Waking Up To Fiery Pits of Doom…

I’ve always been under the notion that I could sleep through literally anything. Yet, through watching Don Giovanni, I found out a bit of information that was comforting to know for the future: if the world was suddenly engulfed into a fiery hell, I would most likely wake up from my little nap. Good to know.

Although it may not seem like it, I really did try to pay attention and to give Don Giovanni a chance to prove me wrong. I already knew going in that I wasn’t the type of person to appreciate opera. Three years prior I had seen La Bohemme by a random chance that my teacher had an extra ticket and wanted me to see it. Even La Bohemme, which I felt was relevant to me because Rent (one of my favorite musicals) was based on that opera, did not interest me. I thought that perhaps if I tried extra hard this time to read every single subtitle and listen extra carefully to the music, I could prove myself wrong. Yet, midway through the first Act, my eyelids started to droop together and I started to nod off. Gradually, Kathleen’s shoulder had never felt better. Then the next thing I remember is spontaneous combustion and shortly after the opera was over.

So I think I can safely say I am writing this blog from a perspective of a person who has trouble appreciating opera to begin with, let alone Don Giovanni.

Still, there are issues I had with the production that I thought led to my overall drowsiness. The first thing is that the costumes didn’t stand out to me. To the designers defense, I know that people during that time period all dressed alike, but still, there is a problem when you can’t tell the difference between the main characters. At the end when the main characters were all bowing, I found myself second guessing who was who. But then again, I was literally in the last row of the whole theater, so that could have definitely added to the ambiguity.

The second thing was that the set wasn’t as interesting as I thought it could possibly be. Coming from a background where my last experience of opera involved horses on stage, Don Giovanni seemed a little dull. Actually, I distinctly remember that the most impressive part of La Bohemme was the set. Thinking back, I thought it was the coolest thing ever that they made it look like it was snowing on stage the whole time. And then when a horse randomly appeared on stage, I was kinda freaking out. I also remember one of my teachers telling me that she saw a show where they had real, live elephants on stage. That’s awesome. So compared to what I have seen and heard, the design for Don Giovanni was really boring and dull. Until the huge pits of fire, the setting was pretty average. And even then, the blasts of fire was only a short minute of the opera. The rest of the time though, the set was nothing special.

Lastly, the whole plot of Don Giovanni reminded me of a bad soap opera ( wow I just realized… is that where they got the name from?). There’s a reason I decided to not surround myself with people when they are watching shows like All My Children. I can’t stand all the pointless drama.  Okay, so Don Giovanni is a flirt and cheater, we get it. So why go around singing songs that don’t have melodies for hours about how he broke your heart? Just move on already. There’s nothing that special about him anyway. And the ending was just anti-clamatic. Seriously, sucked into hell as punishment? Is that how it happens in life?  That may be more of a reflection of the time period it was written in though. But still, I expected some more retribution.

So overall what I can say of Don Giovani is that 1) It was a good nap time fore me 2) Fire is hot. Even in the last row of the audience.

It is difficult for me to say whether or not Don Giovanni appeals to a younger audience since in general I don’t like opera. From what I observed of my classmates though, their reactions seemed varied. When I looked around at one point during the second act, I could see some eyes watering while trying to stay open and other eyes wide with excitement. I will say though that I feel in many ways the pricing of tickets detracts a lot of young viewers. Both times I have been to the opera, I was only able to go because the tickets were free. I mean, come one, we are college students after all. We’re not made of money (yet).

The opera definitely represents the high life of New York City. At times, I even wondered if the people who attend the opera regularly do so because they truly and deeply enjoy the performance at the opera or because they like the image it represents to them. Everyone around me was dressed so fashionably (once again something I am not used to) and I realized that a part of the glamour of opera is the prestige. If I had gone to a show wearing jeans and a T-shirt, I know I would have definitely gotten some dirty looks. The opera is something that remains inaccessible to common public and therefore becomes something of a fantasy to reach.