The opera that wasn't

As I prepared for the weekend, I talked with my mother in advance. She had reminded me that we had an opera coming up on Friday night. Sometime since college I have been an aficionado of the opera. It was a musical taste that developed slowly, but I have become more and more enamored of it as the years have passed. It is interesting that much of my opera collection was housed upstairs and was not affected by the swirling floodwaters that followed Hurricane Katrina and decimated most of my record and CD collection. So, most of my opera collection survives even today. I was rather looking forward to "The Flying Dutchman," ("Die fligende Holländer") Richard Wagner's monumental work of the ghost ship that returns to port while sailing the ship for eternity until doomsday. It is one of Wagner's most approachable works and stands on its own unlike many of the operas that make up the Ring cycle or long-winded pieces like Die Meistersinger von Nurenbürg that ramble on for hours. The New Orleans Opera Association has long presented memorable performances of Wagnerian operas, but hasn't attempted to stage anything as grand since the recovery from the 2005 storm and related flooding. Imagine my chagrin when a friend of mine informed me that the opera was next week. I called my mother and couldn't reach her by telephone, so I left word on her voicemail to check what the tickets read. You guessed it. The opera is next Friday, not tonight. I guess it really doesn't matter, but I wish it was tonight. I had such great expectations for the production and now I have to wait that much longer to hear the fat lady sing.