Yesterday evening, I visited the Metropolitan Opera where I saw “La Boheme”, an opera written by one of the most well-known Italian operatic composers, Giacomo Puccini. This was my second time watching an opera, so the whole experience is still relatively new to me, and I still was enamored by every aspect of the show. From the beautiful chandeliers rising as an act of the opera begins and descending at each intermission to the grandeur of the stage and all of the props that were so aptly and elegantly installed, that I was incredibly surprised how the stage changed so drastically within a few minutes of the intermission, I was taken aback as to how expertly the show was organized and how beautifully everything was done. This is all without taking into consideration one of the most strikingly impressive aspect of the entire show- the inarguable talent of all the performers. The singers’ voices were so incredibly strong and clear that I could not help but be in awe of how these performers were able to perfect their voices to that extent. The only part of the entire operatic experience that I would have changed is the fact that my designated seat was very far back, so I could not make out all of the events occurring on stage and had to rely heavily on the libretto dictating the lines to understand the plot. Despite the fact that the seats were really far away, the performers’ voices were still remarkably clear due to the strength of their voice and the acoustics of the opera house.

In addition to all of the aforementioned facets of the experience that captivated my attention wholly, another element of the show that was very interesting to me was the plot of the opera itself. It is particularly interesting to note that the composer, Giacomo Puccini, liked to focus the plot and drama of his operas on ordinary people, a theme which was incredibly prevalent in “La Boheme”. In fact, Puccini has said that the success of his operas was because he put “great sorrows in little souls”. Yesterday, I watched how two sets of very impoverished people were striving to uphold the ideals of love and artistic expression through numerous barriers and obstacles that came in the form of cold winters and their own destitute lifestyle. It was a tragic story that came to an apex when the prima donna, Mimi, dies in her lover’s, Rodolfo’s arms. All in all, the beauty of the opera house and the stage mixed perfectly with the talent of the singers made yesterday’s opera experience an unforgettable one for me.