Why Moiya Watches the Opera

Moiya said that she especially liked 
the opening ballet sequence in Tannhäuser

I have been watching the opera streaming from the Metropolitan website every night for 2 weeks now.

I think Leo Brooks and Moiya Wood are keeping pace with me.

Maybe even ahead of me, depending on how much pre and post-reading they have done.

Johan Botha and Eva-Maria Westbrock

I have been thinking about Moiya, since we talk a bit after each opera. I have been wondering why she gives up so much of her spare personal time to watch this art form. So tonight I asked her if I could interview her about this.

Here is what she said:

I have a love for the opera, for the symphony and for the ballet.

I think this is because when I was a child my mother bought season’s tickets to all 3 of those art forms.

We lived 2 ½ blocks away from the Jubilee Auditorium and we could walk over to the performances.

My mother had 2 tickets. My dad did not like to go to those events. She would take one of her children with her each time. I have fond memories of walking over to the Jubilee with my mother. Before the event began, my mother told me to look at all of the beautiful clothing that the patrons of the opera wore to these events as they walked in the foyer.

... scene from Wagner's Tannhäuser ...

As a child, when my friends were listening to pop music, I would lay on the big beautiful area living room rug and listen to symphonies and opera that were being played on our stereo system which had a record player inside of it.

I would close my eyes and groove out to the symphony and the opera and I would think I had gone to heaven listening to that music. Popular music didn’t mean that much to me.

I couldn’t understand the words that were being said in those songs. I may have missed a lot of words in the opera too.

When Moiya is not watching the opera she goes to the pile
of snow under their house and takes shovel fulls of it
and throws it out onto the lawn so that it will melt faster.
She doesn't want that mould on her lawn that will grow
when the snow stays well into spring.

My mother did me a favour by raising me on beautiful classical music. My brain just turns to that music now.

I also used to sing around the house a lot.

I started taking singing lessons with Mr. Chapman when I was in university.
He was a well known conductor in Calgary. He told me he wanted me to sing in his choir, the group that was called the Bel Cantos.

Then when I was in university, part of the physical education programme which was mandatory, was four different quarters of dancing. 

One session was ballroom dancing. 

One session was square dancing. I made a special skirt and a beautiful yellow blouse to dance in for our performance.  I have a picture of that which brings back fond memories.

Moiya