Thursday, March 29, 2018

Mimi! Mimi!

View of Sydney Harbor from Royal Botanical Gardens

I’ll just mention very briefly that we went to the Museum of Sydney today hoping to see and learn a lot about the settlement.  What we got was one room of photographs depicting persons from the mafia and high crime era, a small room with video showing Aboriginies explaining some cultural and an area showing Australians of European ancestry who were accomplished.  The most interesting (but unexplained) thing is that the museum was built over and around the remains of Australia’s first Government House built by Admiral Arthur Phillip.  He was the Royal Navy officer who founded the penal colony.

Handa Opera

What made today wonderful was la Boheme performed at the Handa Opera.  We packed a picnic and ate on a bench in the RBG facing the harbor.  It was a beautiful setting and primed us for the most uplifting of evenings.  The Handa Opera is an open-air and all-weather event. (Thankfully it was perfect weather!)  Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia and the performers for tonight.  Their voices were magnificent.  The setting was Paris 1968 during the student protests.  Mimi (My name is Lucia, but they call me Mimi.  I don’t know why.) is probably dying of lung cancer because she chain smokes rather than consumption.  When Musetta appeared the man next to Wayne exclaimed and bumped him pointing to the stage.  Turns out it was his daughter.  We became acquainted with the people behind us because all of us could not restrain the oooos and ahs.  Fireworks, snow falling, beautiful acting and singing put it all together for an absolutely perfect evening. Pictures at flickr.