A Night at the Opera (House)

It’s long been an ambition of mine to attend a performance at the Royal Opera House. I guess there wasn’t anything stopping me, I just never got round to organising it. But finally, I decided it was time to go, and booked L* and I tickets for a triple bill of Les Sylphides, a new ballet, and The Firebird, last week.

It turned into a bit of a retro couple of days, as we stayed in a hotel we’d stayed at on our first trip to London together at 17. I think we’re better dressed now than we were then, though. I’d decided to wear my maxi dress, as if this wasn’t an occasion to dress for, I wasn’t sure what was. Even though this meant walking through London at 5pm on one of the sunniest days of the year so far, this didn’t bother me.

Following an early dinner, we arrived at the ROH, and into the fabulous Paul Hamlyn Hall, all airy space and glass. In my head, it’s something like the Crystal Palace must have been, only with better cocktails. The building is stunning. Whilst I’d had a look around previously when there wasn’t a performance on, there was an entirely different atmosphere. There were also some fabulous outfits (though not many maxis), on some beautiful people. It was also a very good shoe night.

I suppose I should be talking about the ballet, but for me, the greatest experience was the building. I loved Les Sylphides, which is beautiful and I adore the music, the new ballet was good, but I prefer traditional story ballets (or at least pretty ones), and it was good to see the Firebird for the first time, which seemed very typical of a Fokine/Ballet Russes ballet, very fairy tale.

With ballet, you tend to get long intervals, particularly with a triple bill, as they had to reset the stage. This gave us plenty of time to explore the rest of the building, going out onto the terrace which overlooks Covent Garden, and walking op the stairs which have been seen on TV so many times – and then doing it again just for effect and thinking that I was about to meet the Queen at a Royal Command Performance**.

We had fabulous seats, and I was pleased that the auditorium didn’t feel as huge as I thought it might. The whole experience was utterly fabulous.

Of course, I now want to go again – but I think next time will be for a three act story ballet. As for the opera, well, I’ll give that a miss, thanks.

*L and I go way back. All the way to school, in fact, when she used to eat the bits of school dinners that I didn’t like. Given that this meant she ate a great deal more than me, and stayed stick thin, it’s amazing we stayed friends.

**I know reality doesn’t enter into it, but then, why should it?