Tosca at the capital's national theatre. Soli surprisingly strong. $7.50, top balcony, stood off to the side rather than risk the actual seat.
When I was going to the orchestra concerts in Cleveland during the MFA, I favored the absolute back row, as the sound was caught perfectly against the wall. (They've renovated since, so I'm not sure if that's still the case.) Same, to a lesser degree with the family circle standing at the Met. (Which I hear they've restored, after doing away with standing room for a few years.) In the large Balkan cities (Bucharest, Belgrade, Budapest) I've actually had better luck right next to the plaster line, far above the orchestra itself -- you get the full force of the sound rising from the strings, even if most of the stage is hidden from view. But even though I'm a theatre fellow, I go to the opera for the music, not the scenography.
The litmus of any production of Tosca is the Te Deum. If Scarpia is the center of everyone's attention, it's not right. The point is that he's off to the side during the central liturgy, forgetting about God. But I discovered a new error with this production. They took the liturgical music as an emotional cue -- dimmed the lights, the supers on stage took on a serious aspect. The music is an interpolated liturgical action -- it plays out within the event of the opera, but it's not the underscoring or the emotional tenor of the moment. In the emotional world of the opera, we are with Scarpia, not the liturgy. The Bucharest Te Deum is quite memorable. Dark, massive cross rising from the stage after the stageful of laity file on through the house in Romanian peasant blouses. (But if memory serves, they make the same error with Scarpia.)
But again, surprisingly strong soli. Very worthwhile evening.