Saturday, July 17, 2010

The phantom of the opera


The other night I finally visited Opera Garnier (famed Paris Opera House and suspected home to the mysterious Phantom of the Opera character from the eponymous musical).  It was gorgeous! 

The theater is a beautiful, old world opera house decked out in gilt and red velvet, with gold and crystal everywhere.  There is an enormous and amazingly beautiful chandelier that is also said to be a part of the Phantom of the Opera story (it fell on the audience in said piece) and the ceiling of the theater was painted by Chagall.  The place literally took my breath away!







Then to top it all off I saw a ballet based on Degas paintings of dancers.  The entire piece centered on the famous sculpture by Degas of the Little Dancer, said to be a ballet student at the Paris Opera, and the fictional story pieced together using Degas paintings.  It was amazing to see all of my favorite Degas paintings coming to life with real dancers!  I was in heaven and didn't mind one bit that my seat was at the back of the theater and that everyone there was dripping in sweat because of the heat and lack of air conditioning.  I would gladly sweat buckets again anytime!

A true dream come true, 20 years in the making, I only wish I could have shared the experience with you Gram!

xx

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