La bohème and Opera

I was really excited to be able to go to the opera. My parents had went to a few before at the Metropolitan Opera House but I never had the chance to go myself. My parents had told me that they enjoyed themselves when they had gone, and Gregory, my classmate and friend, told me that he considered Giacomo Puccini to be his favorite opera composer. I knew beforehand that Italian operas, Puccini, and La bohème were considered the best of the best in terms of operas. When I arrived, I had trouble finding where my class was located or where my ticket was and I was pleasantly surprised by how understanding, helpful, and kind the staff were and they helped me find where I needed to go. The auditorium was beautiful and grand and even being in the topmost row I felt that I had a good view of everything. I was curious about how the subtitles would work or if it would be annoying to have to keep moving my eyes from the words to the stage but everything worked surprisingly well. I was also impressed by how I could only see my own subtitles since they are only visible when you look at them head on and disappear if you look at them from an angle.

I thought the sets were absolutely stunning. At many points I was convinced that I was not looking down at a stage but into a whole new world. The singers were also extraordinarily talented. I find a lot of modern music that uses “operatic” vocals seems distasteful and over-the-top, however, I could see how this vocal style was perfect for this sort of performance. I found myself simply appreciating the fact that the human voice is able to be so powerful and project so far without any electric amplification. The notes were also crisp and clean, no rasp, cracks or breaks. It almost felt like I was not listening to real people sing. I found it funny how so many popular singers these days need the help of autotune and endless filters applied to their voice to make it tolerable while here were the real professionals who did not even need the help of a microphone.

The love story was interesting although I wish I had gone into the opera without having watched “Rent” first, since the story in the opera kept reminding me of the movie, which aside from a few scenes and characters (i.e. Angel), I did not really enjoy.

I do not normally enjoy musicals. The only one I can remember from the top of my head that I truly enjoyed was “Book of Mormon,” although even that was imperfect and was at times a bit tasteless and corny. However, this opera, although I did not really enjoy the plot so much, possibly due to being spoiled by “Rent,” really opened my mind to the possibilities within this medium. I will definitely be doing research into other operas whose plots seem more enticing and giving those a try.