Turandot at the State Theater in New Brunswick, NJ

I didn't go alone after all. I remembered that my friend and neighbor Lin was an avid opera fan so I invited her along and she was thrilled! Turns out that Turandot is one of her favorites. So off we went to New Brunswick. At the box office I told the woman I had tickets reserved through Westminster. She asked one question only: How many? No ID needed. We were seated up up up in the balcony, of course. There were several rows of seats behind us but we were in the last full row. The row in front of us was empty, convenient for draping coats.

So onto the opera itself. It was semi-staged. The 100 person chorus and the entire orchestra were on the stage. The singing and acting took place toward the front of the stage, in front of the orchestra. There were monitors onstage so the singers could see a video feed of the conductor, that was pretty cool.

The singing was awesome. Soprano Sharon Sweet played the title role. She sang effortlessly. Unfortunately, she is disabled and pretty much had to sit for the entire performance. They staged it around her but it took away from the story, in my opinion. The prince (Allan Glassman) sang his arias directly to the audience, nowhere near the princess he was singing to of his love for her. He sang beautifully, although he was sometimes a bit difficult to hear over the swell of the orchestra. I do believe that Princess Turandot's confinement to the chair compromised his ability to act. He sang well, but I didn't believe that he was really in love with her. It seemed awkward when he had to bend over sideways to kiss her.

In my opinion, soprano Barbara Shirvis stole the show with her convincing portrayal of Liu, the slave girl in love with the prince. I think the rest of the audience agreed, based on the applause and standing ovation she received.

After the show we were supposed to head home to meet Ray and Jim and Alex for dinner, but then two women offered us their "Gold Circle" tickets, which included a post-concert champagne reception on stage with the cast. How could we pass that up? So back in we went. I had an agenda: I had contacted the opera company a few weeks ago to inquire about becoming a supernumerary - that's a non-speaking, non-singing role as an extra - and had been in email contact with the super captain, Mike P. This was my chance to meet him in person. As soon as the reception began, I approached one of the supers I recognized from the performance and had him point Mike out to me. I immediately went over and introduced myself. He was really nice. Unfortunately, he said that most of the directors want male supers, but he's working on them, trying to convince them to use women- even if they end up dressing as men! Works for me, if they need a 5 foot tall guy! Anyway, next year they're doing Rigoletto so I'll probably get my chance then, if not before.