AAAAAAH! I have so much to add, but no time to write about it! Especially with homework and packing for the day and weekend trips, I can almost never finish a blog post. So feel free to peruse youtube for video of the Verona Arena on June 2nd 2012 (the date is written 2/6/12 in Italian).
Updated July 29th: Pictures and Videos!!!!
If you're into Justin Bieber, I didn't take this video, but it's from my direction. The second clip is the edited TV version that was broadcast across Italy later in the week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGNlGYhDfzc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiJEFR9dq98&feature=related
This is a cool commercial for the Verona opera season. Very short but it gives you a good idea of the atmosphere
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x47w8UfFar4
And the BEST video I've found by far: This is a clip of Carmen from the TV broadcast! Definitely check this one out. Before the concert started, staff handed out white cloth to as many people in the audience as they could. Unfortunately, I didn't get one, but some people in my group did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Y7UVcByPo
This is the view waiting to get into the Verona Arena. To give you an idea of where we sat, look at the top row of the building. Seating extends all the way to the top, bleachers style. If they hadn't erected a modern chain-link fence around the top, we could have toppled over backwards and into the piazza below!
Lines of people waiting to get in. This picture is a great demonstration of how the ground level has risen over the centuries. The ground slopes down to the entrance.
Jessica and I with our tickets to see J Biebz and some kind of Italian concert. We had no idea what we were in for!
Peter, the photo professor, and some of my classmates already inside. The group I'm with is waving to them while Peter takes a picture of us.
Sunset in the arena.
Jess, Julie and Julia :)
Note the fence in the background. I'm not kidding when I say we were on the top row. The arena is made of stone so the staff let people bring huge cushions to sit on. Julia and I shared a big one from our room. It costs 2 euro to buy a cushion there, but you don't get to keep it. They also don't check any bags, so you can bring all the drinks and snacks you want. I never even saw a concession stand.
Jess and I with Razz
OPERA!!! This is from Carmen, during the video clip above :D
Although Justin Bieber's name was the second biggest thing on the posters, he only did one song and ran back the way he came in. We didn't mind though. The concert turned out to be a sample of every opera that will be performed this summer! That meant it had songs from Romeo and Juliet (Giuliette in Italian), Don Giovanni, Carmen, and sooo many others that I wasn't familiar with. The casts were huge-probs more than 100 people each, and they spread out over the whole stage and the stone bleachers behind them. They even marched and paraded through the audience below, and rode live horses on the stage. Bieber knew he couldn't compete with the Verona Opera. This night was perhaps my favorite moment from the trip so far! I'm loving Verona more and more.
