Double Culture Feature.

My friend Stephanie got a great deal on four tickets to the Lyric Opera. I spent the first 11.75 hours of the day preparing for/riding to/facilitating at/riding back from my volunteer gig with a local theatre, and arrived home at 6:15 p.m., just 15 minutes away from catching a ride downtown with Stephanie and Kaye.

Luckily, my black heels had been left under my desk at work so I no longer felt the pressure to be dressed like a pretty lady. I grabbed some stuff, stressed out at Tim, and caught my ride. Kaye had also had a long day with little to eat, and when we got dropped off downtown, we tried our luck at the McDonald's across the street for the opera house.

What? The McDonald's closes at 6 p.m. on the weekends? Apparently the Lyric doesn't bring in enough foot traffic. We ended up inhaling some Combos and pretzels before heading in to enjoy the The Elixir of Love, by Gaetano Donizetti.

This was the FIRST professional opera performance I have ever seen.

And it was wonderful.

There were rarely five minutes without laughter from the audience, and because of the subtitles above the stage, sometimes we got a sneak peak at the punch line before the actor got there. Who cares! There was a horse on stage! And there was one part during the second act where I left my seat, traveled back in time, and PINED FOR THIS WOMAN along with our hero, Nemorino. I spent two and a half hours in awe of a people who can use their body as an instrument to fill a performance hall, grinning and sighing along with the chorus, and laughing at a townswoman exclaim "I heard it from the peddler, so it MUST be true!"

And the people watching. We were hustling out of hall when I asked Stephanie why she didn't wear one of her many fur coats out this evening. Stephanie replied she couldn't decide which one to wear, but she had been thinking about her new panda bear coat. WOW. Lots of fur there. Like, about five zoos worth of fur. A lot of four-legged creatures died for that opera. I digress.

Afterwards made our way to Zolaco, a restaurant in River North. They warned us that dancing would start soon so it wouldn't be conducive to dinner conversation. The music started about 15 minutes later and we yelled across the table at each other for the next 20 minutes, which was actually relaxing after being in such a formal place. We also got to watch all the men line the dance floor and eye every woman that walked by until the DJ switched to Latin dance music and BAM! The dance floor was packed with couples. Everyone was moving their hips, sholders, heels, and toes in perfect rhythm to compliment their partner while looking around the dance floor like, hey, hmm...regular day, doo dee doo...BAM! here comes my DANCE.




Again, fun to watch talented people be talented. Thankya, Chicago and Stephanie.