Nov 22 2009
Oh, Good, So I didn’t Miss Anything.
Watching, watching, watching, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, watching.
I thought that “Barber of Seville” would be able to change the way I look at operas (boring, not-understandable, boring). Unfortunately, I must admit that I was wrong.
There were several things that are evoking my bad review: the fact that there was no plot, the trite idea within the storyline of “love of first sight” along with a “happily ever after,” and my inability to understand why certain things happened.
As far as the first aspect, I am seemingly the only person who is under the firm impression that there was no plot. A friend of mine from another class (who read the play prior to seeing the opera), remarked “of course there was plot! You didn’t get it?” No, I didn’t. In fact, the lack of a solid plotline and the circular web of events enabled me to fall asleep at one point (I was extremely tired, and the soothing voices were the perfect lullaby), wake up 15 minutes later, and still be on track with everything that was going on.
This ties into my misunderstanding of several things that happened on stage – the falling of the anvil, for example, or the huge explosion in the kitchen when the Count was walking through there. Why were these things necessary? Perhaps they made sense as a symbol or a metaphor, but the director did not do a good job in translating their figurative meaning within the production.
Additionally, I wasn’t fond of the Shakespearean concept of “love at first sight.” Although the Count and Rosalina didn’t fall in love at first sight, but at first listen, the idea is the same. It is simply too unrealistic for my liking. Additionally, the fact that the Count and Rosalina ended up defeating all “evil” (namely, Bartolo, and his schemes to keep the two apart) and going on to live out a “happily ever after” together, didn’t appeal to me either. Life’s occurrences don’t always end so fortunately, and I often dislike productions with fairy-tale endings. I suppose it’s good to think positively and hope for the best, but at the same time, I deem it important that there is enough reality in anything that I see/read/experience.
However, it would not be fair for me to bash the entire production. There were several things that I thoroughly enjoyed about the opera. I was impressed by the fact that the singers were not only singing, but acting at the same time.
Additionally, I realized that the band and songs were enough for me to understand everything that was going on – I believe that I may not have even needed the English translations. The intonations of the singers and the tension built up by the music was sufficient for me to realize when something was going wrong, when a particular character was angry, etc. For a composer to be able to manipulate music in such a way is truly amazing.
Even if the Opera was boring at times, it was still really comical.
I thought that there was a plot, but it was just too shallow to make it noticeable. That can be a good thing too. I was more focused on the humor then the actual storyline, since it wasn’t that realistic to begin with.
It was not that there was no plot. The plot was too exaggerated. The story which could have been represented in a mere 1 hour along with two or three songs was shown in 3 hours, and that is what made the plot non existent for some. Further for me the the overlong ending of the play (where the count and Rosina were almost singing for half an hour) dampened the effect of the whole play.
I thought that the explosion and the anvil showed that it was indeed a unique opera, and that they are willing to do something out of the ordinary. I didn’t see the Barber of Servile as an opera, I preferred to think of it as a saturday morning cartoon.
Love at first sight is such a typical, recurring idea for plays and operas though I barely noticed it in this opera. I think it was too funny too dislike. I think anything is funny, so the weird things they did stopped me from being hostile towards the plays plot.
I actually HATE the idea of “love at first sight.” It was what I had against Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” But aside from that, I didn’t find the opera as terrible as it seemed. The fact that it was taking place in the 1800’s and during that time ideas about love seemed to be different helped me move past the idea of love at first sight.But I enjoyed it because it was simply funny. The seemingly random things that occurred were what kept me awake and focused. 🙂
I did not like the plot of the opera either, however, the love at first sight aspect of the opera is some thing we should be prepared for, considering that it is more important what happens after they fall in love than before.
The plot existed, as your friend mentioned, but it was to some extent shallow.