Orpheus in the Underworld

Saw the Australian Opera production of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld at the Opera House last night, and it was fantastic. A light, frothy operetta, it doesn't have much memorable music, apart from the Infernal Gallop (aka the Can-Can), and some of the singers weren't as good as others. However, it's a sexy fun romp, and has a brilliant new translation/recreation of the lyrics, written for this production in Australian vernacular. It's bloody hysterical, and the staging and costumes bring it to life brilliantly.

And if you've never seen a can-can done by a group, mostly male, in leather harnesses and frilly little microskirts, you haven't really seen the can-can ;)

It was packed, and there were people standing to watch the performance. I didn't know the Opera House sold standing room only tickets.

On a more depressing note

My sister has been having some eye trouble lately, and got glasses this week. She'd commented that she was shocked when she put them on, she didn't realise her long distance vision wasn't as good as she thought ("I can see leaves so clearly on trees!"). I laughed at her.

When we were wandering around outside the Opera House last night, enjoying twilight by the harbour before the peformance started, she was wearing her glasses. I borrowed them and popped them on, so we could see how I looked in them.

"Oh shit" I say, as the distant trees in the botanical gardens are suddenly so much crisper against the pink and blue sky.

"Ha ha ha ha" goes my sister and parents (both glasses wearers, dad all the time since his twenties, mum for the past ten years or so, for reading and stuff).

Guess you can only fight genetic inevitability so long. They're ok for now, but I bet by the time I'm thirty that might change.