My man date to the Met Opera to see Das Rheingold (aka the original Lord of the Rings)

March 30, 12:20 PMNY Wellness ExaminerRoger Ziegler

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the NY Wellness Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Valhalla, non-sissy home of the gods, from Wagner's
Das Rheingold at the Metropolitan Opera in NY, where
I took my first man-date.

I have no idea how to have man relationships. I don’t act like a “buddy.” I’m not likely to “be there for ya man.”

I don’t know when hugging and tush patting is acceptable and when it isn’t. I get jealous when I see my guy friends hanging out without me. If I was in Saving Private Ryan, I probably would have saved myself first.

Yes, the quality of my guy friend relationships pretty much sucks.

But maybe it's all this bromance talk going around with the I Love You, Man movie, or maybe its just good Wellness for the 21st century, that when I recently had an extra ticket to Wagner’s opera Das Rheingold, I thought to ask a guy friend to go with me.

My wife and I don’t have a baby sitter yet for our 16 month old. So, unless my parents are available, either my wife or I can go out, but not both.

My decision to take a guy was confirmed by a dream I had where I saw a naked Will Farrell playing a practical joke on a naked Steve Carell by sticking electrical tape to Steve Carell’s hairy body and ripping it off. There was nothing sexual, just guys not being afraid to expose themselves to each other and have fun.

Now, I love opera, I used to host an opera radio show, and I really wanted to see Wagner’s Ring Cycle (reality burst: Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is an  almost machine copy of The Ring Cycle), at the Met, but could I really take a man to the opera?

I understand if you’re gay this is no big thing, but for me, it’s virgin territory.

Hesitantly, I called up my friend Matt, a fellow writer and someone I thought would appreciate this kind of entertainment. Matt just finished a book about great unknown football stories and he loves the Red Sox.

If it was Carmen or La Boheme, forget it, I mean these weepers are strictly for dates or spouses, but Wagner (that’s Vhag-ner in case you’re wondering), with his gods and heroes, epic myths, dragons, enslavement, self-immolation and a ring of limitless power that brings ruin to whomever wears it, well that I could take him to.

Still, I was apprehensive, but Matt was game for the event, excited even. He’d never been to an opera, hadn’t even been to Lincoln Center before.

Our mandate started out well. We met for dinner at a local cafeteria and talked about movies and stuff. 
It was really no different if we were going to a ball game except that soon we would be getting swept up in the sturm und drang of hearty singing and sweeping orchestral music.

When we stepped into the ruby red velvet entrance of the Met with its Austrian crystal chandeliers and curved grand staircase, I glanced over and I believe Matt swooned.

When we sat in our seats, he looked around and said, “I feel like Pretty Woman.”

Like a good date, I tried to impress him with my little knowledge of Wagner. “Y’know, Wagner revolutionized opera by doing some stuff that other people never did before. I think he created like, musical themes for characters and situations.”

“Yeah? That’s Star Wars does that,” said Matt.

For a night at the opera, you can have your driver pick you up and take you to the opera house, where you can have a $200 a person dinner, enter your private box, sit in $375 seats and then step into your waiting car for drinks or the ride back home.

OR, you can take the $2 bus, grab a $7 dinner and watch the performance from the $20 standing room section. And anything in between.

Either way, the opera itself was astounding. The TOTALITY of the experience, from the opera house to the performances, the music and the sets which carried us from the depths of the Rhine river to the mountain tops where the gods lived, it was what Wagner probably would have wanted; Gesamkunstwerk, total theater. He may have even begrudged the Jewish conductor leading the operation.

I think the date went really well. We made a few funny comments to each other during the opera, a whole new door of entertainment possibility blew open for Matt and I didn’t feel in the least bit effeminate.

In fact, I may now have a new opera buddy to swap stories with. But I don’t want to read too much into it. It was after all, a first date.