A Night At The Opera

Two nights actually, and quite contrasting. The first, at Marmaris, was in the amphitheatre, advertised as a performance of Othello by Shakespeare, but the performance was actually a modern ballet danced to the, recorded, score from an opera by Verdi. First of course the inevitable speeches. The audience were remarkably patient. Perhaps the half hour they lasted contained some interesting insights into the work of Guiseppe Verdi, perhaps. I think there was a mention of a promise of chairs next year, but cushions would be quite ok. And would raise some money for the organisers to put on more events. Because they are a welcome and enjoyable alternative to karaoke and disco music.
This performance, choreographed by Ugur Seyrek was imaginative and dramatic. Desdemona put so much into it she had to take a shower at the end. On stage . You need to have seen it to understand, but it worked and the audience all left having seen something unique.
Next day I went over to Aspendos with some friends to see ‘Carmen’ in the magnificent 2000 year old roman amphitheatre. Our hotel, booked on the internet, because it said ‘our staff have smiley face’, hadn’t told the staff of their unique selling point. In fact it appeared they hadn’t told the staff they were running a hotel, but it was near Aspendos and the beds had towels twisted into heart shapes on them. After a lovely meal overlooking a cascading river we arrived, a bit late, at Aspendos. The opera hadn’t started but I had forgotten you do need to get there early, and most other people had. The weekend, in retrospect, involved an awful lot of scrambling up things. In this case about 200 rows to get to some empty seats. Not for the unsteady or vertiginous. The view was great, and, amazingly from so far away, the acoustics and the power of the performance meant that we could hear pretty well. Carmen is always magnificent but in Aspendos the word awesome has to be used. Not in the way it is now used to describe everything from a burger to a ford focus, but really truly inspiring awe. The colours, the music and the voices in that setting are, well, awesome.
On the way back next day we stopped off to go up the Tahtali Mountain by cable car, at 2500m it is quite a climb over wooded ravines and rock outcrops. At the top a modern restaurant gives marvellous views across the whole of the south coast. There are three restaurants so we decided to climb the stairs to the second one. It was closed, so we climbed to the top one. That was closed as well, a sign would have been helpful, but the experience was, er, truly awesome.
Then off to Olympus to stay in a tree house. I was expecting to be up in the foliage chatting to sloths and gibbons but it turned out that tree houses there are houses made out of trees, ie log (plank) cabins . Nice though, and set in lovely wooded areas behind the beach. Olympus is famous for the Chimera, the everlasting flame. So we had to go and see it. After a nice meal and a couple of bottles of wine, it seemed like a good idea. Actually after a nice meal and a couple of bottles of wine it isn’t a good idea. On the map on the wall in the village it looked like a short walk. It’s really about an hours climb up a near vertical rock-strewn track. In the dark. Emma’s feet were already resembling someone with elephantiasis (a chronic filarial disease resulting in lymphatic obstruction, characterized by marked enlargement of the parts affected, esp. of the legs and scrotum, transmitted by mosquitoes - look it up), and my flip flops were not the best foot gear. Reminded me of Blair Wich, especially the swearing, But we made it - to see a a group of semi-nude back packers roasting sausages over a BBQ. Hang on, there were lots of BBq’s going. Everlasting Barbies, Out of the ground in lots of places came flames, natural gases somehow spontaneously and apparently permanently combusting. Everyone was walking around saying it how awesome it was. And in the dark under the starlit sky ...it was.