Santiago hills and opera

Another lovely spring day, in which I first visited Cerro San Cristobal, a hill overlooking Santiago with a statue of the Virgin Mary on top of it, and then enjoyed a night (or an afternoon) at the opera.

Actually, the day started with my breakfast, not with the hill or the opera. My AirBnB host kindly provides me with a lovely continental breakfast each morning and we practice conversing in Spanish and English. It’s a very pleasant start to each day, and usually involves a few local tips for me, as well as some practice with dictionaries for both of us!

We eat in the sitting room, adjacent to a nice enclosed balcony overlooking a busy intersection with the Alameda. Of course, I am now thoroughly familiar with all the Spanish words associated with my breakfast. I am very pleased I chose to stay here rather than in an hotel.

Getting to the metro, I noticed again the busker space (vacant this morning, maybe because it’s Saturday?) and also noticed when I arrived that the main street of Bellavista was completely clean – quite a feat, as it was very busy last night. The line to go up the Cerro San Cristobal was no shorter than it was the day before, unfortunately but unsurprisingly for a Saturday, so I just had to wait patiently. Never easy for me: I get sick of standing in queues for long, but I managed to strike up a conversation with the nearby people, including a lovely man and his two young daughters, who were very excited to be going up the funicular railway and cable car (called teleferico, which I discovered in the queue; I did not previously know it was there).

Eventually, we reached the top of the queue and headed up the hill, much to the girls’ excitement. The views over the city were wonderful, although spoiled a bit by the smoggy air. Santiago sits between two mountain ranges and the air struggles to clear sometimes, as you can see. I was impressed to see some old Kombi vans on top put to good use: old Kombis never actually die … they are often known to reincarnate! It was also a good spot for people to exercise and there were many cyclists who rode up farther than take the funicular.

The telerifico (a cable car in Australia or a ropeway in Japan) was pretty new and it was fun to share it with two little girls who squealed in excitement as we took off! We did a round trip to a distant part of the hill and returned, overlooking people picnicking, exercising, playing, etc. It’s clear that Chile is a very family oriented place as many people had children with them and many also had a dog or two. My new Chilean friends were lovely to spend some time with, and I appreciated their kindness to a stranger who didn’t speak their language very well.

I left my companions and headed up to the statue of the virgin, which can be seen from various points in the city and can also be seen at the top of this blog. Not as big as the one in Rio de Janeiro, but clearly of great importance to the locals. The base of the statue is a praying area in which Pope Jean Paul II said mass when he visited here some years ago, and will be where Pope Francis will also say mass when he arrives early in 2018. The excitement is already building …

You may have to click on the photo (taken from the base of the statue) to see that the altar has a number of rows of garden seats/benches in front of it, as well as large messages announcing the papal visit. There was also some signs asking people to be silent, which had no effect on them at all, as far as I could tell. (A bit like a red man signal to a local pedestrian: regarded as a suggestion, rather than an instruction.) I enjoyed the beautiful collection of stripey flowers that were planted on the hillside next to the benches, as shown below.

I made my way back down the hill and enjoyed a delightful lunch in a Chilean restaurant in Bellavista, being careful this time to order something more manageable than yesterday’s outsized feast. The restaurant had lots of graffiti inside (as well as some graffiti outside), which I guess is inevitable when they are there for a long time, as this one was. I also passed another Pablo Neruda memorial en route to lunch.

On my way to the opera, I visited briefly an old Franciscan church (built in the sixteenth century, but earthquakes being what they are around here, rebuilt in parts several times since, mostly to the original design). Some of the really old original stonework is still visible inside the church, as you can see.

I also passed a large and rather noisy demonstration along the way, down the main street (the Alameda, easier than its full title of Avenida Libertador Bernado O’Higgins) but didn’t linger enough to determine precisely what it was about, although there were some political messages, as well as some religious messages (e.g. anti-abortion), so think there was a mixture of some kind. It’s rarely a good idea to get too close to demonstrations in foreign countries, I know, so I kept moving towards my opera, scheduled to start at the unusually early time of 5 pm.

It turned out that the street demonstration was only my first demonstration of the day, as there was also a very noisy demonstration at the opera as well. I had found out (in difficult circumstances) yesterday that the opera was to be performed without sets and costumes, because of a strike, but it had not occurred to me that the strike would be evident when I attended the opera. (I know … this should have occurred to me, but the circumstances distracted me). The lady who looked after me yesterday even told me through which door I should enter; I thought at the time that this was excessively detailed, but it was clear now why she had done that: the front door was clogged with protestors!

Having watched Murdoch University’s disastrous enterprise bargaining process recently, I was familiar with the problems involved, and so was a bit uneasy that I was ignoring the rights of the workers on this occasion and attending the opera anyway. Too late to turn back – and ignorant of any of the details – I went into the building as planned without incident. The performance began with a talk from (presumably) the manager regarding the strike, none of which made a lot of sense to me, as he spoke at a normal speed.

I love these European style opera houses, which are often very atmospheric and acoustically sound. I was too stingy to sit in the expensive seats on the ground floor, but not so cheap as to sit in the gods (level 4 in this case)! (I was on level 3 and could see most of the stage; aware that there were no sets, I had figured that sound was more important than vision.)

The opera had surtitles projected above the stage, translating the libretto into Spanish, as it was actually sung in the original Russian. I could have purchased a copy of the libretto, but chose to not do so as it was entirely in Spanish. Fortunately, I am completely ignorant of Russian so I concentrated on trying desperately to translate the Spanish surtitles into English before they disappeared instead of trying to interpret the words of the singing; this was an intellectual challenge, but I nonetheless managed to get most of the plot – certainly not all of it – and enjoyed the voices and the orchestra in any event. Of course I enjoyed the occasion, and even shared a few short chats in Spanish with the (local) person next to me on level 3. Also fortunately, not many people (at least not many men) were dressed up, so I didn’t look too out of place – as I had already verified before buying my ticket.

The opera certainly had Lady Macbeth type elements in it, and mostly made sense (as much as operas ever do). Unusually, there was even a very loud and realistic gunshot in one act (by the husband of the Lady Macbeth figure) and some lovely singing. There were also some confusing bits (again, as most operas have!), including one scene where a bunch of people came on stage with wind instruments! (but I had no idea why!). The opera ended with wild applause from the large audience and several (actually, an excessive number!) curtain calls from the principals, and then joined by the youthful conductor for several more, as you can see above.

I enjoyed the whole experience, although I do wish opera companies would put on a Verdi opera when I came to town; I seem to arrive at just the wrong moment, as Aida is on in a couple of weeks. (A similar fate befell me in Budapest earlier this year, where I saw a Wagner opera a week before the Verdi opera opened.)

Last night, I enjoyed the ballet, and tonight I enjoyed the opera. Tomorrow, Sunday, I’m going to be less artistically inclined and will instead check out some museums (as I know they will be closed on Monday) and enjoy some outdoor activities.