Amazonian opera

The Teatro Amazonas is the crown jewel of Manaus - and seems strangely out of place...almost like a two million person city hundreds of kilometers from any real road.

The ornate building towers over the city, and, despite the architecturally-endowed city, it is something else. The roofing came from France, the steel from England, and the marble from Italy.

The building was constructed during the city's rubber boom at the end of the 19th century. Since most global rubber production has moved to Malaysia, the theater serves as a relic of storied past that seems out of place in an economy dominated by petroleum, timber and Brazil nuts.

Regardless, the theater continues to serve as a beacon of culture for the city's two million inhabitants — and for backpackers making their way down the Amazon River.

We heard that there was going to be a free opera our first night in Manaus. Everything I knew about opera I learned from Dirty Work. What better place to have our first encounter with the opera than the middle of the jungle?

We showered and dressed up in our finest clothes, which you may remember from our golf outing, for the occasion.

The show had elements of European opera (at least I assumed it was European opera) with some Brazilian samba rhythms. Avery and I were surprised with how many of the opera songs we recognized, but we couldn't identify any of them by name.

I don't know if it's normal to have big dance numbers in the middle of the show, but it was interesting nonetheless. The opening act was an interpretation of the meeting of the White man with the natives.

It was really fun to see the mixing of traditional opera music with the Latin beats. Beyond that, I didn´t really know what to think.

There was an Austrian opera student sitting across the aisle from us and he had very similar thoughts on the performance.  Maybe I should consider a job as an opera critic...