On Friday I promised you a couple of up, close and personal pieces from the world of Canadian culture. Tomorrow, please come back, because I'll have full scoop on this year's Interior Design Show, where I roamed the aisles over the weekend. Meanwhile, on to a night at the opera:

I saw. I went. I wanted to leave after the first act. But I hung on till the bitter end of the COC's production of Puccini's The Girl of the Golden West. The sets were intriguing and the males were very strong, but Bulgarian sop Elena Filopova was the hammiest actor I've ever seen at the COC. And I've been attending each and every season since 1992.

First, the story. Minnie, a golden hearted gal, runs a saloon in the early American west. She's been the dream girl of many a gold rush hungry guy, but our Minnie is no push over. Heck, the lady's never even been kissed. All this changes one day when the dreaded bandit Ramerrez arrives at Minnie's saloon, disguised as a businessman. They take one look at one another and the lovesick arias begin to fly.

Now the music is really quite lovely. But when Minnie comes roaring out of stage left, pumping a railroad handcart and brandishing her pearl-handed pistol, the whole house erupted into laughter. If director Vincent Liotta had intended this to be a farce, he should have let the rest of the cast in on the gag. In the first act, the only person trotting the big cheese around the stage was Minnie. I lurked around the cocktail stand only to hear my confusion echoed. "What's with her?" "Is this a comedy or a tragedy?" "The music's good, but the acting ..."

I spoke to the CBC's Michael Crabbe during the second intermission. He completely dismissed the production as well, saying that it was about time somebody updated this tired old operatic war horse before she's put out to pasture for good.