Carmen and Thyssen

Not great seats, but there are big screen TVs!

Teatro Real, Lobby

Saturday, October 14, Madrid--Thursday night at the Opera was magnificent.  The production of Carmen was superb.  Although the seats were dreadful--the last available--we did manage a good view of the stage and hear the lovely voices.  Andrea Care was the tenor playing Don José, Stephanie D'Oustrac sang the role of Carmen, and Olga Busuioc as Micaela.  All were magnificent, but Ben felt that Care out-performed the two women.   The cast, including lots of bare-chested soldats were superb.  It was set in more modern times with the gypsy encampment being a collection of rusting old Mercedes! In French with English and Spanish surtitles.

Paella con Mariscos

John--Opera Metro Station post performance

We had headed down to the Teatro Real early for a meal. We found an enjoyable restaurant, La Traviata, (strange name on a operatic square?) where we enjoyed a bottle of Madrileño red, a mixture of syrah, cabernet sauvignon and temperanillo, which went well with the seafood paella we ordered.  

Feininger

Happy Violinist

Friday we headed off to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection to view a span of Western painting.  Many of the pictures were very well known, but we were taken with others we had never seen, including on from 1912 by Lyonel Feininger, and a rather fun one by a not-so-well-known Dutch painter, van Honthorst.

Yesterday evening we went out to a local restaurant, La Parra, around the corner from where we are staying with our friend Barry, an art curator and dealer, from Sydney who is also visiting our friend Tim.  Dinner was modernized Spanish food, including a squid lasagna made with layers of wontons, croquettes of ham in a cream sauce, grilled turbot.  We enjoyed a white, a Portuguese Alentejo.  Since the Madrileños keep very late hours--dinner started at 9:30 but the restaurant wasn't humming till 10:00 PM--we didn't make it to bed till after midnight.