Queen of Spades

In the week before Saphira arrived, we were on a rush against the clock to do as much as possible with my mom in the city so that her trip wouldn't just be a view from our apartment and the hospital window. We did ok - we got to the Andrew's descent, took her to the village to see the mud hut (she thinks we're crazy), had a quick walk down Kreshatik to Independence square while getting documents translated - and even fit in a trip to the opera.

We went to see Queen of Spades - appropriate in that not only was it a fun trip to the opera - but it was a Russian opera by Tchaikovsky at that.

One thing that strikes you when you go to the opera - even in a language that you can understand - is that you really can't catch too many of the words anyway. I wonder if back in the day when Opera was the main source of entertainment if people were accustomed to catching the words- or if the melody and performance was the main attraction.

The story was great - a typical opera tragedy - but an interesting plot and theme that came from a short story originally written by Pushkin- why it hasn't been drawn on for a Hollywood version is probably only due to the fact that it is Russian.

The only downside to the performance is that the piece is apparently very challenging for the main character as he appears and sings in every scene. Therefore, the only scene that he sang in full voice was the last (apparently the most famous song and scene in the opera)- and that was wonderful - but for most of the opera you could barely make him out. Other than that we had a great time and mom got to see the opera house and attend her first ever opera.