A Night At The Opera

If you've been following me on Twitter (I've been faithfully tweeting every day people!!) you might have noticed that this week James and I had the opportunity to go see the opera Il Tritico at New York's Lincoln Center!!! It could be because of my early training as a dancer,  but since I was little I've always had a big appreciation the performing arts and so to see Il Trittico was a special treat for me.

Lincoln Center is a gorgeous theater and we had our own little box with a great view. We tried to take a few pictures before the opera began but no sooner had we taken out our camera to take this picture - an usher appeared out of no where insisting that we refrain from photography. We obliged, the lights dimmed, the curtain rose and we saw the set of the first act...

It was stunning! The first act takes place on a barge on the river Seine and the forced perspective was so believable that I found myself wondering where the set ended and where the backdrop began. The Opera itself is very dark and brooding, and ends on a very depressing note. The second act is quite different. It is set in the square of a convent and deals with a nuns guilt over past sins..Unlike the first act, the second is quite uplifting in the end. Once again the set was amazing!! The whole floor was on an angle so that everyone could see into the convent. 

At one point a donkey came on stage!? James initially insisted that it was just two midgets in a donkey suit but it turns out it was indeed a real live donkey! This led to a whispered conversation between James and I about this donkey: where did he come from,  and where does he live?? Is he like the Phantom of the Opera, living in the dungeon cellars below Lincoln Center?? And what must be going through the donkeys mind as it goes on stage?!?  Here he is,  walking onto a sloping stage with these weird optical illusion-like props and structures that surely must play tricks on his little donkey brain... and all the while 50 people in nun costume are around him, singing in these loud operatic voices. Not to mention the hundreds of people in the audience watching  on. That donkey must be thinking "what the...?!?". - Anyway, we digress...

The third act is the most popular; a comedy full of greed and conniving. It is set indoors, in a giant old bedroom in Florence and features the soprano aria,  "O mio babino caro" (Oh, my dear papa - see youtube!!), which you might have heard in a number of movies. Its also officially known as "the song that always makes me cry" by the way!! Anyway, between tears I did managed to sneak a picture using my iPhone and amazingly the ninja-usher didn't magically appear to reprimand me!

All in all we had a lovely time. I'd highly recommend seeing Il Trittico to anyone living in New York or visiting!!

XOXO

COCO

P.S By the way, I want to let you know that I've been working very hard on my new line these last few weeks!! We think we have a name and I now have a lot of initial designs and ideas sketched out. That's all I'm allowed to say at the moment but expect a detalied update very soon!!!