Yesterday the European Union, The Central American Integration Programme and the Italian, Spanish, Finnish and German Embassies here in Nicaragua organized a cultural evening of opera and a pompous buffet (with strawberries dipped in chocolate and drinks worthy the tastebuds of connoisseurs) for the diplomatic representation here in the country, the international development cooperation sector and Nicaraguan guests.

I joined some friends and was very happy to visit the Rubén Darío National Theatre and finally get to see Georges Bizet’s Carmen from 1875. And there she was, in her full Gypsy splendour, la Carmencita, sung by a Cuban guest and slightly overshined by the voice of her lover, the elegant toreador Escamillo. I knew many of the arias by heart (and I’m sure that you’ve heard them too) which brought some extra tingling to this fantastic story and opera. It was interesting how the sets had been painted on fabric hanging in the background instead of wooden and plastic sets – not as impressive but fully functional and probably a way to save money – the only annoyance during the spectacle were some minor mistakes in the illumination and the people in charge of the translation projection who managed to lose track completely a couple of times which was extremely distracting. Costumes were nice, voices were generally good, there was a touch of comedy, and the 4 act play of three hours was overall really, really entertaining.

After the dramatic ending and standing ovations we were invited to the beautiful ballroom with high ceilings, huge chandeliers and a striking amount of people. There was a hunt for plates and then we saw the buffet.. and officially agreed to set our detox week on hold for the night. Obviously.