(Stop: Teatrul Național de Operă și Balet „Maria Bieșu” (National Opera and Ballet “Maria Bieșu“) Day 235)

When I arrived in Chisinau by train, one of the people who shared my compartment had her husband waiting for her at the station and they drove me and another passenger to our hotels. Which was very nice. Mulţumesc! Along the way, we got a bit of a tour of the city including The National Opera and Ballet. “You should go and see Cio-Cio-San!” Aliona said as we drove past. That was too far past my stay in the city, but it plant an idea. As it turned out, The Barber of Seville fit my itinerary and there were still good tickets available at a reasonable price, so why not give the opera a try? I’d never been.

Poster for The Barber of Seville. Production notes. And archived.

More than one person commented that it was a good first choice: easy, accessible, and Bugs Bunny approved. A friend online wrote, “I hope you’ll end up loving opera as much as I do. It’s so delightfully, incredibly trashy, the art form that’s got it all.” Note: They went on to say that trashy might be a bit much but that it doesn’t have to be all stuffy and high-brow. It should be fun! And, it was.

Fun and trashy!

Getting ready to go in. The Building has a truly monumental marble porch all around it.

I read the synopsis online beforehand, and the story is let’s say not hard to follow even in Italian with very brief prompts or titles in Romanian on an LED scroll above the stage.

Figaro was loads of fun and the slapstick got started pretty early with a production line barbering of four men who each got nicks or cuts for their two bits. Sorry. No photos from the opera itself. A lot of people were using their phones and a few rang during the performance, but I just watched and kept my phone off.

Trash! They threw in a couple of pop culture bits for us olds and maybe the kids? In the grand finale at the end of Act One, as the captain of the guard was marching back and forth swinging his arms as he sang, it slowly transformed into the macarena, which he cajoled all of the guards and everyone else to do until they simultaneously verged into the floss dance instead. Why was I almost the only one laughing at this?!?

Then it was intermission. I’d read about this in novels, but I was surprised how many people never came back! The four women down the row from me just disappeared. They had made their appearance and it was time to go out on the town.

Back for the Second Act, and the “Old Housekeeper Berta,” was most definitely the young and voluptuous housekeeper, and they just ran with it from the start. After some prodigious sneezes early in Act One, she flirted coquettishly or just plain threw herself and any man in range. Especially the Captain of the Guard who kept rebuffing her until she dragged him offstage at one of his exits.

When she had her solo at the start of Act Two, it was very music video. Three young, male dancers surrounded her and gyrated and got on all fours after they whipped off her skirts and top to reveal a very Lady Gaga-esque costume. At one point the guys threw in a bit of Gangnam Style Horse Dance and I think they were doing some other tik-tok-ish dance move too, but don’t ask me. I get all of my tik-tok content second hand from my Slack people.

There was also a secondary show as the young couple in front of me fought. She wanted to be there. He quite visibly would have preferred MMA and ostentatiously leaned over away from her and went to sleep early in Act One. At which point she got up in a huff and stomped out, but her scarf was stuck under him so she jerked hard and woke him out of his by then feigned slumber. He started texting immediately after she left. She came back and sat down still in a huff. And he got up and stomped up the stairs.

Curtain call.

There was one young girl two rows ahead and a few seats over who seemed to think it was a Taylor Swift event. Phone raised high for video and instagram constantly. But, I had to forgive her at the end when she somehow produced this massive bouquet for Rosina and bounced up on stage at the curtain call. Just a superfan.

It was a good time! Would do again.