luisa miller

The reason I went to Leipzig for a day was to see a friend in an opera. The girlfriend of a former colleague of mine (he's now a freelancer in Berlin) is an opera singer, and she was appearing in Luisa Miller. It's a Verdi opera I didn't know at all. She had a small part but did a really lovely job, and it was *so* *cool* to see someone I know on stage! In an opera!! It was in Italian with German surtitles, so I could mostly follow it. And unlike the other opera I saw in Germany, it was not horrible. It was really a very nice production, with a cool revolving set.

Her last appearance on stage was about five minutes into the third act, and S.Ev and I had to leave after that to catch the last direct train back to Berlin. But there was no big break at her exit, so we waited. And waited. And waited. The next 15 minutes was a tender scene between Luisa Miller and her father, and we couldn't be like, ok, guys, thanks for the effort, we're leaving now! (Finally there was an opening and we ran down to the stage door to see her up close in stage makeup, wig, and costume with giant bustle. Heh.)