We came back to a small drama as someone had parked in front of the garage door entrance but this was resolved and after a short rest we took the subway into town to meet Raya a friend of Paivi at the Ateneum, where there was an exhibition of art marking the 100th anniversary of Finland's founding.
This exhibition was remarkable not only for the great pictures and sculpture but also because some of the works had been re-worked with the charcaters in the originals replaced by Donald Duck.
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| An example of an iconic painting with the Donald Duck version below |
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| ...and another |
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| A dramatic statue in wood |
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| The 'Donald Duck' version of a famous painting called 'The Fighting Capercaillies' |
After bidding her goodbye we walked to a restaurant which had a Czech slant and there had a n excellent fixed menu. Sitting behind me was a celebrated soccer coach who had played for and/or coached both British teams and the Finnish national side. Later in the week, we saw him being a pundit on TV.
It was raining heavily after dinner so we caught a cab to take us to the opera where we were to see a performance of 'Rigoletto'. The opera house is a beautiful space and we had wonderful seats right in the center and only a few rows back from the stage.
The production was an essentially modern one with some rather strange touches such as some of the chorus appearing in duck masks and the well-known aria 'La Donna e Mobile' sung while the Duke was leaning on a Volvo car. None of this detracted from the excellent acting and singing and perfect orchestral accompaniment. I have seen this opera a few times and this was one of the very best for the singing alone.
We were able to get to the subway fairly dry as the rain had eased a bit and we took the train home.
Some nightcaps and world-fixing discussion took us to well after midnight hen we retired to bed.
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