Another night at the opera

Going to the opera is something I don’t do a lot – each time I’ve done it so far I’ve fallen asleep at some point, which may explain why… Tonight I had the opportunity to redeem myself, as my parents were kind enough to invite us to join them in Cannes at Le Palais des Festivals (which is where the main screenings at the Cannes film festival also take place) to see La Traviata.

La Traviata (as I’m sure you know, my dear educated reader) is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, based on La dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas. It tells the sad story of a young nobleman called Alfredo, who is in love with a courtisan called Violetta, who is suffering from tuberculosis. After plenty of dramatic twists and turns, the story sadly ends with Violetta dying in Alfredo’s arms. (I have to admit the summary is, er, inspired by Wikipedia – the dialogue was of course all in Italian, without any subtitles, so I had no clue about what was going on…).

After the usual drama which is normally associated with me going anywhere (this time we were just stuck in traffic), we arrived, in the nick of time (me sweating like a pig, having run from the car park – I really felt for the old ladies sitting next to me…). This time I really enjoyed the show, and also stayed awake! And I even recognised a couple of the arias. Must be getting old or something… We also ran into Myriam and Fabian, who were also there for the show.