Latest NYC Chicks'CultureWeekend.

[jenniferj]

DSW was browsing online a couple of weeks ago and saw that:
1. The Flying Dutchman (opera) was at Lincoln Center
2. The last performance would be Friday the fourteenth.

We had an uncharacteristically free weekend that coincided and ordered tickets immediately. Then the trouble began - most of the NYC hotels were already booked; we might have to drive home or most of the way home after the show.

At the last minute, she found a small hotel right in the theater district and booked us for Friday and Saturday (very pricey).

What to do Saturday night? There were several interesting plays on Broadway but no tickets left (three days advance). Then she found La Cage aux Folles (with Kelsey Grammer) and they had tickets. It seemed a little strange to go to a show about transvestites dressed as -well- a woman but we decide it would be fun.

So it was three full days as JJ in NYC (counting the drive down) with shopping at Macy's (underwear and nighties) and an open top tour bus ride thrown in.

In case this seems like bragging, the point is: you can get out and do these things. Nobody said a single harsh or rude thing to the very obvious CD (moi); every women I saw in the many restrooms I visited returned my girl-smile, and the whole experience was delightful.

Just do it!

-jj

[Crissy65]

where did you stay? reasonable?

Cissy

[Stephenie S]

That's a thing to remember about NYC.

NYC is FAR, FAR, more sophisticated than you are. You can do what you want where you want in NYC and NOBODY will raise an eyebrow. They have seen it all.

Stephie

[Tess]

You sat through a Wagner opera. That should allow you to do anything you darn well please.

[jenniferj]

Hi Tess,

Not only did we sit through it, it was presented as Wagner intended - 3 acts with no intermissions! And it was wonderful!
-jj

[Tess]

My last Wagner opera was Parsifal. It will probably stay my last.

[txrobinm]

Parsifal is a bad choice. Start with Humperdink's Hansel and Gretel. Then maybe Rheingold. Dutchman is a good choice, too, but the 2nd act is really long.

And if you're new to the genre, don't start with Wagner. Try Mozart's Don Giovanni or Carmen, or anything light.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread.

Yes, get out and do stuff mainstream! I'm heading out myself tomorrow with 2 CDers (and hopefully a couple of other folks) to an independent film theater and dinner/socializing later, all outside of the "gayborhood". Especially in a big metropolitan area, you'll most likely be just fine, especially if you are in a group (even a group of 2).

Only by going mainstream will the general public start to have conversations like "hey, I saw a man dressed tastefully as a woman today at - - -Mart. I wonder what that was about?" around the dinner table.

[jenniferj]

I agree with Robin wholeheartedly. There is fun and easy opera that is less challenging.

DSW (DearSweetWife) and I (in guy mode)wet our feet with a local (Worcester, MA) showing of a traveling production of "Turondat"(Puccini). We prepared ourselves by listening to the CD several times and read everything we could find. And we were underwhelmed - it seemed silly to me; DSW was a little more generous.

But did we give up? If you say yes, you don't know DSW. We planned a CCW (Chicks'CultureWeekend) around a Metropolitan Opera (NYC) production of La Cenerentola (Cinderella by Rossini) - Still comic opera, but presented much more professionally. Way better!

Building on this, we went back several months later for Tosca (Puccini again)- This is the quintessential "over the top" Italian opera. The production was cooly received by the critics but we innocently thought it was wonderful!

Which prepared us well for the Flying Dutchman - If you are old enough, you may remember a magazine ad for recording tape (before "is it live or is it memorex?") of a guy sitting in a chair in front of his speakers with his hair, his necktie, and a lamp being blown backward by the speakers' output - that is the Wagner experience and it is incredible. If they had offered to show it again right after, we would have stayed although DSW might have grumbled about missing dinner.

Which has nothing to do with the experience of your long, tight skirt forcing you to take short, short steps in high, high black velvet heels over red velvet carpeting with sparkly dangling earrings and a naughty amount of cleavage offered to the world. Sigh...
:daydreaming:

-jj

[StayceeCD]

Jennifer. NY is an amazing place for girls like us to be ourselves! I was in NYC a couple weeks ago and caught La Cage. I was with 2 girlfriends and we had a great time. We had no problems at the theater using the ladies room and we hit a gay club and a mainstream club afterwards without any raised eyebrows or even second looks. What a great city!! Here's my post about the night with some pics!
http://www.crossdressers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131127

[Tess]

Parsifal is a bad choice. Start with Humperdink's Hansel and Gretel. Then maybe Rheingold. Dutchman is a good choice, too, but the 2nd act is really long.

And if you're new to the genre, don't start with Wagner. Try Mozart's Don Giovanni or Carmen, or anything light.

Actually I'm an opera fan. Just not a Wagner fan. I've been going to the opera for over 30 years, got my daughters into opera before they were out of their teens, and a friend or two. But Wagner...no thank you. I agree entirely with your advice for an introduction to opera. I'd say stick with the crowd pleasers for awhile before moving on to Wagner. If I got a chance to go to an opera completely dressed I don't think I would care what was being performed.