A night at the opera“The opera is a bit like sex: you never know how long it will last and you’ll feel a fool if you clap in the middle.” I don’t recall who coined these words. It was probably Mark Twain; he had a way with a scurrilous comment and is attributed for all sorts of funnies, but I had no idea what he meant until recently.

I admit it, I’m a philistine. I’m almost 40 years old and I’d never been to the opera until this year when we went to the fantastic Theatre in Molina de Segura called Teatro Villa de Molina.

You may have never ventured to Molina de Segura and I can understand why. There is little else to see except the theatre, although you will have come very close to it if you’ve been to the Ikea or new shopping complexes (Thader and Nuevo Condomina) just on the outskirts of Murcia city.

Opened in November of 2005, the Teatro Villa de Molina is a state of the art venue, Teatro Villa de Molinawhich cost 5.2 million euros to build. It can seat 600 patrons (plus a further 300), though sadly due to the very poor promotion of events, there were only around 100 people to enjoy the music when we visited.

We went to see Anna Ferrer on the piano and Giovanna Manci the Italian Soprano. They were superb. I can honestly admit I had never heard any of the “tunes” before. However, I didn’t feel too bad as my 71-year-old mother-in-law, who has been to the opera a few times, didn’t recall any of them either. Now this didn’t detract from the enjoyment for her and certainly not for me and my husband. However, it did lead to an embarrassing “clapping in the middle moment”.

Enjoy the operaThe venue itself is a huge tunnel-shaped auditorium where every seat gets an excellent view. The staff are friendly and the free wine courtesy of Casa de la Ermita (my favourite Jumilla bodega!) was very welcome at half-time.

If you’re interested in music, opera, theatre or dance then I highly recommend you keep a look out on the website - www.molinadigital.es - it’s not a great website (not easy to use and it’s totally in Spanish) but you can find out what’s coming up and more importantly reserve and buy tickets online.

Debbie Jenkins

Debbie Jenkins is an expat entrepreneur, writer and publisher living in the countryside of Murcia. She is the author of Going Native in Murcia and Buying Property in Murcia (available through Amazon), as well as being the director of publishing group Bookshaker.