Opera - it's better than you think; it has to be!

This is one of my favorite marketing lines of all time, I think, and it turns out to be true.  We went to see the Barber of Seville on Sunday; to Vicente's & Miguel's surprise, it wasn't that bad.  Pablo & I had a great time and the German supertitles (is that the opposite of subtitle?) were actually quite helpful to me.  One translation I particularly liked for when Figaro landed on his feet particularly well was:  "This time the cheese has really fallen onto macaroni."  I'm looking for an opportunity to work this into conversation at the dog park sometime.  :-) The opera house was as lavishly beautiful as it's publicized and we had absolutely amazing seats.  Not only was it was a performance with a special family price (kids are free and adults with kids are half price), I think that they reserved most of the best seats for family tickets.  Although not quite as catchy as the above opera marketing line, I think it's probably a more effective technique.  There were certainly lots of other families there and all of those kids will realize that opera isn't always that bad.  :-)  It also helps to be seeing "Barber of Seville" instead of Wagner.

Okay, if the horse & carriage were inside the opera house as part of the performance, that really would be impressive, but this is just a random photo thrown in since I liked it. 

Anyway, it was certainly a lot of fun and I feel like we've finally participated in Dresden's unique offerings.  Now we can go back to our regular low-brow entertainment with the inner conviction that we are truly cultural.  That will last for several more soccer games and James Bond movies.

Vicente & I also went to the DDR/East Germany museum.  It wasn't bad, but I think that Pablo & Miguel did well staying home.  There were some pretty cool exhibits like the one showing what people did right after the war.  Note the gas mask in the upper left hand corner:  it's been transformed into a coffee filter.

I wasn't sure what the point of this was, but it made me laugh....

And finally, a useful phrase for daily life:  Workers of the world, unite!