Culture! Class!

This is just a quick post to say, yes, I am getting my share of proper London culture in. This is a pic from a trip I made to watch the Kensington Philharmonic Orchestra play in the Chelsea old town hall. My friend Genevieve is both a Masters in Finance student at school and a musician in the orchestra, so she got a bunch of us some discounted tickets.

Even more impressive was my more recent trip to the Royal Opera House for a performance of La Boheme. I had awesome seats on the left hand side in the lowest balcony. Ok, so this is obviously a stock photo - but you get the idea. It wasn't really a "take lots of flash photography" kind of event - in fact, no pictures are allowed during the performance.

La Boheme is the most popular opera of all time. I think this is largely attributable to the fact that it is truly funny. I laughed out loud on a regular basis. And it's a little ribald, which reminded me of Shakespeare. I guess if you want to stand the test of time, you have to appeal to the masses, and to our lewdest sense of humor.

The opera was wonderful - it ran three and a half hours but felt like it ended too early. The actors/singers were amazingly talented - what else could you expect from a ROYAL opera house? I can't wait until I can go again.