Carmen

Every other Friday, I teach an Artist and Composer class. A couple of weeks ago, I taught the girls about Bizet's opera "Carmen". They were so excited hear the familiar music (once you listen to 'Carmen' once or twice, you are shocked at how many of the 'tunes' are used in commercials,on TV shows and in movies).

Excited, I found out that the San Jose Opera was performing Carmen. I went online to see how much tickets were. Eighty dollars per person. Yeah, WAY too much for a fieldtrip! I saw that they had an educational performance but you had to apply for tickets by Sept 2008. I resolved myself to accepting that it wasn't going to happen.

A couple of days before the educational performance, someone posted that they had extra tickets available for the that performance. I don't think I have ever sent an email quite as fast- wait, maybe when I got "Wicked" tickets- but this came in a quick second. We usually have art on Thursdays but it was canceled this week so our calendar was clear. I sent the email but had to wait until morning to see if we had gotten them.

I was thrilled in the morning to get the email stating that we were one of the groups who got the tickets. San Jose Opera did a fabulous job. The girls were start struck. The opera was performed in French with super titles. I think the action packed story combined with need to read all of the lines made it go even faster for the girls. (It is a 3 hour opera). I was so proud at how mature they all were (even when the opera company took a few 'artistic' liberties that we didn't appreciate- or approve of) and how well they understood the story and the music. Such phenomenal kids.