Tonight I attended the Madison Opera's Opera in the Park with my friend M. She and I got there a wee bit late, so we missed the Carmen songs, but we saw a nice long performance anyway.

The first half of the concert ended with Lehar's Merry Widow Waltz. Somehow, many of the people in the audience had either glow sticks or necklaces. Since we came late, I don't know if these had been purchased of just handed out, but the program notes suggested that the audience move their glow sticks in time to the music for this song. (I'm not sure where the programs came from, either, but the people we sat next to gave us their extra.) It was both silly and fun to look out over the audience and see hundreds of green and pink lights bobbing and swaying in the late dusk to 3/4 time.

We couldn't really see the stage from were we sat, though that didn't matter because we could hear quite well. The only time it bothered me was at the beginning of the seond half, as the orchestra played the bacchanal of Saint-Saen' Samson et Dalila. According the the program, there were two percussionists and a timpani player in the orchestra. However, the piece made use of timpani, crash cymbals, triangle, and castanets...sometimes all at once. Based on the overlapping sounds, I was dying to know how they were managing to cover all of the parts. In the end, I decided not to barge across the crowd in the darkness just to see. It sounded pretty amazing, though.

Afterwards, we headed over to Michael's for frozen custard. Nights like this are why I really love Madison.