Thursday, August 19

What I learned from the opera...

Last night I went to the Seattle Opera House and saw Tristan und Isolde. For those of you who don't know Tristan und Isolde's story: Guy meets girl, they fall in love, guy promises girl to another guy, they admit they are in love, the other guy finds out about the two once he is married to the girl, everyone dies.

I have long thought I'd probably enjoy opera, which I did! However in the second half, I found myself creating this list throughout the performance. Lessons we can learn from opera (and maybe particularly from Tristan und Isolde):
  1. Everything sounds better when you sing it. Where am I? You were wounded and I carried you home.
  2. Especially if you sing it in another language. Wo bin ich? Sie wurden verwundet und ich trug Sie Haupt.* (trust me...this sounds better!)
  3. Every good story has at least one death...so expect it.
  4. If you manage to secure an orchestra to play along to your life, your life and actions will be that much more dramatic.
  5. Everyone has a "drama queen" moment.
  6. Falling in love with someone that you are going to set up with someone else, is not a good idea.
  7. When in doubt, if you know someone has the ability to make magic potions, you'd be better off not eating or drinking anything they offer.
  8. Three hours of opera makes me as antsy as I feel at the 7th-inning stretch.
  9. When you are tired, sitting through another hour of opera will most likely lull you to sleep or make you so much more tired.
  10. If you choose to work in a major orchestra, bravo! but fully expect people to come and stare at you like you are an animal at a zoo!
  11. Last but certainly not least, how much better would life be if we yelled out Bravo! to people whenever they did someone good or wonderful!
*Translation is from Babelfish...could be completely wrong. Sprache keine deutsch!

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