December 19, 2010: La Boheme at the Opera House

December 19, 2010: Over night it snowed so we took it easy in the morning just puttering around in the apartment. Since Ruth had brought me some maple syrup, I made some French toast (note: French toast in Hungary is what we would call a grilled cheese sandwich -- American French toast is bread dipped in a mixture of egg and milk and fried in butter and then sprinkled with cinnammon) for breakfast and it was enjoyable just eating that, drinking a cup of Starbuck's coffee that Ruth had also sent to me via Joe and Sonia, and just taking it easy. Meanwhile Ruth did some cleaning so my kitchen looks like it's from Home and Gardens magazine (sort of).

Later in the afternoon we got ready for the opera a bit early and headed on down town to browse in the shops on Vaci utca and visit the Winter Festival. We also walked along the Danube until the frigid winds forced us to find less breezy places to walk. We ended up taking the subway to Oktagon where we walked to Liszt Ferenc ter for dinner.

Dinner at Liszt Ferenc ter

 After a leisurely dinner, we walked a short ways to Alexandra Bookstore for a cup of coffee. Ruth really enjoyed the beautiful interior of the coffee shop there (see October 16th blog entry for pictures of this) as we had a cup of coffee and enjoyed the piano player playing nice background music.


Then it was off to the opera (See August 18th blog entry for more on the opera house). I was quite pleased to see that Puccini's La Boheme was being performed. Ruth and I had seen that opera in Los Angeles a couple of years ago and I can still remember the wonderful production of that performance. And, the Hungarian production was comparable. The sets, costumes, and choral work were outstanding, and the main performers had excellent voices, some that became much better as the opera went on. I was particularly impressed with Musetta. The orchestra did an outstanding job and it was nice to see them all play rather than the situation of the orchestra at the Madach Theater where they are hidden under the floor with a small hole allowing the sound to be heard. Below are more pictures of the opera house and the performers' final bows plus some shots of the opera house outside and the busy but decorated Andrassy ut outside.

Opera House in Budapest

Opera House in Budapest

Opera House in Budapest

Cast of La Boheme

Opera House in Budapest

Andrassy ut at night

We returned home pleased with the very nice evening we had eating out and going to the opera.