Lucid Waking

A Night with Carmen

Originally published on December 29, 2005

She slowly pocketed the ripped paper in her coat pocket. She calmly took off her leather gloves and put them in her pocket as she got on the elevator. The second floor was shaped in a square around the walls. The center was open to the lobby below. The floor was shined black marble and the ceiling was in an arc with a representation of several different operas. In the center of the ceiling hung down a huge chandelier held together by several crystal ropes. Gold pillars extended from the black marble to support the third floor. The second floor had cherry floors with a white runner down the center all the way around. Hundreds of different scenes from plays, operas, and ballets were sewn into the cloth. She walked along scenes from Macbeth and Giselle until she got to two largely ornate oak doors. She pulled them open and came into a smaller dark room where a lonely piano was pushed to one side and covered. She stepped into the great hall by means of another doorway and looked out from the balcony into the concert hall. Seats covered the vast area to the stage where a blue velvet curtain was covering the last minute scrambles to get the show ready. Many different shades of dark as well as a few spots of lighter colors were starting to fill the area on the main floor and the sounds of chatter and laughter lifted up towards the second balcony. She thanked the usher for the program and sat down in her seat. She flipped through cheap thin pages of ads and show promotions until she reached the cast page and plot: Carmen. The lights started to dim down and she put the program down into her lap and her binoculars to her eyes. The noise started to die down and the orchestra started up with the overture.

“Not much between despair and ecstasy”

A Night with Carmen