Opera, Interrupted

For many of us, our entire knowledge and experience of opera comes from this.

If Bugs Bunny is all you know of opera, you are better educated than you might realize. Even Rossini would approve. But in the interest of further educating myself, I went to see the actual production of The Barber of Seville at the Houston Grand Opera this weekend. I was sooo excited. The folks at the opera graciously offered me some media tickets and invited me to be their guest at a small reception during intermission.

The evening was going to be perfect. I made plans for my boyfriend, Jerry, to pick me up in time to get dinner before the show. We had a lovely dinner, but it took a tad longer than I thought and we were a bit rushed at the end. No fear, though! The show didn't start until 8pm and we were just minutes away from downtown.

We got to the Wortham Center and parked in the garage. We had just moments to spare. Jerry kept remarking on the fact that there were no other cars in line for parking and no one was walking through the garage. I didn't think much of it.

We got inside and went to Will-Call to get the tickets. It was 7:56. Again, Jerry observed that there was no one in the lobby. "Where are all the people?" he kept asking. "I don't know. I guess they're already inside," I answered.

Well...they were. Everyone was already inside, because the show didn't start at 8pm. It started at 7:30pm. And there's no late seating. We missed the entire first act.

So all I can tell you about the Barber of Seville is that the second act is very funny and we enjoyed it very much. But I didn't see Bugs Bunny anywhere. Maybe he was only in the first act.