Here’s one for the “Don’t Stop Trying New Things”category. I’ve spent years telling myself that Opera just wasn’t for me – not something I could possibly enjoy. This post is all about realizing just how silly I’ve been.
Here’s the back story – as I was thinking about Christmas gifts for my wife this year, I decided to do something a little different. We’re both at an age where we really don’t need much more stuff – what we want, we already have and anything more – particularly if it comes just to satisfy an expectation around gift-giving – starts to feel a bit wasteful. As a result, I tried to focus not on stuff we might want – a challenge – but on things we haven’t done. Here’s what immediately came to mind. We live in a city with one of the leading Opera companies in the country. Not only haven’t we made the effort to see the Lyric Opera of Chicago – neither of us has ever seen an opera performed. It made for a pretty easy decision – I bought tickets for us to see the Lyric Opera perform Turandot and we went last night.
Long to short – we had a really great time for a whole host of reasons. We made a night of it – great meal in the city at Lloyd’s followed by a pretty spectacular performance. I will say that things started out rough. I suggested that we drive into town instead of taking the train. My thought was that I didn’t really want to feel rushed trying to accommodate the Metra schedule. In retrospect, it wasn’t my best call – probably should have taken the train. We didn’t have trouble getting into town but things went south very quickly as we were trying to find the parking garage recommended by the restaurant. They gave us directions to a garage with an entrance off of lower Wacker.
This won’t be meaningful to anyone but Chicago suburbanites who only occasionally drive into the city but – at least from my perspective – the person who designed the whole Wacker / Lower Wacker / Lower Lower Wacker monstrosity should flogged in public. We got hopelessly lost, drove around the city trying to follow those directions – at one point we had maps up on both smartphones, the restaurant on the line, flailing around in the car, trying not to let our frustration get the best of us. We finally gave up and headed back to street level and found a convenient parking garage. All good except for the fact that we walked into the restaurant 30 minutes late for our reservation – apprehensive about the chance that we might not make the performance.
To the credit of the staff at Lloyd’s, we obviously weren’t the first group of hapless visitors who tried this and failed. They got us seated immediately, addressed all anxieties, served up a very nice dinner which included both a drink beforehand and dessert afterward AND made sure we got out with plenty of time to spare. Kudos to our waiter who managed to make it all fun from beginning to end.
It just got better from there and here are several of the things I learned:
- I tend to dive deep with anything I’m working on – detail is important to me. I’d always assumed that the language barrier associated with Opera would keep me from enjoying the experience. Nothing could have been further from the truth. I did take a little time before we went to understand the story we’d be seeing. In retrospect, that should be more than enough for anyone. I could have watched the entire performance, not understood a single word and still both followed the story and appreciated the performance. In fact, the translation provided on the monitor above the stage quickly starts to become superfluous – you stop paying attention since what’s happening on the stage becomes pretty compelling – pretty quickly. The performance commands your attention and takes you away.
- Turandot is a perfect choice for first timers. It lasts a little over two hours and the story is fairly straightforward. The costumes and sets are exotic, colorful, elaborate and visually rich – always holding your attention. This being my first time, I don’t know how much of this was unique to the Lyric Opera’s performance but there were fun moments throughout the performance that added a quick chuckle – like the Emperor’s extremely long beard cascading off the elevated stage where he always appeared. It was a near perfect first experience.
- I really love watching people who are exceptionally good at what they do. It could be as basic as watching a really good landscaping crew transform a garden to watching a skilled artist or craftsman create. I even enjoy watching top tier e-athletes compete. There’s something really compelling to me about watching exceptionally skilled individuals put those skills to work. I challenge anyone to see an Opera without being blown away by the unique and exceptional and hard won nature of the skills on display. First just watching and listening – then doing a little reading afterwards about what it takes to get to that level – I came away with a pretty profound respect for the people I’d seen perform. In a world where anyone with a computer and a webcam and a bit of wit can become an internet celebrity, it’s really refreshing and reassuring to see a group of people do something this difficult and do it flawlessly. It’s pretty awe-inspiring.
Overall, it was a great night and I cannot tell you why it’s taken me so long to give this a try. It really was just silly and lazy and narrow-minded and a little curmudgeonly of me. The whole thing helped me remember, particularly at my age, that I need to keep challenging myself and continuing to try new things. If I needed any help remembering that, all it really took was the smile on my wife’s face when the lights came up for admission. That was perfect.
PS: I also bought tickets for us to see the Joffrey peform “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in March and I’m really looking forward to the Ballet.
PPS: The Civic Opera House alone is worth the visit – it’s impressive.
