Thinking of going to the encore of Carmen Live at the Met

Hello,

If you take your kids to Carmen, Catherine, tell them that the opera opens, well, before it opens there is the curtain, with a slash of lightening through it, red. Then in the last act, that slash of lightening is reflected again in the black lace dress that Carmen is wearing. Just beautiful.

As well, there is a procession of everyone who is in a bull fight and they all walk by and the crowd is waving at them. Again, just stunning.

And do they know about the crucifix. How it stands in for “religion”, and often for Catholicism, but it can mean any part of Christianity. In the last act, Don Jose uses anything in his disposal to convince Carmen to come back to him: religion first (while holding his crucifix, then he gives that up and begs her, etc.

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=9

A good link to refresh the story in your own mind.

As you can tell, I would love to be at the opera with them ... and you.

I smiled when you said that they picked up on terror of being in a coffin from watching Oliver. I was surprised that it was not the stabbing that hit them but the being enclosed in a coffin. A person never knows what causes terror. I watched for that scene with new interest when I saw Oliver in London last time. Tell Catie, Thomas and Rebecca that what I still have nightmares about is the scene in Disney’s ... can’t remember the name of it. The Headless Horseman.

Icabod Crane. That was one of the characters. I just went out to find out more, to see why I was so afraid.

http://hoosierinanity.blogspot.com/2009/10/darkness-of-disney-14-headless-horseman.html

Now I see others were afraid when I read that some theatres banned it.

Tell the kids that their grandmother was afraid of a cartoon!!

Love,

Arta – who thinks the Headless Horseman is the scariest apparition of all