the early bird (and fille du regiment)

uhh..wishes that she would stop waking up at 8am without an alarm.

What is this?
I have sleep to catch up on! I almost flipped my days and nights with the show last week, I saw the opera last night and only went to bed at 2am and here I am, wide awake at 8am.
SO. NOT. COOL.

So.
La Fille du Regiment at the MET last night was amazing.
Before I talk about the performance I'll talk about how I got tickets.

Well, I unpacked and repacked yesterday, and I took an early train into NYC to locale-1 (where I'm staying for a few days before I move to locale-2 for about 3 weeks), and met D for breakfast (well, tea.)
Around 11:30 she had to get her car out of a lot at midtown and drive to NJ, and so I decided to mosey on down to the MET and see if there were any patron tickets returned (in the cheap section!). Obviously, there was only a ticket available for 285 dollars of whatever it costs to still not sit in the most expensive section.

So I asked about the rush tickets, and the woman said people were lining up downstairs.
WHAT? It wasn't even NOON yet!
Ok, so I took a look, and lo and behold, there were about 20 people in line already--who were planning on staying until 5:45 when the line moved upstairs and then get 20 dollar seats in the orchestra.

Well, I had my score, I had my ipod, and most importantly, I had a bagel and cream cheese from the local deli on 72nd with me, so I sat right down and decided that this would be as good a place as any to get work done.

I made friends with the nice russian ladies who came in from NJ to see the show. I made friends with the Lebanese-French woman who said she always waits for rush tickets (she had a comfy half-chair to sit on too--man, I needed that at hour 4 ish), and that she wanted to see JDF (she didn't know that last night's performance was sung by Barry Banks, the incredi-tenor), and we all made small talk.
Then I listened to the opera. A little.
Then I opened my score. A little. I may know ONE and a HALF pages of recit after 6 hours of not really trying at all.
Then I watched all of the clips I had on my ipod.
Then I listened to my ipod on shuffle and skipped through tons of songs that I wasn't in the mood for (isn't there some magical thing that the ipod usually makes great random playlists for you? well, it didn't for me!).
Then I stared out into space.
Then I stood. And sat. And sat with my legs crossed. And sat with my legs out. And stood again cuz my butt hurt from sitting.

and THEN I got my 2 orchestra seats for the show!!!
And OH. MY. GOD. was it worth it!

I've already said this before and I'll say it again, I don't care what you think of Natalie's voice, she is a powerhouse on stage, and the woman can't sing sharp or flat.
Every note is placed pitch perfect, motivated, spun, and USED. It's not just sung because it's there. She USED the note. Like an old-ex-boyfriend fling! USED I say!

Barry is one of my favorite tenors and it was such a pleasure to hear him sing something in addition to crazy rossini (Donna del lago), and something that was familiar and fun and he was SOOO cute in his Tyrolean outfit and his army outfit, and in general he's adorable. And he and Natalie looked and sounded fantastic.

Uh, 9 high c's? Yea--plus that amazing shimmering high D in Act III-- you rock, Barry.


I got to go backstage after the show (through the cool people door) and ran into another recent colleague of mine who is covering a show (I totally forgot she was doing that, and was happy to see her, and we may try to meet up before the end of the week when the run is over), and then was introduced to a few new NY-y music people, said hi to Barry w/a big hug and wished him well, and then was back here to my UWS home for a few days....(and..news of all news...it will MOST likely be my fall sublet as well!!! ZOMG--seriously? 10 blocks away from the MET? OH YEA!)

And now, since I'm awake for now reason and can't seem to fall back asleep,
I'm going to read the Times and maybe learn some recit. MAYBE.
30 days and counting.