Two cities, two operas,

two boats. Sometimes we go to operas. The local opera house plays maybe 7 or 8 different operas every season. We've seen pretty much all the classics they play this season. The last one we watched was Tannhäuser in mid-November. As much as I could tell they played pretty much by the book with the exception of having the leading lady sing two roles (those of Elisabeth and Venus). The events had been brought to more modern era so the activities took place aboard a cruise ship.

A month later we wanted to see Don Giovanni, an opera written by a composer Mike likes(Mozart, that is). To see the opera, we had to take a pre-Christmas trip to Riga, Latvia. And seeing it, we were presented yet another version of a classic opera updated and set to take place... - aboard a cruise ship!

Riga's opera house is perhaps not so imposing on the outside but quite so on the inside. Its main hall has two floors of balconies on three sides, the seats are single chairs covered with red velvet, and golden accents are used lavishly in decorating the ceiling and the walls. It could have been just this piece we saw but it made me just a tiny bit envious seeing how the parts of young lovers were sung by young singers. Also, I might be mistaken but perhaps there are more younger people going to the shows in Riga than in Tallinn. Here I often feel like Mike and I could be among the youngest in the audience; not so in Latvia. Part of the reason for that could be that even though both theaters seem to get viewers from their respective neighboring country up north, Finnish visitors of retirement age traveling to Estonia seem to have it made easier for them than their Estonian peers going to Latvia.

I would also have liked to add to the post's title the phrase “two Christmas markets” but I couldn't do it. Turned out whereas Tallinn has only one such a place then Riga had several, perhaps 4 or 5 that we saw. To Mike's eyes the goods were pretty much the same but I would argue there was some diversity: if not in the methods of crafting then in the outcomes accomplished. Between the goods sold in Tallinn and Riga markets there were differences in mitten patterns and cutting board shapes for sure.