It's no Broadway...

I thought I would love my first opera. I like musicals, I've seen the musical version of Aida. But Verdi is no Elton John. Opera calls for a suspension of disbelief like nothing else. The sets (enormous and glittery) the casts (also enormous and glittery) and the scores (mainly just enormous) are often referred to as "passionate" and this is true, if passion is measured by scale.

One thing worth mentioning: you can't airbrush or synthesize a stage performer, so there's no operatic version of Britney Spears. I like this. I like that the woman who played the lithe teenage Egyptian princess was white, middle-aged and fat. And she had a wonderful voice.