The big kid is going to her very first real live professional full-length opera this weekend. She has been anticipating this, quite vocally, for months now. She knows she is very, very close, and she is over the moon.
At this point, she knows The Magic Flute inside and out, which is good; if the opera has subtitles she won't be able to read them. But she knows what they're singing about, in every. single. scene.
I have become more familiar than I ever would have thought possible with this opera (if I ever thought I would become familiar with any opera, ever, which I didn't) over the course of weeks and weeks of feeding her obsession with (repeated) viewings of a recorded production and a film, audio recordings and books, and I can say without reservation that it is enormously silly. And the silliest of the silly persons in this silly opera is a bird catcher named Papageno, who wants nothing more than to find his "Papagena", a little wife to settle down and make babies with. He finds her. It is sweet and charming. This is my favorite performance of their duet at the end. They are singing about how much they want their love to be blessed with children...and arguing, in a sexy-flirty kind of way, about having boys or girls. Traditionally Papageno and Papagena are costumed in feathers. And for this weekend, on this most special of special occasions, my girl requested a Papagena dress.
I stopped short of hand sewing hundreds of feathers into a skirt, which she would have preferred. She did insist on a halter top, so we picked out McCalls 5838 and found this ridiculous bird fabric at JoAnn and trimmed it in a most flamboyant, silly way. I think for the show itself we may be able to arrange some kind of plumage in her hair.
I hope someone at the show gets her dress and what it's all about, although something tells me she will be helping them out by telling everyone who comes within three feet of her that she's wearing her "Papagena dress". And if she does, she will, perhaps, finally be in a place where she has a shot at getting a knowing smile.
Go have a wonderful time, little dove.