St Petersburg

I don't think I can keep up with my small facetious posts in a place like St Petersburg. Being here has already been an amazing experience, and this is just the end of my second day (and only my first full day). Russia, first of all, is a strange place. I'm staying with a family, and many of the Russians I've met and seen have been completely over-the-top. My first night I went to the Mariinsky's new theater to see a new production of Rossini's opera "Barber of Seville." The daughter in the family (I'll call her 'S') had been showing me around, but she worked at the Mariinsky, and was working that night, so I sat with her mother. Her mother was entertaining several friends, and their interactions were absolutely nuts. They were all decked out in furs, jewelry, designer bags, designer glasses, and in at least one case, braces... and they were all middle-aged. The production was not very good, and they all left after the first act, but I stuck around (the singers did a very good job), and had an after-show snack with S and one of her friends from school (he was studying CS, so we had quite a bit to talk about).

Today, all of my experiences pale in comparison to going to the old Mariinsky theater to see Tchaikovsky's "Queen of Spades." So perhaps some of you reading that have reached this point are writing me off as a complete classical music dork. Perhaps you are right, but that does not mean that had you been in my place you would have been any less impressed. The theater is beautiful. The orchestra was huge. The sets were traditional. The singers were amazing. I wish I could even begin to describe it, but I think it may have been too recent for me to do that (I got back about 30 minutes ago).