Dinner and opera?

I live in a posh town, with many, many restaurants, sometimes I think there are more restaurants than there are people. And this is not counting the pubs. Some are chains, some are family places, others are fancy places. And this is not counting pubs. There is a relatively new restaurant, a year old at the most, a posh restaurant with expensive meals. It looks like a nice enough place, on a first floor that gives a view to the main street, the menu if expensive seems nice enough (that said I enjoy any place with a good choice of fish) but I find the way they branded the restaurant a bit... pretentious? I am just not so sure about it.

And recently, I discovered that they are having special evenings, among them opera nights. Basically, it's an evening three courses meal with a soprano singing famour opera arias. At £35 all in all (I guess it is without counting the drinks). I am of two minds about it. Seriously. I mean the concept is interesting, it mixes two pleasures in life and if the food and the music are good, well it could be a winner. But my problem is that it could be an excuse for snobbery. The danger with art, any art, is that sometimes the crowd and being part of the crowd is more important than the art itself. Interesting fact that kind of bugs me: on the restaurant's website, I can see the menu for the Opera Night, but not the programme. I know what I would eat, from starter to dessert (fish, fish and then chocolate), but I have no idea what I would listen to. And it keeps bugging me. For much cheaper I can make dinner fior a few friends myself, I can get a CD or two, I can invite a few friends and I can have my own Opera Night. After a few glasses I might sing a bit myself. It will not be as professional, but I can guarantee it will not be half bad.

I cannot blog about opera without uploading here an aria. So I decided to put here something from Zaide, an unfinished work of Mozart. Interpreted by Natalie Dessay. Someone I doubt we can have in a local restaurant, unfortunately.