Keep it Highbrow

I don't really like it when I don't know about stuff (apart from pop culture, I've long since given up being able to recognise anyone off the telly) so I try to do something about it. Sometimes this leads to a bit of internet swatting (like when I realised that if they had a Shipping Forecast round in a pub quiz I'd be, erm, all at sea, so learned to tell my Forties from my Fisher - incidentally, this extra knowledge hasn't helped at all in anything and possibly never will), more often it leads me to taking a more interactive approach.

So Opera, that's something I know nothing about. Off the top of my head I can only think of two (the Magic Flute and la Traviata, since you ask), even puzzling over it I reckon I'd be hard pushed to reach double figures. I've been to an opera before (Candide, not a real opera, I'd read the book before and it was in English) but that was part of such a weird series of events (Transylvanian crime and lightning strikes) that I'm not sure it counts [Don Giovanni?]. So I went to the opera.

I saw Salome at the Royal Opera House. Well high culture. Quite enjoyed it but even I found it a bit pretentious. [Madame butterfly?] The ROH is magnificent. We were right up in the cheap seats so the view was a little bit Vertigo. But really shiny. The whole thing is immersively multi-media reading surtitles, listening to music and watching what's happening on stage all at the same time. Quite an overload for my non-highbrow brain.

Salome obviously was a ridiculous story - [La Boheme? It's like I've got opera tourettes] - are all opera stories fairly ridiculous. Is that what high art is all about? Ridiculous stories? I've seen Swan Lake - that's about a guy who falls in love with a swan, I'm fairly sure that's never been an 'Enders plot line.

Marriage of Figarro? That's six, plus the two I've seen. Is Barber of Seville an opera? Not sure. I'm gonna count it anyway. Nine and I'm all out.

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Less high-brow-ly I've just finished the Chaos Walking trilogy, That's dystopian teen fiction for all you grown ups. very enjoyable. Just heard that Charlie Kauffman is doing the screenplay for the Knife of Never Letting Go - quite excited.