It was stunning! The first act takes place on a barge on the river Seine and the forced perspective was so believable that I found myself wondering where the set ended and where the backdrop began. The Opera itself is very dark and brooding, and ends on a very depressing note. The second act is quite different. It is set in the square of a convent and deals with a nuns guilt over past sins..Unlike the first act, the second is quite uplifting in the end. Once again the set was amazing!! The whole floor was on an angle so that everyone could see into the convent.
At one point a donkey came on stage!? James initially insisted that it was just two midgets in a donkey suit but it turns out it was indeed a real live donkey! This led to a whispered conversation between James and I about this donkey: where did he come from, and where does he live?? Is he like the Phantom of the Opera, living in the dungeon cellars below Lincoln Center?? And what must be going through the donkeys mind as it goes on stage?!? Here he is, walking onto a sloping stage with these weird optical illusion-like props and structures that surely must play tricks on his little donkey brain... and all the while 50 people in nun costume are around him, singing in these loud operatic voices. Not to mention the hundreds of people in the audience watching on. That donkey must be thinking "what the...?!?". - Anyway, we digress...