Tag Archives: Opera

O is for Opera

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To say that seeing this opera was an eyeopener would be an understatement. Who knew an opera was going to be this intriguing?

This actually is not the first time I’ve come to the Met Opera House here at Lincoln Center. I remember taking a tour here at the opera house in 9th grade when we had a tour of the place. Who knew I would be back again some 4 years later to actually witness an opera!

The word opera never meant much for me. I mean, if you were to ask me to give you a word that begins with the letter “o”, the first word to come to mind with probably be orange or Oreo or something, and I don’t even think I would ever say the word opera before saying Oprah, LOL.

But last week Thursday, September 25th, was a complete 360 for me. I came with the attitude that it would just be snobby rich affluent people watching a four hour show that I would have absolutely no interest on whatsoever.

I was wrong.

Well, there probably were some snobby rich people, but I saw very diverse people there as well. People came from all over the world to see these performances.

And the best part was, I enjoyed the opera. At intermission I just couldn’t believe what I just saw, and there was more after that.

The best part of the opera was probably the fact that it was not in English. It forced me to try to go along with the people who are performing. The subtitles definitely helped, but I felt that I could probably follow along a bit even without the subtitles.

Mozart, I have to give it to you for the music. You, my friend, are a savant. A true talent.

~Christopher Chong

Reaction to Le Nozze di Figaro

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Beautiful. High-class. Entertaining. Culture. Those are a few words that resonate within me when I think about my first night at the opera. Le Nozze di Figaro, a very entertaining comedy, was my first opera, and I saw it at the amazing Metropolitan Opera to boot. It was an incredible experience: meeting by the elegant water fountain, under the daze of twilight hours, everybody dressed in a their formal attire. It is definitely going to be a lifelong memory for me.

The opera itself was, overall, a captivating experience. Admittedly, there were a few moments where my mind drifted (although I did not fall asleep), but I feel that was due to the remarkable orchestra. The music was of such an elegant level that, at times, I forgot about the hilarious plot of the opera, and let my thoughts fuse with the music.

There were specific scenes, however, that truly grasped my attention. The opening scene, with the mind-boggling, rotating castle along with the very familiar classical tune captivated me, and was able to set the stage for what was to come. A few other memorable scenes were the scene in the bedroom, where Cherubino escapes through the window, and of course plot-twisting the scene where Marcellina and Bartolo are revealed to be Figaro’s parents.

My first night at the opera was a grand experience, and has opened my mind to attending future operas and other shows there at Lincoln Center.

Le Nozze di Figaro

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Le Nozze Di Figaro was much more interesting that I expected it to be. Going into my first opera experience, I was expecting a very boring experience. Moreover, I did not anticipate being able to understand the plot, but the subtitles were incredibly helpful. Instead of being completely lost throughout the performance, I was able to understand exactly what was going on. The opera was actually much funnier that I anticipated, with many well-timed jokes that made the experience much better than just seeing a typical tragedy or drama.

The most impressive part of the opera is that the singers were able to sing loud enough for everyone to clearly hear what they are saying, despite not using microphones. Sometimes the singers would be lying on the floor and still be able to project loud enough for everyone to hear them. They were also able to do this while performing their actions on stage. Moreover, they had to sing over the orchestra, which makes it much more impressive that everyone could understand them.

Overall, I would say that I enjoyed the experience, which is something I did not expect to happen going in.