Tonight, I went to the Royal Opera House in Muscat, to see a ballet. It is about a 30-minute drive from my villa and I thought I’d have to suck it up and pay for a cab (which involves you negotiating with the driver for several minutes and still getting ripped off). However, my PF generously offered not only to take me there after class, but also to pick me up. Also, we had some dinner afterwards (various barbecued meats on sticks, as is the custom here).
The Opera house was reported to be very beautiful and I was happy to see that this was true. Before the opera, I walked through the ritzy Opera galleria of shops (who is shopping for Armani before an opera? who are these people?!). I had really wanted to eat dinner at a place that served camel, but neither of the nearby camel-serving places was open soon enough for me to eat and also make it to the ballet on time. I ended up going to Fauchon, a name I vaguely recognized as being one of the places Hannibal Lecter liked to eat in the Silence of the Lambs books (no fava beans or human flesh). It was pretty fancy, but the servers were really attentive and plus, fancy desserts.
The opera house was just as beautiful as the guide books claimed. You had to go through a metal detector and put your bag through an x-ray machine before you could enter. All the ushers were dressed nicely in traditional Omani outfits and were super friendly. Here are some pictures, inside and outside, at various times of day.
So, everything looked great, but the fun thing was my seat. I mostly wanted the chance to visit the opera house and didn’t much care what the performance was, so I bought the cheapest ticket (5 rials = $13), which was in the very front row, next to the stage. Here is my seat:
By the way, the ballet was called “The Love of Chunhyang” or something like that. The dancing, costumes and sets were very nice, but I had a hard time following the plot (I didn’t buy a program). Here is my summary of the story, as I understood it:
“A long time ago, in Korea, PEOPLE HAD EXPRESSIVE ARM MOVEMENTS! Important men wore big hats! Disapproval! Small, red paddles for some reason! Korean pirates get all the ladies! Aaaaand a happy ending.”
Apparently, the ballet is based on a Korean folktale. Here is a link if you want the correct story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunhyangjeon
