Opera Monday

I went to the office today and sent Mom and Dad to see the Bodies Exhibit. If you have one of these exhibits in a city near you, GO SEE IT! It's amazing. They both enjoyed it. It really is fascinating. Afterwards they met me at my office to see the new line (Fall/Winter 2007). We went across the street to the Red Lantern for some Thai food for lunch. YUM!!
Then they went home and I went back to work for a few hours.

Dan started his photography course at the ICP today. It's all day every day this week. I'd LOVE to take a course like this. Perhaps one of these days I'll take a vacation week and do something like this...although I also want to attend a few knitting courses out west. So many fun options -- if only I had unlimited time and money, ya know?

The day is finally here!!

I bought the tickets for this production of The First Emporer at the MET back in August!! Yeah!!! Mom, Dad, Brian, Ann Marie and Robin had all journeyed down from NH to join Dan and I for this opera. FUN!

First, all of us save for Dan had a fantastic meal at Payard on the east side. SO YUMMY!! I want to go back for some breakfast pastries soon!!! YUM! Dan would join us at the Opera after his class. The photo, left, is of the dessert I had -- - wow chocolate heaven! The dinner had been so good, I wish I'd left more room for dessert. Killer coffee too!

During dinner, Robin gave us each a gift... see the photo at the right... What is it? Opera glasses from the M&M store in Times Square!! What fun! Thanks Robin! I'll continue to make good use of them!

After dinner I arranged two livery cars to be waiting for us at the end of our meal, and we were wisked across Central Park to Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera. Just as we arrived and were getting out of the cars, it began to snow! It was something like a fairy tale. Just beautiful!

When you go to the MET, Be sure to arrive in time to see the chandeliers raise into the eves. It's magical.

We were there to see The First Emperor, a opera world premiering at the MET, starring Placido Domingo. It was a visual buffet, but I think I would have enjoyed it better had it been completely sung in Chinese rather than in English with bits of Chinese. English is not really a great language to hear opera in. It's not as smooth as so many others.

I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy it...I just think they will tighten it up and make a better showing of it after they spend some more time on it at their next stop in LA. Rumour has it that they aim to perform it in Beijing during the 2008 Olympics. I wonder if it'll be in English or Chinese when they perform it in China?

It was a lovely night...a lovely weekend. I'll be sorry to see my folks head home tomorrow. It's too bad that they live far enough away that easy visits (meeting for dinner after work or seeing a movie) are not in the cards without lots of planning.