L'opéra a craint!

I just got back from the opera. I was so incredibly excited, and so incredibly disappointed. The building, of course, was magnificent. But that's where the good things ended. We had seats in boxes, but most of us were seated behind other people, and in the boxes the seats are right behind each other. They are neither staggered or on different levels. Therefore, most the stage was instead in my vision the silhouettes of the old men in front of me. I have a crick in my neck from leaning my head on the (thankfully upholstered) wall next to me from first trying to see, and then trying to nap. Half the theater was wearing JEANS, for crying out pete, and I don't even find that acceptable in a regular theater to see a play at a matinée. It's rude and disrespectful to the performers, the rest of the audience, and the whole tradition of going to the theater. The man in front of me had his phone go off in the middle of the first act, and he had the gall to glare at us behind him and NOT TURN IT OFF and just pretend it wasn't his.
The set design was horrible, just an almost bare stage with another stage-type platform set up in the middle, and long modern "chandeliers" which murdered my retinas by being fluorescent (if you've ever worked in a cubicle in a windowless office with nothing but the flicker of fluorescent and the dim blue light of the computer screen, you feel my pain). Apparently the idea was to have it set somewhere between the 40s and 50s, which just doesn't work too well with a story about courtesans, as our French professor pointed out. The lead had an irritating voice; she could technically hit all the notes, but there was no pleasure in listening to her. She (and the chorus) stumbled around on the stage with all the grace of a drunken, coked-out old woman. One woman kept showing up and flashing the audience by opening her fur coat to reveal a lace unitard type thing. There was also a male dancer in the chorus using the opportunity of being on the stage in the Opéra Garnier of Paris to breakdance/do the robot (I know it has a term, but I'm blanking in my anger). Good job, man. Now go get a cup and hang out in front of a national monument with your boombox. By the time we finally reached the last act, I was praying for Violetta to just up and fricking DIE ALREADY! And stop putting your coat on and taking it off and wandering around the stage and behind set pieces with no purpose. Oh, and no, you weren't good enough for 5 curtain calls. Let us go home.

I do stuff! Really!

So, it's been a while since my last post. I apologize to what few people check this on a regular basis. But you haven't missed anything terribly exciting.

We read Huis Clos by Jean-Paul Sarte in my French class, and then we went to go see the play. In French, of course. It was definitely interesting, and it was interpreted much differently than I did while reading it. Of course, I totally didn't get that they were in hell until they had to explicitly state it to the dense Estelle, and as I read, "L'enfer! Nous sommes dans l'enfer!" I was totally like, "Hell? Really? Huh..." They had the wings of the stage open, and lots of cluttered furniture here and there. Each of the characters had a color - Garçin was green, Estelle was blue, Inès was red - and their clothes and personalities went with their respective couches and chandeliers. Throughout the play, they totally trashed the stage, and all I could think about was who the hell was going to have to strike the stage and reset it for the next night? The stage manager, of course. I've clearly spent far too much time in that position. I can no longer go to the theater without thinking more about what is going on behind the scenes than what is going on on stage. We're going to the opera to see La Traviata next Monday, and I am completely fascinated by set designs in opera (they're so elaborate!), so I can't wait.

The day after the play, we went to the Musée Carnavalet and were whisked through with hilarious commentary by the amazing Steve Sawyer, who teaches the history of Paris class to everyone but us. He's so funny, I totally envy everyone who has his class. They kept the museum open a bit late for us, so we had to leave as soon as the lecture was over, but I think out visit was sufficient to see the important parts of the museum.

And then the NEXT day (ok, I suppose it was an eventful week) we went to Versailles. Totally overrated. I mean, yay hall of mirrors and all, very nice. But I guess I am just not such a fan of the Baroque. Plus you see like four rooms. The gardens were better, even if we didn't spend much time in them because it was cold. I really wanted to rent a canoe and take it out into the canal, but the booth was closed, and I guess it wouldn't have been much fun once I started to get cold. But if I ever went back, I'll bring a thermos and picnic and row out and chase the swans with my boat. It's going to be awesome.

This past week we had a French midterm, and then because of All Saints day, we had no school on Thursday (though we did have to make up for the lost day on Friday), so we were able to party it up for Halloween. Unfortunately, Halloween is almost never celebrated during Halloween. Unfortunately, I had a somewhat out-there costume, and unfortunately, people literally broke into derisive laughter when they saw me. It was sad that their cold hearts couldn't appreciate the glory and pageantry that is Halloween, but also funny. I couldn't keep a straight face myself, seeing people's reactions to my gold faux eyelashes and massive red hair. (By the way, I was Ana Matronic from the Scissor Sisters, and Kamilla was Jake Shears, the other lead singer). We found a bar called Pomme d'Eve, and pretty much had taken over by the end of the night. It was great fun, and we had all of Thursday to recover.

Today I went to the Musée d'Orsay again, and while we had to wait in line due to the tourists (I wasn't so lucky this time), we were able to skip the ticket line with our glorious Carte d'étudiant de l'histoire de l'art. Hot damn. I figure it will take me one more trip to see everything I want to see. I don't think I'll be going to the Louvre again. I just can't take it.