La Calisto

Yesterday, I achieved yet another 'first ever'. This time, it was my first ever opera. The opera was La Calisto by Francesco Cavalli (music) and Giovanni Faustini (). The conductor was Ivor Bolton, and the hot Calisto (that's the main character, who is a nymph!) was played by Sally Matthews. One big achievement was that I understood pretty much the whole opera even though it was in Italian language with German overtitles (which are displayed on a screen above the stage).


This is the Bayerische Stattsoper, in Max-Weber-Platz. And it looked awesome at night.

We were on level 4. And taking pictures is strictly forbidden. But do you expect me to come out of my first opera without taking a picture!

The opera was absolutely stunning. And I learned that it was one of the very good ones. (So I have to attend at least one more opera that is one of the very best...maybe something by Mozart)

These are the main characters. At the end of the opera, I heard the loudest and longest applause ever. It went on for 5-10 minutes during which the cast came in groups, individually, with the musicians and so on.

I also had some pretty long and complicated discussions with Tobias, completely in German. So I'm improving a little bit every day. (Let's see if I can understand the 5 hours of lectures in German this week...) Overall, it was a truly memorable day.