some things in life are free. especially if you have no money and your parents feel bad for you.

i think i mention my relative broke-ness in nearly every single post. i apologize. it's purely unintentional. i guess it's just that my lack of money affects a wide range of my activities, or lack-there-of, as the case may be. see, in jersey, it's hard to find things to do that won't eat up my $160 weekly paycheck. that is why i have taken up the habit of never looking a gift horse in the mouth. now, i don't know if i know the exact meaning of that saying but i always interpretted it as, "when receiving a gift, be grateful that it's free." am i wrong? could be. but i think my interpretation is a good rule of thumb anyway. my point is that when someone invites me somewhere and i don't have to give them any money for it, 9 times out of 10, i'm there. free stuff? sign me up!

which brings me to the topic of my blog: i went to the opera the weekend before last for my sister's birthday. it's the second opera i've been to. the first one was for my mother's birthday. both of them were 100% free for me so if i went and didn't like it, i lost nothing. it just made good sense to go. the only reason not to go was because i might not like it. but then again, maybe i would. afterall, you never know until you try.

so the first opera we saw was the barber of seville. (quotes or italics for plays? i always forget. wait, is an opera a play?) it was funny, upbeat and generally enjoyable. they have little screens in front of your seat with subtitles so you can actually understand what the hell is going on and i think i even recognized more than one of the songs from bugs bunny cartoons.

i thought to myself, "hey, i might like the opera." it's not that i thought that i was incapable of enjoying the opera but when i was younger my father listened to opera all the time. over and over and over. and it was always the same cds. some were compilations, some were whole operas, but all were deadly as far as i was concerned. so clearly i grew up with a slightly bad taste in my mouth rather than an appreciation for it. but this whole "figaro" experience made me think that maybe opera is fun! it's an entirely different experience when you're actually there, in the theatre, watching it. it far surpasses the cd experience by leaps and bounds. you can hear the orchestra tuning up, everyone is all dressed up (i wore jeans which are acceptable but i didn't see a single solitary person joining me in my fashion choice) and the singing was absolutely amazing. i mean, these guys are friggin' talented.

having acquired all of these wonderful new insights on opera, i wasn't hesitant to go see another one. my sister decided she wanted to see one with a little more tragedy in it. madame butterfly to be exact. holy depressing situation, batman! what a bummer! i mean, i don't want to ruin the ending or anything but do not, i repeat, do not, get yourself prepared for a hollywood ending on this one. i've heard of madame butterfly before and knew of one particularly tragic scene but i didn't quite realize that after the 1st act, it is just all down hill. and pretty far down the hill, too. now, this is not to say that it wasn't good. it was really good. actually, the happiest scenes were the most boring ones (not gonna lie: i almost fell asleep twice. hey, gimme a break, it's dark in there). the 2nd and 3rd acts got increasingly more bleak but, musically, much more interesting. what it lacked in happiness, it made up for in beautiful music and singing.

what interested me was that even though it wasn't the feel-good opera of the year, i really did like it. i have been trying to think of a movie (hollywood, of course) that ends in such a blunt, tragic way and i've come up with nothing. i'm not exactly a movie "buff" but i've seen my share and they usually end with all the loose ends nicely tied together (or at least some of them) so that the general public doesn't leave the theater feeling a touch blue or melancholy. there's enough crappy stuff around in real life that is completely free; why would you pay $9 to experience it, right? so what's up with the tragic operas? that place was full of people willing to subject themselves to sadness and horror. and it sure cost them a lot more than $9. perhaps the fact that the bad news is delivered in a song makes it more bearable? maybe a nice, pretty song sung by a nice, pretty voice cushions the blow a little bit? if that's the case, i'm going to demand that someone sings me any bad news i might need to hear in my life. i want a huge man in a tuxedo to come into the room and sing in a beautiful operatic voice "your car needs braaaaaaaaaaaaaakes!!! it will cost a looooooooooooot of moneeeeeeeeey!!!" i think that might actually be kinda fun. for a while, at least.

well anyway, i can now check "opera" off my list. when someone mentions it, i can be all, "been there, done that." score. and it was free. double score. now, if only some generous soul would offer me the "free experience" of owning my own home. he could come into the room all dressed in a tux and be like, "you have no mortgaaaaaaaaaaaaage!!!" now that would be really cool.