A Night at the Opera

We are in Manaus, about 1000 miles from the ocean on the Amazon River, and we went to the symphony tonight! You gotta just love this. Manaus is not your typical river town, it's a city of 2.1 million souls and when Rubber was King, it was the place where the Rubber Barons had a grand time. Of course that time was at the turn of the last century...since then the flower has faded some. 

In 1896 a grand opera house was completed.  Manaus, which was called the "Paris of the Tropics" had it all! 

They listened to music and saw performances as though they were at the Opera House in Paris or LaScala in Milan. This was "the place to be."

The lights were imported from Venice; the metal work from Glasgow; and modern electricity from the USA. The Manaus Opera House has been alive and well for 120 years. Tonight we went to a performance of the Orquestra Experimental da Amazonas Filarmonica. What a treat!