Assigned Seating

When I went to the Crowfoot Cinemaplex to get the tickets for the opera on Saturday, I ducked under the stainless steel posts and elastic banding that is used to create line-ups for the ticket wicket.

After all, I can bend down that far, and no one was at the front of the line. Why walk up and down three isles to get to the seller who was idly reading a paper, when a small bend at the waist could do the same thing.

“Two seniors, and two adults for the opera on Saturday,” I said.

I was surprised to have the woman in the ticket booth turn a screen to me and ask which of the seats in the house I would like to book.

“What? No general seating?”

“The opera was so popular last year that the manager decided to have assigned seating this year.”

I was out the door with my tickets before I figured out that if there is assigned seating for Saturday, it will be like that all year. I pushed back through the glass doors of the theatre, I ducked under the banding again and said, “Two tickets for the opera in two weeks, as well.”

“Boris Godunov?”, the woman said, stumbling over the words and looking at me questioningly.

I laughed.

“I guess both of us are going to have to learn how to pronounce that before two weeks are up,” I replied, "because I don't know how to say those words, either."

I felt some level of annoyance that the seats I was looking for have already been booked.

Still, I know a fantastic day is just starting for me, when three days in advance, I am delirious over the anticipation of Saturday’s event.

And the seats for both events are still good ones.

Further, just seeing the giants dragging away Freia has to instill some measure of terror into the hearts of even the most brave. Terror is good. It stops old people from falling asleep.

I slipped out to U-Tube yesterday and listened to a few clips from the opera. Wagner’s music is so dark: complex textures, rich harmonies and orchestration, and the elaborate use of leitmotifs. Now that is going to be enough for me.

I am going to think about all of this tomorrow when the eye surgeon is slipping a new lens onto that left eye for me.

I will breathe deeply, exhale slowly and think of the New York Metropolitan singers getting ready to do Das Rheingold for me on Saturday.

Arta