Since high school, I’ve dreamed of going to see an opera determined not to fall asleep (which I succeeded in), but it always seemed far-fetched considering I rarely had hundreds of dollars to spare for a ticket. Clearly, when we got the opportunity to see a classic like Carmen for free, I was ecstatic. Before college I took a music class for six years, which I loved because music is my ultimate obsession. Needless to say, the music in Carmen infatuated me. Most alluring to me was Carmen’s leitmotif (the recurring melody associated with a character) that I sang for days after the performance. I tried a little experiment during the performance where I didn’t use subtitles for the first half and did use them for the second half. I found that I enjoyed it more solely by watching and listening rather than focusing on translations. It isn’t necessary to understand the words especially when most of them are repeated. Feeling the emotion and tone in the music is enough to comprehend the storyline and it allows you to experience the opera instead of looking at a screen. Speaking of the storyline, I loved the plot based on the strong, defiant and beautiful Carmen, but I was dissatisfied with her murder. I felt it was somehow unimpressive because the opera is known to be overly dramatic, so I thought her death would be more public and theatrical. After Professor Eversley showed us Beyonce’s Hip Hopera, I was interested in discovering more Carmen inspired art and I realized a song I loved for years was named after her by Lana Del Rey that tells the story of a promiscuous, independent woman. All in all, my first opera experience left me wanting more which is why I am trying to convince my uncle to buy us tickets for Mozart’s The Magic Flute even though he wants to see The Marriage of Figaro.