phantom of the opera house

The Opera House is only about 5 minutes from our house. It is lit up beautifully every night. 

Just like at the Grand Mosque, I can’t explain how huge this light is, but as you can tell from the photo below, the pillars extend upward forever and ever before reaching the ceiling. 

My mom wanted to have her picture taken with this woman wearing traditional Omani dress. This was my compromise so we didn’t look like complete theater novices.

I was actually really happy we weren’t sitting in the box seats. Box seat ticket holders are on display for the entire theater (so you always have to look like you’re paying attention!) and they don’t get thrones to sit on.

The show started and I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Chinese Traditional Orchestra of Inner Mongolia. Yes, that’s actually what it’s called. The amazing thing about the music was the majority of instruments were unidentifiable to me and the sounds and melody were much different than a “traditional” orchestra. I loved that the orchestra members were able to pull a crazy variety of sounds from these traditional instruments — one moment I was hearing hoofbeats, the next a flock of birds whistling, the next a swelling wave of harmonious strings. My mouth hung open in amazement as I tried to pick out which of the instruments were responsible for creating the different sounds. 

For a close-up look at the group we saw, go here

This video features Mongolian Throat Singing. During the concert I was trying to figure out which instrument was making a loud, bullfrog vibration and then I realized it was coming from the soloist. Crazy.

This type of show/kind of music isn’t something I would have expected to like, but it kept my attention the entire time. Bravo to them.

During intermission we walked around and checked out the view from the different levels. The detail on everything from the carved walls to the metal lanterns meant that there was way more to see than a 20 minute break allowed.