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Zurich Opera, opinions?
So, on a lark I went to see about opera tickets for Patty and I in Zurich Saturday night. Sold out and sold out hard. That said, there are a very few tickets for the Friday performance of Die Zauberflöte. The seats available are astounding and priced accordingly.
I am a little, tiny, novice baby in my opera education, and enjoy it for the broad experience of it -- yes the music and the singers, but I care deeply about staging and costume, audience behavior, opera house decor, the whole bloody fabulous thing because I was sort of ruined for How Opera Really Is by Luhrmann's production of La Boheme being the vehicle by which I discovered I actually really dig opera. My ruination for How Opera Really Is has also been compounded by an obsession with Baroque semi-opera, so I'm not just a novice, I'm a weird, picky novice.
So, in light of that should I drop almost 200 francs to go to the opera by myself on Friday night before Patty gets in?
Conversely, I could drop 98 francs to see La Fanciulla del West a week from tomorrow in somewhat less stellar seats (of which there is one left, so I need to make this decision like now).
I know Die Zauberflöte a little. I don't know La Fanciulla del West at all (but since it's Puccini, it will be easily accessible, so it's not really a worry).
Thoughts?
Particularly from opera buffs who've been to the Zurich Opera and can appreciate my novice state and interest beyond just sound?
Merci!
ETA: If I do this, I desperately need to know the level of formality for my attire, as I assume it to be different here than in the US.
I am a little, tiny, novice baby in my opera education, and enjoy it for the broad experience of it -- yes the music and the singers, but I care deeply about staging and costume, audience behavior, opera house decor, the whole bloody fabulous thing because I was sort of ruined for How Opera Really Is by Luhrmann's production of La Boheme being the vehicle by which I discovered I actually really dig opera. My ruination for How Opera Really Is has also been compounded by an obsession with Baroque semi-opera, so I'm not just a novice, I'm a weird, picky novice.
So, in light of that should I drop almost 200 francs to go to the opera by myself on Friday night before Patty gets in?
Conversely, I could drop 98 francs to see La Fanciulla del West a week from tomorrow in somewhat less stellar seats (of which there is one left, so I need to make this decision like now).
I know Die Zauberflöte a little. I don't know La Fanciulla del West at all (but since it's Puccini, it will be easily accessible, so it's not really a worry).
Thoughts?
Particularly from opera buffs who've been to the Zurich Opera and can appreciate my novice state and interest beyond just sound?
Merci!
ETA: If I do this, I desperately need to know the level of formality for my attire, as I assume it to be different here than in the US.
no subject
I had my Opera "awakening" when I was 17 (in 1987). All of the AFS kids left our host families for two weeks and went to Berlin together, and our organization to us to the Berlin Oper. We saw Madame Butterfly. Sung in Italian, German supertitles. I was sitting between friends from Czechoslovakia and Japan. The Japanese girl was very softly singing along!
I've loved opera ever since. Now I go whenever I can, even if all I can afford are the cheap-assed $10, last row of the balcony seats.