placido domingo is a Chinese emperor.
I took myself on a date to the opera on Monday night to see Placido Domingo headline The First Emperor, an original opera written by the man who won an Oscar for his score of that iconic [heh] Chinese film, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Woke up at 7am on Monday morning and trudged up to the Metropolitan Opera house to buy standing room tickets for the sold-out show. Did all the research: box office opens at 10am. Get there a couple of hours early, they said. It's a civilized line, but it's still a line, and you never know what those unpredictable opera-goers will do for their Placido.
In no huge surprise, I was the first one there at 7:58am. Thought I felt a little silly, an older couple from San Diego eased the situation a little bit by arriving about ten minutes after me. We spent some time chatting, commiserating about the cold and talking about our rush ticket experiences, and then we turned to our books and other distractions for a couple of hours. After reading the entire paper and [almost] finishing the crossword puzzle (curse that Will Shortz and his clever clues!), I got my little $20 ticket. Position number 3. Don't ask me how I ended up with Standing Position number THREE when I was the first person in line. I don't think I'll ever know.
"Did you *stand* for three hours, Jenn?"
nope. At intermission I strategically made moony eyes at everyone going for a little leg stretch or a beverage, but with no success. Finally, when I'd given up, a women with a thick Southern accent and an awesome brocade jacket turned to me and said, "You wanna' SEET?" and mercifully handed me a ticket in the fourth row, front and center! I spent the rest of intermission and the second half of the opera rapt and giddy.
It was wonderful, but I've become a big dork for opera. I turn into this huge pile of melty putty when I close my eyes and listen to the almost tangible sound of a male tenor voice. There's nothing like it. You can feel it in your core.
And production itself was stunning. The colors and the fabrics and the costumes actually had a few people sighing. Placido was, well, legendary. And while the mixture of Asian music elements and traditional Italian opera seemed a little cacophonous, I was just too happy with myself by the end to really care.
posted by brad board babe at 10:00 PM
3 Comments:
What, wait... they have standing tickets at the Met? So people actually get into the theater, but then they have to STAND?? Where do they stand? Is there a mosh pit?
No, no mosh pit. It's actually all very civilized. There 100 assigned standing "positions" behind the last row of the orchestra, and then 75 way upstairs in the upper mezzanines. If you're *really* curious you can download the seating chart here: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/seating.aspx
During that brief but annoying era when the city insisted on it, my dad had to get a prerecorded celebrity voice box for his cab. Every time he turned on and off the engine or on and off the meter we heard "This is Placido Domingo, reminding you to buckle up for safety!" and a similarly enthusiastic nudge reminding us to ask for a receipt and take all of our personal belongings. When I asked him why he chose Placido over, say, Eartha Kitt, my dad explained: because Placido was "classy." From the sounds of your story, it's still true.
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