The Marriage of Figaro

Last night after work, I went to the Kyiv Opera House to see the ballet version of the Marriage of Figaro. The building was quite impressive, and looks as is if has been recently renovated. Tickets range from 10-200 hrv. (2-40 USD) which is a heck of a lot better than the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, where tickets started around 40 or 50 USD. The ballet was hilarious. I don't know if Marcellina is usually played by a man, but it was absolutely hilarious. He/she looked a lot like Verka Serdyuchka (Верка Сердючка), a popular Ukrainian drag queen singer. Anyways, it was quite a riot. The principal dancers were all very good... I would have to say the guy who played Cherubino was the best. However, the corps de ballet were a little disappointing... they were often out of formation or unision. But overall, I enjoyed the ballet and the theatre.

At intermission, I returned to my row and was surprised to find Anna Khmelenko, a Ukrainian who had lived in the Foreign Language housing at BYU when I lived there. She also had an internship at a law firm in Kyiv and was visiting the theatre with an American girl from Pitt law who had an internship with that same firm. It was quite the random meeting. It turns out the American girl lives right by my apartment here, and their office is not far from mine, so we may go out to lunch next week. It was nice to be able to compare notes with the girl from Pittsburg, Carrie (or some alternative spelling thereof), about the type of work we were doing and the fun/frustrating job it is to read English written by Ukrainians.

Tonight, I'm taking the bus to Ivano-Frankovsk, where I plan to hike Mt. Hoverla, and then I'll head up to Lvov to check out that town. And then I'll get back to Kiev somehow (trains are all full... I am going to try to get a bus ticket... hopefully I'll be able to find something) Monday morning in time to shower and go to work. So hopefully sometime Monday, I can post photos from the weekend. In the mean time, I added these photos and others to Facebook.