I was there too, and it didn't start late because of rain, it started late becuase they insisted on doing the 15-20 minutes of speeches starting at 8:30, instead of perhaps being a little more logical and kicking off with the speeches at 8 ish. Then we could have played at 8:30pm. Many in the audience are not remotely opera fans, and any padding should be seen as a bad thing...

The (very light) rain would have then only happened during the performance, possibly not holding us up at all. As it was, the rain was only accountable for less than 5 minutes tech time- the tech people there were excellent (and as usual completely ignored for their incredibly quick and effective work)

The problem with this opera in particular was the first half was very long and not uniformly all that great (the opera not the performances), especially when it ended up being close to double the length of the second half.

I'm in the opera, and love going to these events, but this night was much later than was totally necessary, and I for one think that was a shame.

Obviously at least one person there was annoyed...
and they did say- "When and where can we enjoy the Opera again?". Obviously they too enjoyed the performance enough to want to come back. Perhaps they are one of the many who don't have the big money needed to see opera other than these free gigs?

and I agree- it was a fun show, though to be completely honest, the quality of the cast was not uniform. I think the fact that all are at different points in their development (and age) contributed to this. Bravo to the Company for actually highlighting the very talented and capable chorus- here's to more of that!

Neville

It's the simple things stupid...