A Night at the Opera

We are not "opera people".  We don't dislike it, but we also don't go out of our way to see it.  But, when planning for this trip, I learned that Verona had an arena where they staged operas.  We were intrigued.  

"L'arena di Verona" was originally built in AD 30 and used for games and shows.  The outer facade was damaged in an earthquake in 1117.  During the Renaissance, it began to be used as a theatre and after, in the 1850's, some operatic performances were mounted there, owing to its outstanding acoustics.  In 1913, the 100th year after Verdi's birth, seasonal operatic performances commenced and were performed every summer except for 1915-18 and 1940-45 due to world wars.  The amazing acoustics allowed operas to be performed without amplification until 2011 when an "electronic sound reinforcement system" was installed.  Whatever that means...

So, even though we did not originally plan to go to Verona on our trip, we couldn't help but notice that Verona was an easy 1.5 hour train ride from Venice.  We planned a one-night detour.  We ordered our tickets for Don Giovanni and packed them carefully away in our luggage.

As it happened, when we were in Venice, we felt like a full week there was more than we wanted and so, instead of Venice to Verona and BACK to Venice, we stayed in Verona an additional two days.  But, the first night was THE OPERA!

Brian had already returned to Philly, so Alessia, Sam, Nate and I dressed up (as much as we had packed for!) and had a dinner at one of the restaurants at Piazza Bra'.  We all had "fancy" cocktails together and a delicious meal.  A word about our surroundings: At the Arena, they produce 6 different operas during the summer and the production changes nightly.  The arena stage is huge and the set pieces for each production huge to go along with it.  The arena has a backstage area, of course, but not enough space to store the set pieces for the 5 productions NOT being performed each night.  So, all around the Piazza Bra' and the perimeter of the arena are huge set pieces from Aida, Romeo and Giulietta, etc.  It was a very cool, if odd, reminder of the workings behind the illusion.

After dinner, we bought seat cushions and found our seats (which, indeed, did need cushioning!).  As much as I had prepared the boys for how to behave during an opera, we did get a couple of "shussh"es until they (Sam, mostly) understood quite what it meant.  The production was beautiful: costumes, set, lights, voices and even acting were wonderful.  The opera started at 9:00 p.m. and ran almost 4 hours so, no, we didn't stay until the end.  And I do wonder how much the boys got out of it.  We certainly could have gone without the boys, but I am happy we shared the experience with them.  Next opera will be easier!

Verona non-opera-related post script: Verona turned out to be the city with the BEST prosciutto crudo we ate in Italy.  Even though Bologna is much closer to Parma than Verona is, this was consistently true.  Verona is also where the boys got (great!) Italian haircuts and Sam chose an Italian-style swim suit.  We peeked at the balcony of Juliette but thought it to be "meh"