Mozart’s Requiem

I love cheap seats at the opera! Chris and I had fun seeing the worst opera I’ve ever seen in my life last September for his birthday. It was all bad—the sparse sets, the inconsistent accents, the lack of character development… we left early. Then, after Christmas, we flew into Vienna just in time to catch Tosca at the opera house and it blew me away—the best opera I’ve ever seen, bar none. The costumes, the cast, the exquisite execution of the arias—exhilarating.

I’ve had my eye on the Brussels season, but with this being the only spring we’ve been here when we’re not in lockdown, every activity that’s been on hold for covid seems to be crashing in from every direction. Still, I was interested when I got an email from La Monnaie, the opera house, saying there were just a few seats left for the final performances of Mozart’s Requiem, a favorite of my brother Luke.

When I saw the cheap seats for kids were only 10 euros, I decided to dispense with the search for a babysitter and make the kids come be cultured!

Chris got off a night shift Friday morning, so he was already home when the kids got off the school bus. We had tea time, some Nintendo time, then a small tantrum about not wearing sweatpants and we were off, metro-ing happily downtown.

The first Friday of May was sun-soaked and warm. It seemed like not a single person stayed indoors. Every cafe terrace spilled across the sidewalks and into the streets, and the relaxed din of friends having an aperitif swelled through the narrow old roads.

We miraculously found a perfect table at our favorite frites place, ordered some beers, and watched the world parade by. Last year at this time we were still huddled in our winter coats, no warm weather on the horizon, everything still locked down. This is much better.

The opera started at 8pm. Chris’ cheap ticket was on the other side of the house. The kids switched seats with some other kids (who were wearing sweatpants) so the three of us got to sit together at least. And the kids were great, gasping at dramatic scenes and looking over at me with big eyes. Eloise especially did a great job. Isaac had 10-15 minutes toward the end where he would not stop wiggling like a toddler. Later he told me he was hot so he’d decided to TAKE OFF HIS SOCKS. So, yeah, EXACTLY like a toddler. But besides that they were great. They even had a pretty good view.

As mentioned, these were the cheap seats, and in this case I actually could not see the stage at all without leaning over Isaac. When I booked them I figured it didn’t really matter since it’s just music, right? Not in this production!

Mozart’s Requiem is all about passing from life to death and judgement to eternal life. A little girl represented Christ. This was very effective. As they sang about Christ taking on our sins for us, they painted the little girl and her white dress with bright, powdered pigments threw feathers at her, poured oil over her head while she stood still, then poured paint over that. They covered her with furs to look like a scapegoat and led her offstage. It was disturbing, a picture of innocence and goodness marred.

People in white robes rolled around in piles of dirt before stripping down out of their garments and going before the final judgment. The little girl was lifted onto the wall, and the people were delivered. I couldn’t see all of this from my seat, but I saw enough to think maybe next time I should spring for the less cheap seats. One soloist was a young boy who entered the stage kicking around a skull like a soccer ball.

It ended with a baby alone on stage playing obliviously with its toys, hope reborn amidst the destruction all around it.

“I thought we were just going to listen to music, so I thought it was cool that there was a stage and stuff going on,” said Eloise.

“The only thing I didn’t like was that it was so long and that it was hot,” said Isaac. “I liked the part where it went BOOM and all the trees and the people slammed down. And I thought it was cool to see the conductor.”

So even even the leaving-the-house tantrums and being up really late, it was fun seeing it with the kids and totally worth it!