a night at the opera...

From today's Sun Times, Neil Steinberg is giving a healthy push in favor of going to the opera, and the paper is giving away 100 tickets for Cav/Pag next month. If you haven't been to the opera before I would not necessarily recommend Wagner as a first opera, but Cav/Pag are good ones to see. See Mr. Steinberg's article below. It lists the link for the ticket giveaway. Good luck!

Opera audience in another world
LYRIC Here's a preview for 100 ticket winners

January 26, 2009
BY NEIL STEINBERG
Culture can be a duty, almost a burden, and to be honest it was not without qualms that I slipped into my seat at the Lyric Opera on Friday afternoon to catch the dress rehearsal of Richard Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde." First, it's five hours long. That's a long time for anything; Angelina Jolie performing a lap dance could grow wearisome toward the end of the fourth hour. Unlikely, but possible.

Second, it's Wagner. Heavy stuff, with its crashing minor chords and overheated lovers locked in doomed embrace, singing their hearts out in praise of Liebestod (love-death). No sooner do Tristan (the boy) and Isolde (the girl, to stretch the term) meet than they are anticipating the grave the way other new couples ponder china patterns. But once you actually break out of your routine and find yourself there, the world melts away. Heck, just walking into the Civic Opera House is thrill enough, with its soaring ceiling and bronze Jazz Age opulence. The fact that they also put on a show is an added bonus.

Last Monday, I plumped the opera a bit, teasing for the 100 readers I'm inviting to join me next month at the paired performance of "Pagliacci" and "Cavalleria Rusticana." I mentioned how you don't have to speak a foreign language (there are projected English titles) or dress fancy.
Frankly, because of space, I missed a few other important elements. Seeing an opera is a social experience. People talk to one another during the intermissions. You can listen to a CD at home, but you won't find yourself, as I did, sitting next to Arnold Voketaitis, a former Lyric singer, sharing memories of our common acquaintance, Valdas Adamkus, onetime president of Lithuania.
Not only do people chat, but there are bars -- I limit myself to peppermint candies, but if a stiff brandy helps you, then by all means it's there and you won't be alone.
Lastly -- and the Lyric folks might want to skip this paragraph -- you don't have to adore every aspect of the opera, and true fans don't. Disliking things is part of the fun. I could fill the column with judgmental comments I heard at Friday's "Tristan" -- the swordplay was tepid (true); the big boulders in David Hockney's set were unfortunate (also true, though I considered them rather Ernie Bushmillerian).
And so to the gist. The Chicago Sun-Times is giving away 50 pairs of tickets to the Feb. 18 performance of Pagliacci/Cavalleria. There are rules, and I'm sure someone will read them. The most important restriction is that you cannot have bought tickets to the Lyric before -- and yes, they'll be checking, so they tell me. To read the rules, and to apply, go online at suntimes.com/win and click on "The Sun-Times goes to the Lyric Opera." Good luck.