Alright, I’ll admit, that’s a bit extreme. However, for a short amount of time during the second act, I did happen to find myself in a bit of a comatose state. Perhaps it was a result of my slight insomnia in the nights prior to the performance, but it seemed as if the singers were lulling me to sleep. Their beautifully drawn out sentences, their phenomenal voices. If you close your eyes, you could easily mistake it for a lullaby.
Although I’ve discovered that the opera may not be for me, I must give credit where credit is due. When we entered the Opera we were greeted with a display case containing one of the female costumes from a previous performance. The dress was extravagant and seemed to have come out of a fairy tale. I could easily picture it being worn in Cinderella to the ball, it was just that beautiful. As for the costumes from our performance, I’m afraid I cannot comment on them in great detail because of the distance from our seats to the stage. However, if they were as elaborate as the one on display on the second floor, I credit the actresses for running around (and being able to breath!) in those dresses, especially while singing.
Singing. Wow, the voices of the performers were A-MAZING. I actually did not pay much attention to their voices as much in the first act because I was busy trying to keep up with the storyline, but once I heard Sylvia and Ashley raving about the vocals, I felt inclined to pay closer attention, and WOW! I’ll admit, opera isn’t exactly my preference of music, but these performers sang in a way that gave me reverence for something completely out of my element. The way the notes were held for such extended amounts of time was just phenomenal. However, later on in the play I did begin to get annoyed at the seemingly OVER drawn out and repetitive nature of the songs. I mean, honestly, the performance could have been cut down at least a half an hour if the characters didn’t feel the need to repeat their thoughts countless times, and repeat the SAME lines 379846837572094 times. But after all, all music does that doesn’t it?
As for the subtitles, it always takes me a while to get adjusted from looking between the actors and the stage, but I thoroughly enjoy performances in other languages. It seems to portray and extra level of authenticity to the performance. While I loved the subtitles availability, the part of the performance that stole the show for me was the set. I was amazed at how easily it converted to fit the scene and the minute details that it seemed to have (ex:windows, doors, BALCONIES). I still can’t imagine how it was moved between scenes, because it looked awfully heavy. But I thought it was absolutely beautiful. My only strife is that it was a very dull color, so it may have benefitted from a brighter paint job.
I can see where some may think that Don Giovanni appeals to a younger audience (a guy running around causing scandal by sleeping with numerous women), but I still do not believe that the opera effectively targets a younger audience. Not many teenagers today have the attention span to sit through a 3 hour performance PLUS save the money for a ticket. I’m not exactly sure how much our tickets would have been at full price, but I can imagine it being a tad out of my comfort zone for spending – even if it was for nosebleed seats. Besides the prices, I think the storyline was a little too far fetched to appeal to a younger audience. The younger generations are drifting further from the original religious context of the play, and are most likely going to be skeptical of an ending where the protagonist gets sucked into the fiery pits of hell. Why couldn’t Donna Elvira (I think that’s her name) get vengeance on Don Giovanni on her own? What happened to women’s liberation? Why does she keep going back to such a misogynistic pig?
I highly believe the opera portrays the fantasy of New York. If for no other reason, because of the prestige of the opera house. EVERYTHING was velvet, the stairs ,the walls, the railings. And it was the fancy kind of velvet that doesn’t get matted over time due to wearing. I was very awestruck and intimidated at the same time. The extravagance of the costumes is another factor that plays into the fantasy of the opera. The average New Yorker isn’t going to own anything remotely close to Don Elvira’s gown, which I assume was magnificent. AND THE CHANDELIERS! I was scared to even look at them for fear of them breaking. It was a very elite experience definitely NOT aimed for a young audience, and NOT for the lower class, even if at one time the lower class were the majority of opera-goers.
