I've seen three operas in as many months and have two more lined up before the end of March.  For someone who declares himself only mildly appreciative of the art form that seems a bit much but I have an excuse for each of them.

Leaving aside The Marriage of Figaro which I commented on at the time, the next was La Traviata which I saw in Genoa.  Well I was there on holiday and you have to find things to do when you're on holiday and it was a lot more fun than sitting through Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus, the only theatrical offerings I found.

I enjoyed the show and the staging was lovely.  There are a number of pictures of the production on this site.  Here's one in which Violetta and Alfredo are enjoying their bucolic idyll before life caves in and we work up to that long drawn out heroine's death scene beloved of operatic writers and fans.

A free ticket as a reviewer's chum persuaded me to the cinemacast (what is the official word for these? ) of the Metropolitan Opera's Nabucco.  It's a big production with a very large chorus and a couple of massive sets mounted on their revolve.  The story concerns war between the Babylonians and the Israelites and the opera is well known in particular for one of Verdi's great numbers, the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves.  In real life it was sung by the crowds following Verdi's coffin to his funeral.  Here are the slaves getting ready to sing it on the Metropolitan Opera's stage.

It's a beautiful and moving song and well merits its fame but for me the musical highlight of this production was one of the soprano's arias.  Alas I can't put a name to it.

Next up is a production by Scottish Opera of The Trial.  Christopher Hampton, who's a playwright I admire and Philip Glass, a composer whose music I like a lot have turned Kafka's wonderful satire into an opera.  No excuse needed for going to that.

The last of this set of shows takes me back to the cinema and The Met.  This time I'm paying for a ticket.  It's expensive enough at £25 but Nabucco tickets in the real opera house were on sale from $475 when I went onto their site to read the programme so it's a steal really.  This time it's La Traviata.   I thought it would be instructive to see two versions so close together especially since both are modern stagings.