Beer... and an Opera

Yesterday was a busy day. We had opera tickets for Don Giovanni down in Milwaukee and decided to make a day of it.

We had caught part of an episode of Road Tasted featuring 3 Wisconsin places: Beechwood Cheese Factory, Sprecher Brewery, and Bendsten's Bakery. We decided that since the first two were (kind of) on the way to Milwaukee we stop by and take a gander. With the help of Jill we wound through some rustic country roads avoiding being shot by hunters to the Beechwood Cheese Factory. We couldn't take a tour but we could buy some of their famous chicken soup cheese. From the store we could see into the production facilities. It's a cute little place and Adam tells me the cheese curds were excellent.

Then we headed to Glendale where we had reservations for a brewery tour at Sprecher. The tour itself was relatively short since it's a small microbrewery with only one brew kettle. After the tour we got to the fun: the tasting. With our $3 tour admission came a complementary 8 or 10 oz beer glass and coupons for 4 samples. Between Adam and I, we tasted 6. Neither of us could manage to get through all four samples. It's not that the beer wasn't good - it was great - it's just that it was a lot of beer to be drinking before eating lunch. In any case, we stopped by the gift shop on the way out and bought some of their beer bread mix, beer cheese soup mix, and enough root beer to last Adam well into the new year.

After imbibing a little too much alcohol on an empty stomach we decided we should go get some food. We tried stopping at Kopps but I wasn't really in a greasy food mood so after a random stop at Casual Male we ended up at McDonald's for salads. (Applebee's and Red Robin were too busy. McDonald's was practically deserted. Go figure.)

After lunch we went to two of the three local Marshall's stores. I found a pair of jeans I liked and managed to get a great dress coat for 50% off. Go me! We didn't need to get to the Marcus Center until 6:30 so we had some time to kill. We first stopped at Target for a lint roller. I still needed to get changed though so we attempted to find a Walmart since the bathroom at Target was "closed for cleaning." After two false Walmarts from Jill (the first was a Sam's club, the second a Bally Fitness club and CBS office building...) we ended up at a Walmart in Mexico. Ok, so it was in Milwaukee but you could have fooled me. After fighting through a crowd of unruly children up in the bathrooms in the front of the store I opted for the layaway bathrooms. I had to wait a few minutes for an obnoxious little girl to get out of the handicapped stall and then she yelled and screamed in Spanish the entire time I was getting changed. Then I discovered my chosen outfit had become a tad too small in the last year or so. That was depressing. So I was kind of crabby when I emerged from the bathroom.

We headed to the Marcus Center and got there in plenty of time. After some confusion about where the men's bathroom was, we settled in to listen to the pre-performance lecture for a few minutes. We got seated as soon as the doors opened. I must say that even though the price of the tickets seemed steep, it was well worth the money. They were great seats. We had the last two seats of a row right by a railing so no one sat in front of us. Legroom is good. We were also almost straight on to the stage, relatively close, with a good view of the supertitles. I don't think we could have gotten better seats without going for a box. There was some unpleasantness with our neighboring opera goers crinkling candy wrappers and drying to discreetly open a contraband soda. And then there was the guy hacking up a lung behind us. And the people who were late, tried to sit in the wrong row and had to walk all the way back out again. But, after all that stuff was settled we were free to enjoy the show.

All in all, it was a good performance. All of the singers sang in tune and none of them had particularly grating voices. Donna Anna in specifc had a nice, clear voice that I enjoyed. There were some interesting stage things and during the epilogue they had a smoking suitcase thrown onto stage and Don Giovanni emerged wearing a white suit, looking kind of like George Michael. As the other characters sang about the lesson to be learned, Don Giovanni drank champagne with some blondes in slinky dresses. It was a cute way to end the classic opera with a modern touch.

I had been a little concerned since this was completely my idea and I kind of had to drag Adam to come. He enjoyed it though and thanked me for making him come. He even asked if we were going to go to the other operas being performed this year (MacBeth and The Barber of Seville.) I had originally told him no. We had a conversation about the famous "Figaro" aria though (he thought it was from "The Marriage of Figaro" and I was pretty sure it was from "The Barber of Seville.") Turns out I was right so perhaps he'll want to go see that one as well. We'll see I guess. It makes me happy that he can appreciate some of the stuff I introduce to him.

Anyway, after fighting with massive traffic and road construction we got back on the highway and headed home. I changed in the car and I think I gave a guy quite the show at a red light. Heh. We got home and pretty much crashed.

I made some of the beer bread this afternoon. It's a bit salty at first but it's pretty good. I've got two more batches to do though - we're trying to figure out which beer tastes the best. (The beer bread mix and a bottle of a local beer are going to be part of the giftbags for out-of-towners at our wedding.) I'll be making the beer cheese soup in about an hour so it's fresh when he gets home from work.