The cheapskate of the Opera…

I will travel great distances to go to a lovely opera, and so the lure of Juan Deigo Florez, on whom I have had something of a crush for a few months, Gaetano Donizetti’s (Verdi ‘light’) fabulous opera La Fille du Regiment (loosely translated as The Catterick Turn-off….and unless you are English you have absolutely no chance of understnading that one….!), Dawn French taking a cameo role as La Princesse Crackentorp (she bought the house down!) made me don a pair of clean knickers… and hot foot it up to London tonight !

What I will NOT do is pay alot for my ticket…in my experience, paying for expensive seats in the Opera has more to do with financial dick-waving than a real love of opera (*alientates half the world*) but this evening even I went too far…on presenting my ticket to the seat wallah and joshing to him…‘I’m in the cheap seats..ha ha’….his deadpan reply was ‘no sir, you’re in no seat…..you’re standing‘ 

Well, it was fun and you get to meet a good class of person…poor but solid…. It’s just when you are actually looking DOWN on the surtitles…that you know you are a real nobody !

Anyway, dinner….there are vast number of people in England tonight who are suffering acute indigestion. Frightfully au jour it may be, but it is not my idea of fun to race through a wildly expensive 3 course meal in two sittings (pre-performance starter and main, interval for pud) – if you look carefully at the photo you will see where this happens – and so I settled for a smoked salmon sarnie with a vat of Sauvignon Blanc in the interval.

And jolly good it was too, even if the bread did have what looked liked mouse droppings in it.  It came with some decorative cucumber which had been soused in dill-juice.

I sat outside on the terrace regaling some rich people (who were as fast as lightening to tell me they had spent 160 pounds on 2 tickets…struth guvn’r….you should have seen their face when I told them what I paid)…with absolutely hilarious stories of what it’s like watching an opera standing up! I did expect a tip for my effort…..tugged my forelock…but to no avail !

Pudding was a cough sweet…not because I’ve got a cough, but because they were doling them out free….though as I type this at home, I am already on my 2nd Affogiato with added Milo topping…delicious !

What did I pay for my ticket ?? Thought you’d never ask……8 English Pounds ! Mind you the stage did appear to be in the next county !