I have been in Genoa for some time now, and I am starting to become part of the daily life of the city. This weekend I was looking for a little adventure and I went downtown to do my laundry (which is an adventure of its own, but that’s not the subject here). While I was waiting for a free machine, I went to the box office of Teatro Carlo Felice and got tickets for the nights show, Stravinski’s Firebird and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe. For just 10.50 euro I got 7th row almost dead center, beautiful seats.
The Theater is easy to get to, it is at Piazza de Ferrari and on many bus routes including 604, 605, 15, 17 and 45. The theater is on the side of the Piazza closest to Via XX, the main downtown shopping street in the city. There is a huge outdoor foyer area, and the box office is outside of this area to the left, as you head towards the Duomo. I didn’t know the hours, but it was open on a Saturday afternoon and it is certain to be open an hour before every performance.
Half price tickets go on sale 1 hour before the show, but I was a bit earlier than that and asked for student tickets, which are available for anyone under 26 years old. Ordinarily they ask for an international student ID, but the salesperson did not speak perfect english and probably thought it was easier to just give me the tickets than to try to explain. Lucky for me, because I’m not really a student (shh!).
The theater is quite casual, I was pretty comfortable in jeans and a sweater, though most of the audience wore ‘business casual’ and some got a little dressed up for the show.
The music was lovely. A guest conductor really wowed the audience, and I learned that Italians clap…and clap….and clap….and clap….until you feel like your hands might fall off.
Leaving the theater was a little amazing. Everyone stopped in the outdoor foyer to chat, smoke, get ready for the rest of their evening. Genoa comes alive at night, all the cafes and bars are open, people linger in the streets and piazze (that’s the plural of piazza!), teenagers especially clog up bus stops and walkways. If I hadn’t been exhausted after carefully listening for 3 hours perhaps a Grappa would have been called for at one of the many outdoor cafes lining the Piazza de Ferrari.