Night at the Opera

This small town boy from Arkansas went to an opera, not the Grand old Opera in Nashville.  I attended the opera Parsifal (no; I did not misspell it that is the way Wagner spelled it).  Wagner wrote the opera, especially for the opera house Bayreuth Festspielhaus.  It was a wonderful experience for this small town boy.  You may not know this, but they do not have a popcorn stand at the opera.  You cannot get an orange soda or a grapette (that may be misspelled because the spell checker is too new).  All the food, wine, and beer are free, no water , tea or coffee. That is unless you count admission price.  Fortunately, for me, the friend who took me had a seasonal box for six.  The friend that took me was the wife of an officer I met in Germany.  He was unable to take her due to business in Washington at the time.  This Opera is a special event in Germany and he suggested that his wife take me.  I had no objection. 

For a man getting dressed for the opera is a major project.  The night performance at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus is white tie.  I thought, “just go down to the PX and buy a white tie”.  No, no, no, there is far more to it than that.  I found out that a white tie event is a super formal event.  I had never worn an evening tailcoat.  If you have not you need to once in your life.  You will need someone to help you dress.  This is the regalia:
A Black evening tailcoat with silk facings, trousers with no belt, held up with white braces or suspenders.  You cannot tell much about a man unless you can see his belt buckle.  You do not know if he is a conservative, or liberal, you have no idea what kind of car he drives.  You have no idea what he may be packing.  In addition, it is very important that you plan your toilet breaks because it will take you 15 minutes to get everything in order.  Since I was an American, my trousers had a braid strip down the leg. The strip down the leg is different for Europeans. The shirt is extremely tricky. It comes in four pieces.  The front, the collar and the cuffs, all extremely stiff and requires more than two hands. Of course, you will need the required white bow tie.  There is even a requirement for shoes and socks.

When you are finally dressed, you find that movement is severely restricted. There is a good reason for this restriction.  You do not have to take my word for this but in times past formal setting had not always been peaceful.  This dress code is to reduce that chance of violence between men.  After taking an hour or so to dress me, my date went to her room to dress.  She took about ten minutes to dress.  Women formal dress contains a lot of fabric but covers very little flesh.  This, I assume, is why there was so much violence in the old days.  If I saw some other man, looking at my date without diverting his eyes that man could consider himself challenged and the gauntlet would fall.

I was a little nervous as we walk into the lobby, I feel like a penguin and my date looks, how should I say it, how about decorous. That is one understatement if ever I heard one.  Here is where the whole Opera thing gets a little depressing.  The people have segregated themselves into two groups. On one, side is a group that is young and healthy looking.  This is the sad part. On the other side lined up in formation is a group of older people with bluish complexions.  There is at first very little mixing or discussion among the two group.  Asking my date about this arrangement, she explains it to me.  The older congregation consists of the blood relatives of the old aristocracy.  That does not sound sad, but what I am going to tell you is sad.  These people cannot afford a box seat.  They actually can hardly afford the price of any seat.  They are standing in line waiting and hoping someone will invite them to sit with them in their box seat, so they will not have to sit with the commoners.  My date knows almost everyone and is a very personable person.  She walks up to a stately gentleman and his wife; both appear to be in their mid-80s.  My date curtsies in front of them without bowing.  If she had bowed, I fear the old gentleman might have had a heart attack right there in the lobby.  I am already concern because of the bluish complexion.  I fear they are not getting enough oxygen.

At his point, someone is thinking, “How did this Rogers Arkansas boy ever get hooked up with these people?” That is a long story, and I am only in the lobby now.

The story is about the Holy Grail and the Spear of Destiny.  The Spear of Destiny is the spear used to pierce the side of Christ.  The Holy Grail is the cup used to collect the blood of Christ. Both relics were in the procession of the Grail king (Arthur).  However, the Grail King was seduced by a sorceress, Kundry, or in English Morgan de Fay.  Morgan took the spear and gave it to her son.  Who just happens to be the son of Arthur, and to make matters worse Morgan is the half-sister of Arthur.  The son in the German version is Klingson and in English Mordran.  Because Percival is so naïve, he ends up becoming the hero.  Mordran sends six beautiful flower maidens to seduce Percival. Percival has never seen a girl except his mother all his life. He has no idea what the women want to do.  You need to understand that these young ladies are not only beauties they are almost naked.  Poor Percival rejects their advances and in so doing makes the young ladies extremely mad.  Finally, Morgan has a try at him. Morgan has transformed herself into the most alluring of women and she is not overdressed.  There are a lot of free-flowing bosoms in this opera.  Even Morgan fails to seduce him.  Eventually, he acquires the Spear of Destiny, and returns to cure Arthur.  That is the whole Opera concisely.  There is actually more to it than this.  This story helped the native Germans understand the Christian Religion.  The characters are from local mythology, and transformed into a conflict of the old religions and the new Christianity.  Later, the Catholic Church condemned the Grail stories because they seem to offer salivation without the Churches intervention.  Hitler liked the opera, but he required the women to cover their bosoms.  Not done in the version I saw.  You would think this would interest the old man.  He just ate and drank wine the whole time.  Once we were in our seats, the two aristocrats eat like crazy.  Fact is they did not eat in the hall because they did not want people to know they had not eaten.  Nevertheless, once in the box where no one could see them, they make up for several days.  Do not feel too sorry for him.  During the war, he was a SS officer.  During the invasion of Russia, he captured and not released until1965.  His wife and he live in a modest apartment in Munich.  They work at a hotel as a house cleaner and Desk clerk.  Since he was a member of the SS he does not have a pension. 

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