Two Cultural Experiences

FIRST, yesterday evening my friend Alex Rose and I went to The Opera, The Opera Garnier, the snazziest opera house you ever did see!  The one that the Phantom of the Opera is set in and semi-based on!!  We tried our luck at the last minute student tickets, waited around for an hour or so, and got perfect seats in the Orchestra, about ten rows back from the pit and seven chairs left from the middle.  For thirty euro each.  We saved about three HUNDRED euro between the two of us!

WE SAT RIGHT THERE!!!

And the place was beautiful.  Every surface was covered with carvings and gilding.  And there were chandeliers lighting the place.  So cool.  The opera was Hippolyte et Aricie, and the costuming and set design was totally Louis XIV.  Amazing.  The scenes glided into position like monoliths on wheels, Diana floated down from the ceiling on a cloud, Jupiter and his infernal court rose from the depths of the stage, the three witches who cut the life threads of mortals hung upside-down from the ceiling, a huge sea monster was unveiled from rolling waves to eat up the hero...it was visually stunning.  And the costumes were beautiful with a color scheme of pale greens, golds, and greys contrasted with deep reds and purples.  Everyone was powdered white with curled and powdered wigs.  So cool!  Here are some pics I've pulled off the internet of authentic opera costumes from the 1770s:

The costume designer seems to have directly taken inspiration from images like this.  The men wore short skirts, the headdresses are right on, even the "Demon's" face was copied in the makeup of a fury of the underworld.  Now here are some pics of what I saw:

One thing you have to know about baroque opera, apparently, is that the singers mainly just stand there with their arms in various pre-formulated positions.  See the ladies in green in the first picture.  I think they must have stood there like that for 15 minutes, easy.  One reviewer said, "The opera has longueurs. Half of the endless dances that slow down the action could easily be cut," but I would argue that there was no action at all and that the dances provided the one relief from the stony tedium of non-action.  It seemed to me that exciting things happened behind the scenes, and then the characters would come out and sing how they felt about it.  Which, you know, is how I live my life, too, so I don't begrudge them their unburdening of soul.  

SECOND CULTURAL EXPERIENCE:  Today I went to a public swimming pool with Soph and her dad.  It was a confusing experience.  I swear someone should research and write a treatise on the anthropology of public swimming pool rituals in the States vs. Europe.  First of all (and I didn't believe this when I heard it but it's true), men aren't allowed to wear swimming trunks, you know, the loose shorts?  They MUST wear speedos, either in brief or short-shorts form.  Hm.  Also, everyone has to wear swimming caps.  There was a vending machine selling them if you didn't have one.  The same vending machine also offered swimsuits for men, women, and children in a variety of sizes, as well as goggles for adults and children.  I am now the semi-proud owner of a navy blue polyester swimming cap, though if Dai had asked me first, I would have picked a different color.  Beggars who don't speak up in time can't be choosers, I suppose.

On the girl's side of the locker room, I found a locker, couldn't get it to lock until some girl pointed out that I needed to put a euro in it, and somehow put the bathing cap on my head in a semi-normal-looking fashion.  Then I walked into the pool area through the wrong door, though I didn't know it was the wrong door until I was headed back inside and found the right door.  The right door had a little dip in the floor with a foot bath of some sort.  

I noticed the preteen girls wore their swimming caps a little more haphazardly that I was, so I mussed mine up a little, uncovered my ears and pushed the edge back above my hairline, letting some hair slip out.  I'm pretty good at the game "When In Rome".  Of course, we were in the shallow pool, so I have no idea how the girls my age were wearing their caps...  

Sophie loved swimming with her daddy, it was so cute!  They used to go to a Water Babies class every week together at home.  She knows how to kick and paddle and go under.  He helped her jump off the edge and dunk under the water and since she hasn't done it in a while, she kind of freaked out about it.  Not in any crying or being scared way, just in an instinctive thrash-limbs-about-like-a-fish-and-then-blink-a-lot way.  Like I said:  cute.

So, people, I am rip-roaring through Parisian experiences, with the opera and the swimming pool in one twenty-four hour period!  It's been a good time.