So I did the same thing. And she couldn't help but say... rudely, "Why don't you put your leg down?" I totally gave her a black face and ignored her and continued reading my book. When she passed, the sweet old man next to me said, "you should have kicked her". I giggled a little and replied, "Yeah... I'm being very nice. " He answered, "Well... good for you! :)" That old man rubbed on ta me i tell ya!

This was that old man. haha I secretly took a pic of him. Anyway, just before the screening began, we had a nice chat about some of the other operas and the weather and how cool it was to screen operas to Whet the public's appetite for it before they start acting in the theaters! Apparently, they started this line of screening last summer.