Friday Night at the Opera

It may have taken all of an afternoon, but I eventually started to grasp the intricate details of Puccini and his unique approach to the art of opera. If I was going to get my money's worth for my language course, I was going for the immersive approach and if it meant enduring an extended lecture before an evening at the opera itself, I was going to do it.

The venue for this opera-fun was Macerata, a town not far from Ancona on the coast. We were told by the course tutors that we must wear dresses or skirts. Hold the phone. We must do it.

This was fine for me - I'd brought some dresses. Admittedly I didn't have many, but I had enough to be going on with and one of them I hoped would be opera-fit. Bree, however, had a little problem. She only had jeans. I don't know how she didn't just melt, but she'd only brought jeans with her and this was not a dress or a skirt. No, this was a problem. Cue feverish borrowing and trying on and mismatched outfits and more borrowing and trying on.

So having undergone much trauma already, we were setting off for what we hoped would be a pleasant evening. Macerata was a nice town, we had some time before the opera was due to start and we hit a cafe. We had an addition to our desperate gang in the form of Catherine, who was living with me and Gaby. She was a bit of a loner and though she was friendly enough, she seemed to be quite happy on her own. Despite this, we invited her to join our little party at the cafe.

When the time came, we took our seats in the threatre. It was a fantastic place; for a start it was open-air. The evening was nice and warm and though it got a little chilly as the night wore on, I wouldn't actually say it was cold.

I wasn't sitting with the desperate gang. I wasn't even sitting with anyone else on the language course. Ok so I was near everyone, I just happened to draw the particular straw which meant I wasn't near Bree and her programme, or Lynette and her banter.

We were watching Madama Butterfly and I confess that the best bit was the interval with the ballet dancers, but like I've said to anyone who's asked since, I'm glad I went, I just wouldn't go again. We got back late that night and hit the sheets so that we could get up early for another trip the following day - Assisi and Perugia.