Parlez-vous français?

Play while you read if you’d like 🙂

No?…Well that’s ok because we’ve got subtitles…

Say whaaa???

You heard me! You can now go to an Opera and ACTUALLY understand it! YAY for technology.

I am so happy I got a chance to see an Opera for the first time. Although I found myself dozing off a couple of times in the first act I have to say I really enjoyed it and had a blast. I’m blaming my sleepiness on the fact that I stayed up late doing HW the night before. I think this production was really adorable. I loved the storyline. It was so interesting how they created 3 different girls for one girl: Stella. The opera was just like I imagined it and more. It was so grande and magnificent. It was almost like being in a sophisticated circus.

The scenery and props were just simply gorgeous. Even the way the curtain went up was so elegant. Everything was so breathtakingly beautiful that I found myself wishing I was sitting in the front row just so I could be closer to it. I also noticed that they had all 3 girls wearing different shades of pink, sort of connecting them together to show that they were actually one person.

One thing that I think could have made it more enjoyable for a younger audience was the music. Don’t get me wrong I loved the music, but if all the songs were like Kleinzach and Barcarolle I would have loved it even more. Kleinzach was funny and upbeat whereas Barcarolle was very romantic and sweet. For me the other songs didn’t really grab my attention.

This work can easily speak to our generation because I think that everyone has gone through a time in their lives where they’ve fallen in and out of love with that one special person. Les Contes D’Hoffmann teaches it’s audience that although it is hard, life does go on and it is possible for you to move on from that person. I think that if you look at the story in a different light you could also say that it teaches us how we ourselves love one person after another recklessly like Hoffmann who went from Olympia to Antonia to Giulietta. Now, is that a bad thing? Who knows….I mean we only live once right so why not have fun and enjoy ourselves?

I always thought the opera was for the rich and for the old but when I heard we were going I got really excited because I know that in my life I’d probably never go to see an opera by my own will. Now that I’ve been exposed to it though I want to go again and like Vanessa stated, next time we are going all out. We are going in gowns and we are buying golden binoculars and we are going to be fancy shmancy. :p

interesting tidbit…isn’t it cool that this song was used in La Vita E` Bella?…it’s one of my favorite movies 🙂