Day 19: Figaro, Figaro, Figaro or Not?

Friday, Feb 24th

This morning we departed from Cairns bound for Sydney arriving at The Four Seasons mid-afternoon. After check-in we all moved into our rooms, some went walking others sat back and relaxed in eager anticipation of tonight's operatic event of a lifetime.



Chris and Denny had identified Giovanni's Italian Restaurant as a potential early dinner spot and by 5:30 PM we were seated and ready to order. This was another great meal, whether it was pizza, gnocchi, risotto or fish, all agreed that this was a good choice.



Once dinner was completed, we were off to the Sydney Opera House, not just to tour but to actually experience an opera.

It's hard to explain just how excited I was about the evening's event, however I will try. For me this was to be like:

• Having a root canal or maybe two
• Watching paint dry
• Watching moss grow on a rolling stone
• Dragging nails down a chalkboard

I'm sure you get the picture.



We arrived at the Opera House by taxi and proceeded to climb the lofty entrance stairway. As done by so many, we stood around waiting for the doors to open, the air of excitement building every minute. We were watching people, people were watching us.

And then it was showtime.

For those of you unfamiliar with opera let me offer a brief explanation. It's something like football, there is/are:

1. Stadium seating
2. A band
3. Antagonists and protagonists
4. A "Jumbo-Tron" for keeping up with the songs and play acts.
5. Four quarters divided in the middle by a 20 minute halftime when everyone goes for food, drink and rest room relief. During halftime the team (cast) re-groups and gets ready for the 2nd half.
6. An interminable fourth quarter, it seems to go on forever. 
7. A cheering and applauding crowd.

Tonight's show was The Marriage of Figaro. In case you have yet to see it, I won't spoil it for you by revealing the plot, then again I'm not sure there was a plot. One of the things that is apparently important for opera is to have a stage and/or prop malfunction as in this performance there seemed to be several such events including a "time-out" (refer to football analogy) in the first quarter to fix a set or prop.

For any of you that might be concerned that you wouldn't understand an opera as it would likely be in Italian or German, fear no more. This opera was spoken and sung in English, on top of that if you didn't understand English the "Jumbo-Tron" scrolled the words to parts of the show again in English.

To be fair, if the eight of us were polled on the enjoyment factor of the opera, the vote would come in at 7 to 1 in favor. So, for those who enjoy opera, this was an entertaining show and would be looked upon favorably as a highlight of the Australia trip.

For me, I am somewhat in fear that the show never actually ended. Remembering that this was an opera and it was entitled The Marriage of Figaro, I have two concerns:

1. Unless, I missed it, the fat lady never sang.
2. The people applauded, curtain was drawn and the lights came on, but I never heard the famous line, "Figaro, Figaro, Figaro".

Following the show we made our way back to the hotel to prepare for Saturday's tours.

Take a brief YouTube tour of the Sydney Opera House.