TheMagicFlute

On Saturday, Henry and Jason were in town, and came to Palo Alto for breakfast. They told me the story of their trip to the aquarium to write in Opal's book of museums. It's amazing how much extra stuff they remember when interviewed; they started out by saying the aquarium was great and they liked the sharks, but after they told me about the sharks, they then told me quite a lot more. They touched starfish, and the blue ones were kind of squishy but the red ones weren't, for instance. They'd have told me even more if I could have written faster. (Alas, I don't think shorthand would help, as they had to read it back to be sure I'd gotten it right).

In the afternoon, we went to watch a movie. Opal wanted The Mikado, and Henry wanted The Three Musketeers, and we settled on The Magic Flute, in a spectacular English-language production, with Robin Hood as a fall back if the kids objected. There are upsides and downsides to a really comprehensible production (this one had English lyrics and subtitles, so one could follow exactly what was going on). The plot fundamentally makes No Sense At All, and periodically this becomes noticeable. I mean, Tamino falls in love with Pamina from her picture; Pamina falls in love with him based on the information that he's deeply in love with her, and a prince.

Jason and Henry both fell asleep, off and on, but Opal did not, and later pronounced The Magic Flute excellent. Almost as good as the Mikado.