Butterfly – Royal Opera House in 3 D

We had our snacks, our water bottles and our babysitter for Rhiannon all ready so that we could hop in the car after the corn roast. Who knew that the school annual corn roast would be last night – all the corn you can eat and then parents are asked to bring apple desserts. Someone buys enough apples from an orchard that a whole meal can be made from corn on the cob and fresh apples – at least for Mary. Nadie, next door, brings a crock pot full of caramel sauce so that people who like their apples dressed up will also be happy. That makes a full day – school and the corn roast – which really becomes a community event with people volunteering, the grade sixer’s keeping the tables wiped off, other and others taking care of the garbage. Just like a church event, I think – community planned, executed, enjoyed and then the trash taken care of – all the same people.

 ... 3-D for everyone ...

The opera is a little different. Though everyone in the line-up seemed to be getting tickets to Carmen, everyone who was in the theatre could comfortably sit in the 10 prime viewing rows with no one on the sides and plenty of room between all of us. We were the only visible family there – grandma, parents and kids. Naomi sat on Mary’s lap and Mary whispered the sub-titles to her, which feel odd. It was not that the whispering was odd, for that was going on beside me as well, an old couple, and she was whispering to him what the titles were saying. So that was good for me. I was getting the whispering in stereo from the left and the right and didn’t really need to read the sub-titles myself. The odd thing was that 3-D words are suspended in front of the screen – not on a page but hanging there in the air – not the usual place that I look for words.

About the show? Naomi wondered how Butterfly (Zhang Liping) could make those final cuts  on her body and not die. Yes, the theatrical knife is a wonderful instrument. I wondered how this generation’s opera singers can do everything – sing, dance, act and be beautiful – all in one. In this case the singer had studied dance for 5 years before moving to the Beijing Conservatory to study voice. She is the Butterfly we saw in London the first time we visited Wyona.

"You want a picture of me at the movies?
Try this one!"

The opera at the theatre is two hours and 15 minutes running time.

The intermissions and the curtain calls have been edited out.

I like to stay until the last note has been played at the theatre, so if you stay in your seat, you will hear a few of the arias again as the credit roll by.

In this community the show is done again on Sunday and again on Monday.

Hard not to want to go back for more.

Arta