South America 2022/2023

A few years ago, Brenda and I saw the Beatles tribute band, Beatlemania, play with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum Theater. The band did a really good job of recreating the Beatles tunes, but the real magic of the evening was the power of a live symphony orchestra accompanying those timeless melodies.

Of course, mention anything Beatles to me and I’m in. And so, when Brenda came to me with an ad for “Symphonic Beatles Revolver” at the Teatro Mendoza last Sunday, I immediately put it on my calendar. All we had to do now was buy tickets. When we started looking online, there were still a lot of good seats available at all prices, however, the website refused to accept our Canadian credit card as payment. No problem, the theater is only three kilometers from our apartment and the box office is open until 7:00 PM. Of course, once we got to the theater, we found the box office closed and were told tickets are only sold online or at the box office starting two hours before the show.

Disappointed that all the good seats would probably all be gone by then, we nonetheless resolved to return at 7:00 PM on Sunday and be the first in line to grab two leftover seats.

As it turned out, we arrived at the box office at 7:05 on Sunday and there was no sign of life anywhere except for the security guard inside the door. He informed us the tickets would go on sale at 8:00 PM, one hour before showtime. Things are just done differently in South America.

We decided to have dinner while we waited and ended up eating a reasonable facsimile of a Thai meal. We then made our way back to the theater and managed to score two seats, just off center in the eleventh row for only $1500. We were of course very pleased with our purchase and because we had an hour to kill before showtime, we wandered around the corner to a convenience store that offered tables where clients could enjoy their purchases, in our case, a couple of ice-cold beers.

Although the showtime was listed as 9:00 pm, the music didn’t start until almost 9:30 pm. Normally, us old fogies would be getting ready to hit the sack. The band was comprised of three singers, two men and a woman, a four-piece string section, five brass players, a flautist, drummer, bassist, guitarist and a pianist. Hardly a symphony orchestra, but they hit all the right notes and provided an enjoyable evening of music. The voices overall were quite good, although it was a little weird having a female voice in the mix. The band was very good at interacting with the crowd although Brenda and I only understood about ten percent of what they were saying. We both agreed it was $3000 well spent.

At the end of the thirty-song set, we, and the crowd, left the auditorium with smiling faces, presumably to go home. We tried to get an Uber, but there was a long wait and prices were high, so we hopped on a bus. As we rode past Plaza Independencia we were astonished to see throngs of people, families with young children, a night market and food stalls doing thriving business at almost midnight on a Sunday. And again, as the bus drove down the restaurant hub of Mendoza, Aristides Boulevard, the sidewalks were crowded and all the tables, inside restaurants and outside, were filled with people. Since we are NEVER out this late, we had no idea of the nightlife in this city.

We may have to readjust our sleep schedule over the next couple of months.

Oh yeah, those expensive tickets for the show: They cost 3,000 pesos, not dollars, which is $13.39 CDN.Read more