"Culture" meets culture at the opera

I went to hear the opera Carmen the other day. I went mostly for Bizet’s music, and I decided I like the music sans opera better. The lady who played Carmen was American, and while I thought she was decent, my group universally agreed that the black South African who played Micaela was much better.

The opera is typically considered “high culture,” and in this case it was mixed with a good dose of SA culture: during intermissions you could get a wors in a bun (local sausage in a hot dog bun) and biltong (SA version of jerky). That might be the equivalent of a U.S. opera selling popcorn and Mike & Ikes.