Swan Lake

When Emily told me that she was going to Swan Lake when she was here, and asked if I would like to come, yes was the obvious and easy answer. I grew up being taken to the ballet by my grandmother and hadn't been to the ballet in years. She bought six tickets in total. Alice, Kate, Lauren, Phoebe, Emily and I were to go. Fast forward to Saturday, and after visiting the temple open house together, Alice wasn't feeling well at all. Emily's Mom Phoebe wasn't feeling well either. Kate and I met Emily and Lauren and the four of us went. 

Kate and I had been to the Four Seasons Centre a year ago when we went to the opera with Andrew. I was excited to see the ballet and be here again in this beautiful place. Emily bought the cheapest tickets, which disappointed me a little being so very far away from the stage, but now in hindsight knowing that two tickets were wasted, I'm glad we didn't spend more money. 

We sat in the very back row on the very top floor. We were on the 5th floor and took the elevator up. Taking the elevator felt so weird in a theatre, but it is such a big theatre. But goodness, I was grateful that we didn't have to climb all of those stairs. 

Kate and I took the GO train and I might have told Kate that I wasn't excited to go, because I wasn't, I was tired. I told her that I figured that I'd change my mind when we got there, like I did when we went to the see the Planets at the Symphony and thankfully I was right.

Kate and Lauren sat at the other end of the row from Emily and I. I felt sad that they were so far away, but it was okay, I'm glad they were together at least. I remembered to bring my opera glasses so that made me happy. (A story for a separate post!) I used them for the first half and gave them to Kate to use for the second half. It was fun to look through the glasses and see all of the detail on their beautiful costumes and see their facial expressions.

I enjoyed the ballet. Not going to lie, it did at times feel a little long, but the dancers were amazing. The precision, the excellence, the passion, it was all so evident and so beautiful. The music was so beautiful too. Listening to the oboe and the clarinet, the flute, the harp. It was so beautiful.

But, my favourite moment of the night was before the curtain rose. We sat in our seats, the lights when down, the announcements and land acknowledgements were said, and then the orchestra began to play. I knew right away that they were playing O Canada and jumped to my feet and started to sing. Within a few bars everyone was standing and so many of us were singing. 

The backdrop to this is the politics of the day, specifically Trump and his repeated attacks on the sovereignty of Canada. He's accused us of having a loose border, of drugs and illegal immigrants pouring in from our country to his. (The opposite is true, especially illegal guns entering Canada.) He's imposed tariffs and threatened tariffs. He's repeatedly said that life would be better if we were the glorious 51st state. He's called our prime minister the governor. It's been so much, too much.

So at the ballet, standing up and singing loudly and proudly for our nation, with everyone in that hall, it felt healing and glorious. There was spontaneous applause when the crowd realized what was being played, and long and sustained applause at the end. It felt like a gift and I'm so grateful I was there for it.