At the Opera in Lille

Two of my favorite people in the whole world!
My dear friend, Jan-Åke and his beautiful wife Bente.

One of the great things about living in Europe is that when you want to go to the opera in Lille, France, you can pretty much just do it.  It doesn't take months of planning, or a transatlantic flight.

Must be nice, huh?

My friends Jan-Åke and Bente are currently back in Bente's native Norway (Jan-Åke is Swedish) after years of living in places like Belgium and England.  That didn't stop them from jaunting down to northern France to catch a performance of Mozart's La Finta Giardiniera (The Pretend Garden Girl) at the beautiful Lille Opera house.

Bente has always had a love of music.  She's one of those incredible musical overachievers who graduated from Juilliard. I've been lucky enough to hear her perform on many occasions.  She is a keyboard virtuoso. What a talent!  

With friends at the opera

Isn't this opera house glorious?  I thought you'd enjoy seeing it.

Lille is an ancient University town, and quite beautiful.  The opera they went to see was the first opera Mozart ever wrote.  He dashed it off in 1775, at the tender age of 18, while living in Munich.

This opera was a special draw for my friends because someone they knew was performing in it!

Backstage at the Opera with performer Erin and prop Garden Hats!

They got to go backstage and meet with Erin after the performance.  They also got to take this lovely photo of Bente and Erin wearing the hats featured in the production.

I believe they are going to go hear Erin sing as the production travels to other European capitals.  Maybe we'll get to see a glimpse of other fabulous opera houses along the way!

Thanks, Bente, for sharing your visit to Lille!