That girl is poison

Because we are sophisticated and cultured, Eric and I went to the opera last night. We saw "Tosca" which, I was interested to discover, was first performed by the SF Opera in 1923.

And because we are not yet wealthy, we sat in the second from the last row in the upper balcony.*

But we did get dressed up in our fancy duds and we went to the pre-opera lecture beforehand to learn something about the show we were about to see. One of the things we learned is that all of the characters' names have connotations in Italian that give us insight into their role. For example, you know that Scarpia is the bad guy because his name is derived from the word for shoe. (This also gives us insight into Italians.)

Tosca, the title character and the beautiful woman at the center of the opera, is derived from the word for "poison."

There were some really beautiful moments in the opera. I think one of my favorite parts was in the third act where you can hear the bells from all around the city chiming at dawn. It was quite stirring and lovely.

And then they all die.


*We've been watching a series on Everest the past few weeks and determined that our seats were technically in the "death zone," which is above 23,000 feet.