Last Friday my friend Shelby, who works for the Metropolitan Opera doing events, invited me (on my insistence) to take a tour of the opera house. It was so ridiculously awesome that I recommend every New Yorker have a friend like Shelby and make her take you on a tour during the middle of a work day. Here is a list, in no particular order, of the things I enjoyed while there.
- Entering through the employees’ entrance
- Seeing the auditorium empty except for the stagehands setting up for that night’s performance of Carmen
- Going on stage (I didn’t sing)
- Seeing the costume shop, set shop, and properties area
- Discovering that every dressing room for a principal actor has its own piano for warm ups
- The faces of every person who saw us and was all, “Who the fuck are these kids?”
- Shelby saying “fudge” instead of “fuck”
- The smell of the place, like old people
- Going into the chorus rehearsal room
- And, really, so much more
But of all the things I saw, one really stood out for me. It was this.
A 30 FOOT TALL BLOODY JESUS HEAD.
Are you kidding me?! How amazing is this thing? It’s huge! So huge, in fact, that I made Shelby get into the photo so we had a sense of its scale. I want this in my house so bad it hurts.
My only regret of the day is that I didn’t bring my camera with me. I thought it presumptuous so I left it at home and I told her as much. She said that it would have been all right though, and I immediately felt a pang of regret. Oh well. I’ll just have to find a reason to go back camera in hand.