November 18, 2006 - Saturday
The Bug Opera. It was a real, original opera...about bugs. And I loved it. I loved it mostly because Harry and Jeremy seemed to be really taken with it - imagine that, an opera! - but I liked it for what it was, too.

The two leads were a women playing a mosquito and a man playing a caterpillar in full costume and the supporting case included a spider, a moth, a wasp, and a dung beetle for comic relief. It was perfect for the boys, a great little story and a healthy little bit of stretching their musical awareness. I suppose of the two, Jeremy was more captivated by the whole experience (including a live chamber orchestra seated very close to were we were), but I think Harry liked the costumes and the story just as much. The dung beetle jokes were an easy and obvious hit.

The Bug Opera was a coming of age story about a mosquito who's afraid to drink blood (she saw a friend get swatted in the process of drinking blood) and a caterpillar who loves life, and eating, too much to change into a moth, although for him it's really the fear of the unknown. More importantly, it was a very accessible way to introduce kids to a genre that's usually so, so distant.

We actually went to dinner with Harry's friend Ethan and family (older brother and parents) before the show, but we weren't able to sit with them because the opera was actually SOLD OUT and they bought tickets later than we did and had to sit in the balcony. Admittedly, it had been heavily promoted around the music school and it's no surprise, in hindsight, that families paying a fair about for private instrumental lessons would find the concept appealing. Still, selling out two shows of an opera for kids is really excellent work. It's an example of why I think Indian Hill is such a great place.


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