My wife and I attended the opera Carmen last night. It is playing 4 shows at the Southern Jubilee Auditorium here in Calgary. This was my first ever opera so I was quite excited.
Getting There
We, of course, left a little later than we should have. Traffic wasn't bad as we came to the Jubilee by going north on 14th street NW. They have quite a bit of parking space available and its cheap. The large outside lot on the northwest corner of the Jubilee was reserved entirely for handicap parking. It annoyed us, but is a really good idea consider the other lots require some stairs or elevators.
We ended up parking in the lower parking lot to the south east, which is $4 and about a 4 minute walk to the front doors of the Jubilee. There is also a covered parkade, but I was not sure of the cost.
Age Demographics
My wife and I are 27 and 26 respectively. To say we were young for this show was an understatement. 9 out of 10 people were above 40, easily. I probably should have expected that, but was still surprised nonetheless.
They were definitely dressed up as well. A large number of men had suits and ties, while a lot of women had formal dresses on.
Carmen
The show was fantastic. I did not know what to expect at an opera. We had tickets for the lower part of the second balcony. The seats were excellent and we had a good view of the stage and could see the orchestra from that angle.
Carmen is broken into 4 acts. 45 minutes, 42 minutes, 30 minutes, and 16 minutes long respectively. The language is french, but their are english subtitles projected onto a screen at the top of the Jubilee. If you were sitting very close to the front, I don't know how you would read them without straining your neck. You might want to keep that in mind when attending. I didn't have to move my head really where we were sitting on the second balcony.
Don't worry about trying to read all the time. The words are very repetitive and there can be long stretches where you do not need to read anything. The actions of the opera singers and progression of the play, make things fairly obvious as well.
Carmen is about a soldier Jose and the young woman Carmen that he falls in love with. It starts with him being a soldier, but then is sent to prison for freeing Carmen. They reunite when he is released from prison and she convinces im to join a band of smugglers. Their relationship becomes to sour however and another man enters that picture. You will need to go watch to figure out the rest.
The singing is amazing and I did expect as much. They all had strong voices and seemed to nail every note. There is an impressive cast. I was expecting a dozen people, but there was more like 40 actors that would all be singing at once on stage.
There aren't a lot of props, but what they use is impressive. A large see through screen that had a landscape on the front was used frequently. When they shone a light in the back of it, it would light up a single actor who looked completely by themselves in the blackness behind. Then the other lights would turn on and you would realize that there were 20 more actors in behind with an entire set.
Go See It
Go check it out. It was very enjoyable and a great first time experience if you have never been.
The only downside is the price. We paid $100/ticket for the second balcony. This was the same price as our subscription for 5 plays with Theatre Calgary, which are just as good.
All the shows were sold out in Calgary and I don't know when they will come through again. I purchased my tickets 8 months in advance and my tickets were the best you could buy at that time.
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