June 15 Royal Opera, Covent Gardens

I have long wanted to see a live performance of an opera by a world-class company, and England's Royal Opera is one of the best, so I bought a ticket to their performance of Marriage of Figaro. I had meetings in the morning and afternoon at the university, so I walked straight over to the train station, and arrived in London about 4:30, too late to consider visiting a gallery first, since the opera starts at 7 and they advise patrons to arrive a half hour early. I walked around a bit, found a nice little French bistro for supper. The evening started out well - Confit de Canard, a duck leg in plum and brandy sauce with properly cooked green beans and a kind of potato casserole, topped by a "traditional French cherry tart," actually more like what I would think of as a cobbler, very very good.
Covent Gardens Opera House is of course quite sumptuous, overwhelming even. My ticket was quite expensive - over $300, not anything I would do regularly. You can get cheaper tickets - the opera house has four levels of balconies. But my eyes are getting weak in dim light, and I decided to go for the complete experience. Along the same lines, I also pre-ordered a glass of champagne for the intermission.
Overall the performance itself was excellent. I didn't recognize the names of any of the singers, but probably a true opera fan would. Erwin Schrott asFigaro and Mariusz Kwiecien as the Count were both superb - rich, full voices, very nice styling. I felt that Annette Dasch as Countess Almaviva was also excellent, but the opera buffs sitting next to me didn't like the quality of her voice. Unfortunately the female lead, Susanna was very poorly cast, Eri Nakamura, who "is participating in the Jette Parke Young Artists Programme." She unfortunately is not "ready for prime time." She has a very nice, sweet voice, and I thought quite good control, but it is very thin and easily overwhelmed. Her voice often got lost in the orchestral accompaniment, and almost always got lost in the trios and quartets that Mozart loves to use. Singing a solo, with only a harpsichord for accompaniment, she projected well and was enjoyable to hear, but much of the delight of the opera is in the playful, lively trios and the weakness of her voice turned them into duets, a tricycle with one wheel missing. That was the one disappointment of the evening. The orchestra, conducted by Colin Davis was outstanding.
As Lynne predicted, wandering around the 2nd story bar with a glass of champagne during intermission was quite nice, and it rounded out the experience quite well. - well worth the 12 pounds.
Audience response was mixed; about 1/3 very enthusiastic, 1/3 tepid (including the elderly couple next to me, who are subscribers and have very exacting standards). As we were leaving after the performance, the old gentleman asked if I had plans for after the performance, and I think that was the prelude to an invitation, but the train schedule for returning to MK is a harsh taskmaster - I missed the 10:57 so caught the 11:24. I think there are two trains later than that - it would have had to be a very quick drink or I would have been looking for a hotel room in London. Too bad, they were an interesting and very knowledgeable couple and it would have been fun.
It was a great evening, and left me with an appetite for more. I hope I'm in a large city some time when the opera is performing one of my Verdi favorites.