Opera Bound

We are getting so cultured! We decided to take the plunge and attend our first ever opera this weekend. The opera was La Boheme and put on by New Zealand Opera, which was in Christchurch for three performances of this opera.

Here is the overview from the NZOpera website - it summarizes it all so well.

Eternal Flame.

A lost key and an accidental touch of cold hands in the dark – so begins one of the great romances of all opera. Puccini’s glorious masterpiece of youthful flirtation, passionate love and heart breaking tragedy springs to life in this exciting production which brings freshness, energy and a modern perspective. Whether it’s your first time or your fiftieth, La bohème will remind you what it means to be alive and in love.

The Cast

This NZ Opera production, revisited from our acclaimed 2008 season, stars Talise Trevigne as Mimì, with New Zealanders tenor Shaun Dixon as Rodolfo and baritone Phillip Rhodes as Marcello.

The Story

When Rodolfo, a penniless poet, meets Mimì, a seamstress, they fall passionately in love. But their happiness is threatened when Rodolfo learns that Mimì is gravely ill. As her health rapidly declines her friends gather and watch on helplessly as she succumbs, her true love at her side.

Rudolfo (Shaun Dixon) cares for Mim (Talise Trevigne) as she dies. So sad!

We had a wonderful time. The was a screen on either side of the stage with subtitles so that we could follow the story. Thank goodness for modern technology! I really appreciated being able to follow the story line. It was such a good experience that I would definitely want to see another opera. We are getting so cultured!

No pain, no gain

Here we have another netball post. I have continued playing netball with my PwC team and I hope that I am improving. I definitely don't stand around as much now that I feel more comfortable getting involved. The main problem I have is figuring out how aggressive to be. Netball is not the same as basketball from a contact standpoint. You have to be 3m away from the shooter, you can't put a body on anyone. It almost feels like it's not a contact sport. Unfortunately, that usually means I'm not aggressive enough in trying to steal passes in my efforts to keep the appropriate distance. Oh well! It's getting better.

During a recent game, I was diving to intercept a pass (yes, I dove on the ground and I succeeded!). When I got up, my big toe on my right foot was hurting soooo bad. I thought I had just stubbed it, but it hurt so much I would have sworn it was bleeding inside my shoe. Unfortunately we don't really sub during the half so I had to work through it until the end of the game.

I took off my shoe and this is what I saw...

I know the picture isn't great, but that whole thing is BLACK! The things we do for sports.

It's been a few weeks and the nail is finally starting to fall off, but I keep taping it on when we play our games so that it's covered. Even though I've lost toenails from ballet in the past I think I've gone a little soft.

Good news is that we won the game, so the gain from the pain was totally worth it! Go team PwC!!!