I discovered today that the secret to getting people to like opera and classical music is to bore them so much with speeches beforehand that they’ll take any music they get.

Today was family concert day at a nearby community center where our youngest occasionally plays ping-pong. The concert featured the local Kawagoe Philharmonic Orchestra (link in Japanese). For various complicated reasons, our youngest was also involved.

The concert opened with speeches from some guy (not his real name) and from the first violin. There was also an impromptu interview with the first violin. Then the conductor, who looks as if he’s about 12 years old, came out and started the show.

They opened with selections from The Marriage of Figaro. This part featured three opera singers who put on a decent show. Their performance, though, was hurt by the concert taking place in a public auditorium that also serves as a gym. Because we were below the stage we had the orchestra between us and the singers which meant the voices got drowned out much of the time. A narrator, though, updated us between movements.

For the second part, our youngest and her friend joined the orchestra for a performance of The Syncopated Clock. This, of course, required a short interview of our youngest and her friend. When asked how they felt about performing, the friend said she was nervous; our youngest said she was looking forward to it. (This earned an Ooooooh from the crowd.)  They then took turns playing the wood block part of the song.

Of course, they were interviewed after they were finished.

(Note: our youngest earned the right to play by being “volunteered” by She Who Must Be Obeyed. Long story.)

The final part of the concert was selections from Carmen. An group of elementary school and junior high school ballet dancers from a local school put on a nice show during the performance.

After that, there was one more speech, and we all got to run away while the orchestra got a short break before their second show. Our youngest was only required for the first performance. Other’s were taking over woodblock duty for the second show.