I missed out on Democracy

I missed seeing the first(?) Ulysses S. Grant opera ever, Democracy, based on the book by Henry Adams.

My excuses: (1) it was snowing up to and during the Sunday matinee and I did not want to brave the parking/driving situation in a snowbound D.C. under time pressure with a car full of 10-year-old female opera fans (2) I was fearful of exposing these God-fearing little people to what promised to be "a tale of puffed-up, would-be heroes and cynical, hedonistic rogues" in a "deliciously elitist social comedy that unfolds amid the squalor and corruption of the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant."

So says this review, anyway (registration may be required). And yes, I could tell what the tone of the story would be before I bought tickets, given this description.

Washington is a town so deliriously in love with itself, it's hard to tell if this critic thinks the opera was worthwhile on its own merits. To find out, I'll have to sneak out some night alone to partake of this one the next time it comes around. And as for the children, now that the Peabody has quitely canceled and expunged the modern opera Beauty and the Beast from its spring lineup, they'll have to make do with that buoyant, loveable children's classic Maid of Orleans later this season.