Lucia and a Half

Well, my friends, as you know, last week I went to the WNO to see and review Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. But then of course, one can never see too many Lucias. So a couple of days later I took Troy to his first ever official opera: the WNO’s Lucia di Lammermoor. (That is to half of it. For an opera lover under three, half of Lucia makes it a whole lotta music!)


Our tickets were courtesy of the wonderful WNO press office manager who told me that she would always be happy to spare a couple of tickets for my son and I. Our seats were fabulous: crème de la crème of the opera house: two aisle seats in Row P, aka Row 9 in the orchestra.

As soon as we went up the escalator of the Kennedy Center, we heard the sounds of jazz music and immediately dove into the festive spirit of a free concert on one of the outer stages. Troy loved it and started “conducting” while still standing in the foyer. His most favorite thing was the blue stars projected onto the ceiling on the occasion of the concert. Troy loved the foyer with its mirrored walls and beautiful crystal chandeliers.

However, walking into the opera house and seeing it with his very own eyes was it for him. He was walking with his head up, without taking his eyes off the crystal chandeliers, the red velvet rows of chairs, the tiers and the boxes, the pit and the instruments and kept saying :Theater! theater! chandeliers! French horn! Violin! And where is the conductor? Then he talked to the concierge and told her all the names of the instruments he liked, having concluded his speech with a statement that he has a baton and that he wants to be a conductor.

He watched and listened to the opera with a lot of attention and told me that he loved the music, and “how the man sang”, but “not how the lady sang”. And right he was!!!!(Lubov Petrova’s high register was truly painful to hear).

Even though Troy would have stayed through the whole performance, we decided to go home after the intermission. After all, we still had a one-hour trip back ahead of us, and I did not want Troy to be exhausted.

However, having left the opera house, we took a little bit of time to hang out at the Kennedy Center, threw our pennies into its gorgeous fountain and embraced the always festive and inspiring spirit of this grand building.

As we drove back, along the banks of the Potomac, I pointed all the landmarks to Troy, beautifully lit and gorgeous by night.

All the way back home Troy was talking about the chandeliers, the music, the instruments, the theater, and most importantly about coming back.