Last year we decided to attend an Swedish Opera performance, since I never had been in the Swedish Royal Opera house. I have never been so keen on Opera if i should be honest, so I was a little bit worried that I would be bored or even worse: begin to giggle if they acted too seriously. We did choose one of the most popular, Carmen, to minimaze the risks.
We became interested because of the fact that our favourite Swedish King, Gustav III, was victim of a conspiracy and was assassinated during a masquerade ball held at the opera house in 1792. He was a very cultural King, very fond of Theatre and Art.
Both of us realized at once we got the idea, that we got the perfect outfit for the Opera house – our wedding clothes from the 18th century! Yes, it was a crazy idea, but hey we are crazy aren’t we? So, we put on our wedding clothes, now included wigs with proper 18th century hairfashion. Mr Lifecruiser with a very chic ponytail back and curls above the ears, me with e very high coiffure and some curls hanging down from there. The whole outfit in 18th century manner including the coats. I had to hire my coat though.
It was a little bit difficult to get in and out of the car and even to sit in the car, because my wig is very high and I have to bend down my neck or at the side a bit to fit into the car. A real procedure to come in and out without get stucked with the wig… We noticed that there was a lot of people staring at us during the drive into the city, I guess it’s not so often they see someone dressed like this today!
Then we had to park the car on a street nearby the opera house and walk the last bit. We discovered that we had no change for the parking ticket machine… So, we needed somewhere to change. The only place nearby that was open, was McDonalds. They have very big glass windows and we could see a lot of people in there – staring out on us in disbelief! I understand them, who expect to see 18th century people in the street of Stockholm today and at McDonalds of all places…. I refused to go in there actually, I didn’t want the smell of hamburgers stuck to the clothes, so we skipped it.
We got a lot of attention inside the opera house too. Every one stared at us, to be exact. Some even laughed a little, but over all it was very positive reactions. There were a lot of questions of course and one of them were repeated all the time: Were we doing some advertising for upcoming events? They couldn’t beleive that someone actually could go dressed like this in private, without any other purpose. Well, we could!
I had been a little bit worried that my high hair would be in the way for the ones that happened to sit behind me, but we got lucky, we were placed just in front of the balconys, so they was higher up and didn’t have any problems to see over my head. I didn’t giggle either, but I did have a difficult time trying not to cough! Some times I thought I should be suffocated, phew…
In the pause the staring part was continued, but also a lot of positive remarks. One even said enthusiastic that we made their visit here complete, our clothes fitted so well to this wonderful old building. And it was true, it is from the same time period as our clothes style and it’s a incredible beautiful building. It’s worth going to a performance, just to see the building.
Sorry to say, we didn’t get any good photos from there. It was very diffult with our little digital camera to get the right lights. It’s a lot of gold ornaments in there and everything is shining. We didn’t want to carry anything that was not typical to the 18th century, so the small digital camera was perfekt to hide in my little evening bag.
Will we go to the opera house again? Well, it depends on the performance, maybe if it’s something that involves Gustaf III or the 18th century.
What about the Carmen performance, did we like it? Nah, we think it was too modern…
i sure would have liked to been there. i always like to go the movies and i love watching the actors when they are clothed in an earlier time. i wonder if they keep those clothes in a big warehouse after the movie is over so others can use it.
that sure looks like a fancy place. well i am glad you had a good time. take it easy and i will talk with you soon.
That sounds so cool. Who cares if people stare at least you were comfortable in how you dressed. To bad you didn’t get any pictures though.
I am not a big opera fan I must say but I do know Carmen. I had a friend who was a fanatic and had recordings of the same opera sung by different people.
Mr Haney:
I think they do put the clothes in big warehouses, at least some of them. I know that they do that here in Sweden. We’ve been there looking for some cool outfits but we ended up buying them from a store that have masquarade clothes instead. They were also specialized in clothes for Theatre plays.
Walker:
I love the clothes they wear at many Opera performances, but not the Opera songs. I guess it takes some time to get used to it.
Everybody knows Carmen
Okay now I’m really jealous.
I do love opera (as anyone with an ounce of Italian blood in them would). And to get to play dress up too? I’d never get my husband to do it (took me 15 years to get him into a suit).
Actually, Carmen is a rather heavy opera, though popular, so I’m impressed. My mother and aunt and unclt would drag my poor opera-hating father every now and then. But it seemed every time they went, it was Carmen. You’d think they’d have pity on the guy and take him to something light.
Ahhh, you should have been with us there sisiggy! You could have been our photographer assistant *lol*
Yes, it really was a glorius time, to dress up, so fun. That’s one of the reason why I love Mr Lifecruiser so much – he is as crazy as I am!!!
Come to think about it, remember another time when we dressed up like this in August at the Medevial week. We met one or two whole bus loads with Italians and they were so fond of our clothes that EVERYONE wanted to be on a photo with us! We thought we never could get away from then, they were so delighted…. So, probably we are spread somewhere in Italy
The things you get up to are always so quirky and interesting! I wonder what you daughter has to say?!
But still, if I were there, I would have petitioned for you to act in the opera, and not just watch it. ;D
Ah, Sharlet, it’s only Mr Lifecruiser that has a daughter and she is not much for computers so she seldom read this blog and she only seems to like that we have fun.
On the other hand, we have Miss Ass. Lifecruiser here on our blog, that is my (our) best friend and she usually have a lot to say about our escapedes, but she think it’s fun too, she just like to be witty with words. And we LOVE that
We love all bloggers too that comes here to read and comment.
We love the whole world, we got the happy plague
I can see that!