Tag Archives: entertainment

A Night at the Opera – Part 2.

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It’s opera season 2023, and this time we saw Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado.

We ate a light supper before getting ready.  It wouldn’t work out to eat at a restaurant, since there are not that many along the way to the theater, which was in another town.

I wore a black and white dress with a sparkling black and gold shawl.  Best Friend wore his black Beatle boots with dress pants and shirt.

The drive to the theater was easy, rain clouds hung in the distance, and we made it to the theater in about 40 minutes.  The parking lot was crowded, but we easily found a spot to park our car.  We later learned that the lot was crowded because there was also a private birthday party for “Chris” in a small conference room attached to the theater.

When the doors opened, we took our seats – orchestra left center.  We had a good vantage point of the stage, and we were excited for the opera to begin.  Especially since a gaggle of chitty chatty women were standing next to us in the aisle talking about their sons, their daughters, the beauty salon, the manicures they just got . . .

Patrons were dressed casually, and I observed it all – shorts, t-shirts, jeans, sparkling blouses, and khakis.  Something that I wish people would cut back on is dousing themselves in cologne.  It’s enough to gag an elephant.

The Mikado was enjoyable, although sometimes it was difficult to understand the spoken dialogue.  The costumes were not what I expected.  Since The Mikado takes place in a fictional location in Japan, I expected kimonos, yukatas, and traditional hairstyles.  Instead, the costumes had hints of traditional dress – shoulder pads, vague oriental designs, and the like.  Mainly, the costumes were of late nineteenth century Western style dress for both men and women.

Despite my disappointment with the costuming, the story was funny, and the songs were sung with strong, rich voices.  My favorite piece from The Mikado is “On a Tree by a River (“Willow, tit-willow”), and I have liked that song since I was little.  And . . .

PIRATES ADD

We picked up a coloring book for my grandnephew that tells an abridged version of The Pirates of Penzance.

This was nearly a three-hour opera, and by the time we returned home, it was after eleven o’clock.

It was all worth a night out.

As ever,

Lady Susan Marie Molloy

✿●▬●✿ ©2023 The Oasis at Four Queen Palms ✿●▬●✿

A Night at the Opera – Part 1.

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A Night at the Opera is one of my favorite Marx Brothers movies, but that’s an essay for another time.  This essay is about a very different experience.

It is opera season, and since we are opera fans, Best Friend and I anticipate evenings at the theater with enthusiasm.  We had tickets to attend a presentation of Georges Bizet’s Carmen and for days on end, “Habanera” and “El Toreador” played repeatedly in my mind, their melodies twisting together into a singularly odd song.

Finally, the evening arrived.  We dressed up – I wore a black dress with a lacy shawl that glittered in the low evening lights.  Best Friend wore a patterned dress shirt and printed tie.  Before heading into town, we ate a light meal of sandwiches and tea.

The night air was cool, but warm enough to have the car windows open.  As we drove into town, we saw that the streets were exceptionally crowded, and it was difficult to find parking near the theater.  Nevertheless, we found a spot many blocks away.

We walked in the cool evening air.  Along the way we enjoyed nature and seeing people eating and drinking in restaurant windows.

Then we turned the corner where the theater stood.  It was a large white brick and plaster building with a tiled covered exterior entrance, built in the 1920s.  At the door, we handed our tickets to an usher, and we made our way past the crowd in the lobby.  It seemed that everyone was on the main floor buying drinks and opera themed paraphernalia.  Uninterested in drinking or buying tchotchkes, we walked up the red carpeted staircase, through the second-floor lobby, and sat in our usual seats.  This was a sold-out crowd – and what a crowd it was!

There were patrons dressed in suits and ties and long gowns and sequined handbags.  There were those who wore sport jackets and street-length dresses.  Then there were those patrons that really stood out in a way that just made us smile and admire their uniqueness.

They were the ones dressed in flapper-style dresses with fringe and beads, 1920s headbands, period sequined handbags and makeup, too. They wore 1920s style: suits, ties, slicked hair, and fedoras.  It was pleasing to see them dress in an unconventional, yet classy, manner.  And what made this all the more fun to see was that they were all people somewhere in their 20s and 30s.

Best Friend and I enjoyed Carmen, too.  It was sung in French, with projected supertitles.  The story was timeless, the orchestra was live, the singing was superb, and the costumes were magnificent.  During the intermissions (There were three!), we talked with some of the people sitting near us, sharing our thoughts on the opera.

All this made for a grand time.

And I have a new appreciation of how patrons express themselves as they dress for a night at the opera.

As ever,

Lady Susan Marie Molloy

✿●▬●✿ ©2023 The Oasis at Four Queen Palms ✿●▬●✿

Festivities 2022 – Part II.

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Being the holiday season, Best Friend and I decided to attend an evening at the philharmonia orchestra, where the playlist promised holiday songs from classic to popular.  It was that, and so much more.

We dressed warmly since the weather was chilly, and that called for something hot to eat.  We began our evening with a hot meal of barbecue at an establishment near the performing arts center.  As Best Friend noshed on beef brisket and I on pulled pork, we noticed a trio of old houses across the field.

BBQ 1

After eating, we drove past the houses, I grabbed the addresses, where further research revealed that they were built in 1924.  Two of the houses have one bedroom and one bath, with a whopping 620 square feet of living space.  The third house is a two-bedroom, one bath with 727 square feet of space.  The houses need quite a bit of work to return them to their original glory, and I wished that my research had a glimpse of their interiors, but sadly, there was none.

1924 HOUSE 203 OSCEOLA

We arrived at the performing arts center and took our places in the orchestra left center seating.  The auditorium was packed; I didn’t see an empty seat, but then, I wasn’t inspecting every row.  I was entertained with the visuals of the incoming patrons before the concert began.

DEC 22 PHILHARMONIA

There appeared to be a favoritism of red sweaters and vests throughout; so much so that when I spotted a woman wearing a sparkling forest green pantsuit, it was a feast for my eyes.  Unfortunately, I was unable to snap a photograph of her fashion statement.

And speaking of fashion, we saw everything from ripped jeans to three-piece suits to sequined blouses to ugly sweaters over yoga pants.  There were so many different fashions that it would fill a book – which might be a thing to do for me, one day.

There was a young woman who sat in front of me.  Her fashion statement was interesting.  Her long hair was a bright turquoise blue, save for the black roots, and she was heavily made up, right down to the tarantula-like false eyelashes.  She wore a beige velour top that barely covered her tuchus, and her black suede high heeled boots came well above her knees.  I could only whisper to Best Friend at this sight, “Hi, G. I. Joe.  I love you long time.”  To which Best Friend replied, “Five dollah.”

I LOVE YOU LONG TIME

The music was good, as was the singing, to an extent.  This philharmonia orchestra (as they call it) is a group of volunteers who do not necessarily sing and play musical instruments as their full-time employment.  For example, one of the singers is a preacher who has his own congregation in an adjacent county.  Best Friend nicknamed him “Country Jesus Elvis.”  I will leave the idea here for you to picture him in your own imagination.  I silently panicked when he started going up and down the aisles singing his tunes, and I dearly hoped that he wouldn’t get as far as our row.  After all, if he was going to encourage patrons to sing, too, I don’t do that for free, and I knew that wasn’t coming.  Thankfully, he never got as far as our row.

The music in the second act was jolly in its own way, but it did not follow what was printed on the playbill, for there was a bit of juggling around to add several more songs.  I wondered if the singers were becoming tired, for the usually peppy songs and the more religious ones were sung almost at a dirge-like tempo.

DEC 22 PROGRAM

All in all, it was a pleasant evening for the both of us, with a few visual curiosities not on stage thrown in for good measure.  Though the orchestra was not what we thought it to be – we anticipated a more reverent experience that a philharmonic orchestra brings – we got sort of a cruise ship-Disney feel to the entertainment.  With that in mind, the entertainment was still worthwhile.  We’ll just know for the next time we are looking for philharmonic rather than Disney.

We have several more festive avenues to experience before the arrival of Three Kings Day.  I will be sharing some of them with you over the next several weeks.

In the meantime, keep your holiday season festive.

As ever,

Lady Susan Marie Molloy

©2022 The Oasis at Four Queen Palms

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