Walking out....

I've walked out of restaurants because of poor service, I have left stores because of poor service, not gone back to stores because I recieved bad service. But yesterday was a first, I walked out of an opera. Have you ever? It was just tooo hard. It was Puccini's Manon Lescaut. That may not mean anything to many but anyways...

Granted my seat isn't fantabuous. It's the last row in the top tier yeah- nosebleed seats. There's a little computer thingy in front of me that let's me read a synopsis of the story and read a translation of the singing during the performance because my seat is so high I can't see the translation of the screen above the stage due to a cieling overhang. So, start with the computer thingy wasn't there. I had to read the synopsis in the playbill. The story was confusing. The men's names were too similar, I couldn't follow along. Maybe there was a typo, I dunno. Ok, so I'll just watch and enjoy. NOT. The first performer, who I am sure sings perfectly well, they are professionals after all, we couldn't hear him, like he wasn't projecting enough. At first I thought the music was maybe too much and overpowering him but we coulld hear the next guy. Whatever, it's not like I'm fluent in Italian and can understand what is happening. But I can usuallu catch enough words to piece the story together along with glancing at my translator thingy. But not yesterday! The woman didn't impress me either. Then there were such drastic costume changes with each act, I couldn't even recognize the different men (remember I sit to far to actually see their faces). After three acts, it was just too much. I knew that she was going to die, so, really enough was enough. We left. Outside I asked an usher out of curiosity if she knew how long the last act was. 22 minutes she said, 22 minutes of dieing. I'm glad we left. Maybe I just wasn't mentally in the mood. Gimme patience!
Later I found out that it had gotten bad reviews, so maybe it wasn't me after all.

Next opera....La Sonnambula...next Sunday...hopefully better than yesterday.