***
The Winter's Tale was interesting (even if "Exit, pursued by a bear" got changed to "Get creeped up on by a bear and disappear in a flash of lightning"), but even more interesting was observing the Ang Mohs (Caucasians) and comparing them to those at Les Contes d'Hoffman.
Given the nature of the performance/performers, it was no surprise that I only heard American/British accents from them at the former and the French language during the latter (with the proportion of the former dwarfing the latter), but more interesting was that they thronged Circle 3 (i.e. the cheap seats) on both days. Indeed, tonight I saw more blonde and brunette hair in Circle 3 than the Stalls (or at least the part of the Stalls visible from my lofty vantage point).
Yet, during the intermission, whereas the Circle 3 Bar was closed during the Opera (supposedly because of technical issues; in fact I can't remember the last time it was open - probably during King Lear), it was doing brisk business tonight (with some people even bringing their wine in):
I also saw 3 long-haired guys sitting together - perhaps they were a support group (maybe the Québécois are more bohemian than Les Français).
After the play, I found that there was a "Lotus Limousine" stretch limo parked outside:
There was also a huge clusterfuck of taxis, virtuall all of them on call.
Meanwhile I saw about 5 ang mohs at the bus stop tonight, whereas after Hoffman there must've been 30 there.
I thus conclude that French expatriates are much harder hit by the recession than British/American ones.