Saturday at the Opera

I had seen the look one time before. The forced smile could not cover the reality of the distaste for the opera. I thought I had learned from when I took my first wife, Kim, to Carmen in Seattle. This time Donna and I together chose the operas we would see at the Lyric in Chicago. The familiar Shakespearean tale of Macbeth by Verdi seemed a safe introduction. Before I entered her life, neither the symphony nor theater were part of Donna’s experience. Now she enjoys both – albeit with some qualifications on the symphony. The combination of symphony and theater held the false promise of combining the best of both.

I partly blame Chicago. That which makes it a great city is also what can make it unpleasant. Something is always going on in the City of Broad Shoulders. Saturday the Blackhawks raised the Stanley Cup banner and opened their home season, a country music festival took place at Millennium Park, and people were gathering for Sunday’s marathon. The Lyric’s Macbeth was just another of the multitude of events taking place. We allowed an hour to get from the northwest suburbs to the restaurant, twice the time it takes without traffic. Experience taught us Saturday evening traffic can be heavy, but with our I-Pass we would avoid the toll plazas and should be downtown with time to spare. Instead it took thirty-five minutes just to get to O’Hare and there the signs showed another 67 minutes travel time to the Loop. Amazingly once we canceled dinner reservations and got off the highway, traffic eased and we foolishly thought we might even be able to eat before the 7:30 curtain. By the time we parked and walked to the Lyric it was 7:00. Having never been to the Lyric and knowing there is no late seating, we went in, and contributed to what must be a primary profit center – wine and snack sales.

May I suggest to the Lyric when asked how to get to the first balcony, they not say go around the corner and go up the stairs to the fourth floor? Yes, the first – not the second – balcony is at least four floors up from the stage. Even with our binoculars, er, opera glasses, the faces on the stage were nearly impossible to see. By opera standards, these were not even the nose bleed seats! Somehow the acoustics were excellent even though our backs were against the wall. We are first time subscribers and these are the seats they gave us to encourage subscription renewal? Remember how I qualified Donna’s enjoyment of the symphony? Mahler and Schoenberg, for example, are definitely out. Well, Verdi can be added to the list.

I may generally be clueless, but I can learn. At Carmen, I took Kim’s assessment of “fine” to mean she would be willing to stay to the conclusion. At Macbeth, I took Donna’s “fine” to be the cue to get the heck out of Dodge. We left at the intermission. The night was not a complete loss. I enjoyed the music. Donna enjoyed the people watching. We also had an enjoyable dinner at P. F. Chang’s.

Anyone want tickets to Lohengrin?