Afternoon at the Opera (18 May 2008)

Amsterdam

We took a train to Amsterdam last Sunday to watch an opera at the Amsterdam Muziektheater. It was Tristan & Isolde by Richard Wagner, a very famous piece of work which premiered more than 140 years ago.

A friend who is very interested in music and performing arts recommended this opera since it is not often performed outside Germany. Sure enough, many performances were sold out especially the weekend ones. We managed to get some tickets on-line from the secondary market.

It was a very lengthy performance - almost 5.5 hours, including 2 breaks in between the 3 acts. Apparently it is also among the most challenging for performers and conductors. The first Tristan - Ludwig Carolsfeld died within 3 weeks of his performance and apparently the stress also claimed the lives of 2 conductors in 1911 and 1968 who collapsed during the second act of the opera. Thankfully, there were no such incidences last Sunday.

The opera was sung in German with Dutch subtitles on screen visible to audience on the upper floors. The performers were excellent, am particularly impressed with the beautiful and powerful vocals of the soprano Linda Watson (Isolde) and the rich bass tones of Stephen Milling (King Marke).

****the Amsterdam Muziektheater

****the stairs leading to the various levels of the operahouse

****views from the second floor where we were seated

****the orchestra warming-up

Would have loved to take some photos of the performances but that was strictly disallowed. Anyway, here are some photos taken during the breaks. There were a lot of elderly people in the audience and most of them were very well dressed for the occassion.

*****drinks and snacks sold during the break

****i had some chocolate cookies to go with the coffee

The opera ended around 6.45 pm. We decided to walk to a nearby Sichuan restaurant for dinner. It was in the Michellin and Gault Millau guides so we were expecting a nice meal.

We ordered some soup (i had wonton soup), some large deep fried prawns, spicy beef and tofu. The prawns were tasty and crunchy, however there were only 5 pieces to be shared among 3 of us, so there was not much to go around.

*****deep fried prawns

The beef came with a warning of being extremely spicy; however for those who are used to spicy oriental cuisine like us, it tasted very mild like tomato paste with pepper. However it was quite delicious and tender although again the portion was very small.

**** 'extremely spicy' sizzling beef

The tofu and vegetable dish was very ordinary and again the portion looks like it was meant as an appetiser rather than main meal.


****tofu and vegetable dish

As i was not feeling very hungry, the dinner and portions were fine with me. However my two companions were still left feeling a bit hungry after the meal.

Value for money wise, we would have done much better in other restaurants in the chinatown area. However if one is looking for proper (not necessarily friendly) service in a chinese restaurant, this would have been ok.