Two Opera Houses

We’re recently back from Australia, where a trip would not be complete without seeing the Sydney Opera House.  From the outside, that is.  This structure is perhaps the most photographed in the world, and justifiably so. It is beautiful.  On the outside.

We did our share of picturing––from viewpoints, from the bridge, from the ferry.  The building continues to amaze.  On the outside.  Recent reports suggest that, although acoustic improvements have been made since this article in Time magazine, the building continues to disappoint  performers and opera attendees, on the inside.  We didn’t hear a performance, nor even go in for a tour on our recent visit to Sydney.  

We did, however, take a tour of the Opera House in Buenos Aires in March.

Although the building is nice enough looking in a traditional way, it is the inside that distinguishes the Teatro Colón.

Furnishings are elegant, the acoustics famous.  I’m sure that our tour guide said Pavarotti didn’t like to perform there because he had to sing in other opera houses too, and this one was so much better the others could not compare.  Or something like that.  But when I look it up, internet sources say:  “Legendary tenor Luciano Pavarotti reportedly once said the Teatro Colón’s only flaw is that its acoustics are so perfect, the audience can hear any mistakes.”*  And that is what my husband remembers too, so it must be right.

Even the ceilings are beautiful in the Buenos Aires Opera House.

We’ve never been to a live opera performance, not even in San Francisco which is close by.  But I’m thinking, what a great traveling adventure that would make:  to hear a performance in each of the greatest opera houses of the world.  Here’s a list to get you started. Maybe that will make my bucket list in my next life.

In the meantime, if you are in the southern hemisphere, choose to photograph the structure in Sydney but appreciate a performance in Buenos Aires.

• quoted from Mother Nature Network.