Ballet in Paris

From time to time (wow, it is getting really hard to not think in French...good sign!), IES organizes a raffle that, if won, procures tickets to various spectacles (past examples: Chopin by candlelight, Paris Agricultural Expo, tour of Opera Garnier). The raffle question always has something to do with the event itself, so you get to learn a little bit of trivia along the way. I have little doubt that under one quarter of IES students ever submit answers to the raffle, and therefore I have won every single time. (Their loss. Seriously. They have no idea.)

This time around, the winners received the most special ticket yet: a pass to see the ballet "Coppelia" at Paris' main opera house, Opera Garnier. So yesterday evening, two friends and I got dolled up, had some wine, and headed to the Opera.

I hadn't been inside the Opera Garnier since the last time I was in Paris (5-6 years earlier) and was totally unprepared for its astonishing beauty. The regal architecture, the expanses of gold leafy sculpture, the busts of the masters of classical music, the Chagall-decorated ceiling in the midst of which was suspended the most giant chandelier I'd ever seen... To my shock and awe, however, so many of the attendees were way underdressed. I go to a fair share of operas, concerts, and ballets back home (holla musician phatha) and see plenty of floor-length gowns and fur coats. Naturally, I expected nothing less in Paris. Instead, I saw plenty of blue jeans and sports jackets. Not only that...I actually saw a person rolling a cigarette during the production, and most everyone around me was eating. Yes, eating. Some were eating ice cream, others--sandwiches in crinkly plastic wrap. I couldn't believe it. Luckily, I didn't let it take my attention away from the production.

The evening started with a promenade of the entire ballet company. By the end, it looked something like this:

Then came the ballet itself. I must admit I was not a huge fan of the story itself but the presentation and experience were lovely. I tried to keep myself from whipping my hair back and forth to the the most famous number and marveled at the dancers' bodies. (Seriously... those legs are really something.) At the end of the ballet, the applause lasted for at least 25 minutes. All of the dancers came on stage, then the conductor, then the director of the ballet company, then about a dozen others... I kept waiting for them to start calling out audience members to join them.

I left completely content and delighted by the classy evening. I'd love to go back and see whatever's next on the repertoire, but unfortunately I will probably be back in the States by then, and either way, tickets are, as we say, tres Cher.