Opera

Took the baby to the opera tonight for her first experience at the opera. It was awesome. She loved it. Employees – and real ones, not simply the volunteer ushers, though they agreed – loved her and were super happy to see someone so young in attendance. She was also all dressed duo adorably, which totally added to the cute factor.

One lady specifically came to tell us that she was glad we were there and that we needn’t worry about noise from the baby; if anyone had an issue, we could send them to her. Fortunately, the baby was quiet enough to be inside for more than half of the evening. My mom and I traded off taking her outside whenever she got a little too excited about the music and performance, that she started cooing and yakking along. Once, she even bumped her head on a wall when I let her sit on the ground in the back for a bit, and I had to rush out with her, because she started crying. I’d say that was the only actual disturbance she may have caused. Though, even that was very brief.

This was the right performance for brining her, to be sure, as it was several individual songs/scenes from various operas, a showcase. So, there were constant breaks and it was easy to go in and out. One cool bit was that they now do a miniature interview of two performers after each piece, so the audience gets a chance to get to know them and connect with them. It was very cool.

Anecdote of the night: An Asian guy – I genuinely missed where he was from, because I was outside with the baby when they first started talking, but he mentioned he loves the restaurant Mala Sichuan, which is an awesome restaurant for Sichuan Chinese food – discussed how he had moved here and spoke very little and very poor English. As he was moving into an apartment, he happened upon a cat that was eating from the trash outside. He said the cat just looked at him like, “Welcome to my home.” He had never considered himself a cat person, but he ended up taking the cat in and adopting it. He would sing to the cat all the time, and the cat would sit and just watch him as he sang – it felt like there was a dialogue between them after he finished singing. ‘Yes, pretty good. But your high notes could use some work.’ He said that he had thought he was rescuing the cat, but it turned out that the cat actually rescued him. He was in a new and foreign place, spoke the language poorly, and didn’t have any local family or friends yet. The cat became a close friend who didn’t care how bad his English was – only that he fed it. And they still have this great relationship. Also, – and his co-performer made sure he added this information before closing – he named the cat “Healthy”. Why? “Because I just want it to be healthy.”

Super adorable and wonderful.

Great time at the opera tonight.

Thank you, God. Amen.

Post-a-day 2025