I went there with my neighbor on Wednesday – it was an opening night, and I had main floor tickets and I also pre-ordered desserts for the intermission. The pictures are mostly from the Lyric website.

I liked it, although I think many people were misled about child appropriateness. It is quite creepy, except for the finale, which is beautiful, joyful, and optimistic. I know that it was intended for children when it was written, but I guess we have different standards now:)

For some reason, I thought we’d been to the Lyric Opera with Boris. He says it was his first time, but I still think it’s not true. Maybe I will recall it later :).

Anyway – I asked whether he would like to go to the Opera on Friday or Saturday, and he said he wanted to go to Don Carlos. Since we won’t see each other for Christmas, I decided to make a big night out of it, and it went perfectly!

I got seats in the front section of the main floor – I had never been so close to the stage at Lyric. I ordered pre-concert dinner at Florian and dessert during the intermission. The opera is almost four hours long, so I scheduled an Uber ride. But then I realized that it would be faster to take Metra and canceled it.

Everything went perfectly. The singers were extraordinary. I can’t recall any other show at Lyric when I won’t be comparing singers and deciding on “the best one.” Everybody was “the best” in that show.

And the food and the desserts – just what you need to keep yourself awake for four hours 🙂

Out of all shows in Lyric Opera which were included into my subscription, The Fiddler was my most anticipated! I read the reviews, and the interviews with the artists saying that “it’s not your mother’s Fiddler.” Since I really like the musical, and since I really-really love the book, I was sure it will be the best experience ever.

And it turned to be not exactly that. The musical is already a step away from the book, with reduced number of daughter, Golda not dying, and some parts of the plot omitted. But it still has a spirit of the book, and a very intimate touch.

The Lyric performance feels like further away. Way more of a “show,” way louder. The traditional Jewish melodies are modified beyond recognition.

“If I Were a Rich Man,” in my opinion, is something very different than this clip: it is a very sad song, and Tevye is no Samson. The orchestra is great, the voices are amazing, but it is not the story I expected to hear…

Yesterday, we went to see Tosca in the Lyric Opera. We – meaning, myself, mom, and my neighbor. My neighbor dreamed about this night since the day I got these tickets. And yes, the performance was outstanding, especially the soloists who sang the leading parts. Everybody was invited to see how the stage crew changed the set during the first intermission. The stage manager explained to us that the set is fifty years old and told us a lot of details about its construction, and then about costumes and wigs – most of the costumes came from the Convent Garden 2005 production.

After the performance, my neighbor told me that she could not help but think about Ukraine and all the historical parallels. I feel that no matter what show we watch these days, we see the parallels with the war, and each injustice we see on stage resonates with what we see on our screens in the reports from Ukraine.