Operas Should Not Involve Clowns

On Monday, I didn’t have classes (are you jealous of my schedule yet?), so I spent most of the day puttering about my apartment and watching season 1 of Grey’s Anatomy.  It turns out, that’s a pretty great show.  And the best part of it is that it’s supposed to be set in Seattle, so I got to see tons of shots of the Seattle city sky line.  (I miss my city.)

In the evening, I headed over to Cynthia’s apartment to have dinner with C².  We had some croque monsieur and some galette des rois (kings’ cake – not to be confused with king’s cake in Louisiana, which is quite different).  The galette des rois is a very light pastry filled with almond paste.  It’s quite delicious.  I forgot to take a picture, but here’s one I found on the internet:

From Wikipedia.

This is going on my list of things to learn how to make when I get home.

After dinner, Colton and I rushed off to my first opera of the year.  We had tickets to see Werther at the Lyon Opera House.

 

The un-renovated portion of the opera house - my favorite part.

I had high hopes because I like the story.  However, I was incredibly disappointed.  It was TERRIBLE.  Seriously awful.  Don’t get me wrong – the singers were fantastic.  I especially enjoyed the guy who portrayed Werther.  He was great.  The director reset the opera into some bizarre time period where there were clowns everywhere.  CLOWNS!  Why the heck he thought clowns would facilitate the story, I have no idea.  It was bizarre.  I was willing to get past that, though, until the death scene.  In Werther, Werther falls in love with a woman who is engaged to be married to someone else.  At the end of the show, he’s supposed to kill himself; the woman he loves comes to his side while he’s dying and admits to herself and to him that she is in love with him, too.  Then he is able to die in peace because he knows that he is loved.

 

At the opera.

Well, in this production, the director, for some bizarre reason, decided to have him die alone, only imagining that his love has come to see him.  So, she actually never admits to him or herself that she is in love.  It totally changed the meaning of the entire show.  And it was just dumb.  It made no sense at all.  I don’t understand why anyone thought that was a good idea.

It was so bad, in fact that Colton actually booed the director.  He says that booing is acceptable in the opera community, but this is the first time he has ever booed at an opera (even though he’s seen 55 different operas!).  I don’t know if the French don’t boo or if they actually enjoyed the production, but Colton appeared to be the only person booing at the end.

Anyway, now you know, you probably don’t want to ask me what I thought of the opera.  🙂

 

The very modern interior of the opera house.

On Tuesday, I was stuck in class or 7 hours.  SEVEN HOURS!  It was awful.  I guess that’s how they make up for giving us all those days off.  I had five hours straight of European Union Law and Policy and then two hours of International Copyright Law with the professor who has such a strong accent I can barely understand him.  He seems very sweet, though.  And he tries.  He kept referring to the “numerical age,” or what we could call the “digital age.”  He’s clearly translating from the French to the English in his head when he speaks, and since “digital age” translates to “ère du numérique,” his terminology makes sense.  But it’s certainly confusing!

I had no classes today (and don’t have any tomorrow, either…  I know, it’s rough).  I’m all alone, though, because C² took off for a mid-week trip to Grenoble to stay with some friends.  So, I’m left to entertain myself.  Today, I went to the mall to get a few things* and then came home and cooked up some dinner in my tiny apartment.

 

Spaghetti and fresh veggies. The joys of small-kitchen cooking.

I thought my kitchen in Seattle was small, but now it seems luxurious!  But, while the kitchen is small, it definitely functions.  I’ll have to head over to Cynthia’s to bake anything, but I can get by without my own oven for the next two months (I hope!).

In other news, I have a very cute neighbor:

 

I think he's thrilled that I used a bright flash to capture this photo.

He’s no replacement for Bailey, of course, but he’ll do for now.

_______

* While France is freaking freezing, there is one really big plus to being in France in January – les soldes (the sales)!  According to one of my guidebooks, the French government mandates huge sales in January and July, so every store has a TON of stuff on sale.  It’s awesome.  Like after-Christmas sales in the U.S., but much better.  Today, I got a neck-warmer for less than 7€, some great earrings for less than 3€, and some sunglasses for less than 9€!  It was awesome!

 

Check out my new hat and neck-warmer!