The Arts in New York City

Don Giovanni took away my opera virginity with promises of a grand time and a spectacular night, but alas, when it was over, I, like many others, had been betrayed. Having never seen opera before Don Giovanni, I always thought I’d enjoy it because I enjoy singing and listening to orchestral music. Man, was I wrong. I love music and embrace all types, but this opera performance was so hard to endure. The whole thing was around two hours of the actors singing in Italian, repeating every other sentence for about three or four times, or more. I was not totally enthralled as I expected myself to be, however the whole experience wasn’t completely negative.

The plot of the performance was one of three aspects that kept me interested. Although it was hard to tell what was going on because of our location in the furthest back row, I was able to determine the situation through the subtitles provided to us. You had your protagonist Don Giovanni who was basically the anti-hero of the whole story, pissing everyone off until the heavens decided his life was over. The entire hunt for Don Giovanni was really hilarious. He always found a way to escape. As much as it was a funny thing, I found it to be disappointing. I was convinced that each scene where they had Don Giovanni cornered, would be the ending where he ultimately dies. Anyone who enjoyed the opera would have been happy to find out that the performance continued, but to be honest, I wanted to get out of there.

The second of the three aspects is the music. I love music. Music is everywhere, and it is awesome. The orchestra that accompanied the performance was just fantastic. Their musicians were obviously skilled, and they played their cues on point. Each scene was accompanied with music (It’s hard to imagine the opposite), and the loudness of it all was enough to keep me awake and reading the subtitles. Actually, at many points throughout the opera, I found myself ignoring the subtitles, closing my eyes, and imagining myself conducting the orchestra (As anyone around me would have noticed!). This was perhaps what I enjoyed the most about the opera. One would think I would have much to say about the opera style singing itself, but I actually didn’t find the singing to be striking. Don’t get me wrong here, the singers were phenomenal; their harmonization was superb, their sustain was impressive, and the fact that they could do this while moving around was astounding. I just really wasn’t too fond of the substance. I couldn’t connect emotionally with the singing perhaps because of certain reasons having to do with myself or perhaps because of the singers themselves. Either way, the connection just wasn’t there and I really just found myself paying more attention to the music.

The final aspect of the performance that kept me interested was the set. It’s apparent that much work had been put into designing the set. The brick house complex, reminiscent of the buildings back in Don Giovanni’s time, was really well made in terms of appearance and functionality. The set was able to morph with ease into different sets, and with the aid of the lighting and other factors I may be unaware of, it really brought out the atmosphere for the scene. Good examples of this are when the house split into two, and when the set transformed into a party scene, utilizing the use of warm colors. Along with the set, I think the costume design was pretty great. The clothes really set the characters apart and helped me identify who was who from such a far distance. It would be hard however, for me to mention specific details of certain costumes due to my bad vision and inaccessibility to binoculars.

Personally, although I can find a good amount of positives within this opera, I don’t believe that the opera showed a great appeal to a younger audience. Much of my claim comes from the feedback of my fellow peers who complained about how bored they were, and how incredibly long the performance was. Many of them, including me at one point, were either asleep, or falling asleep. This is not to say the young audience overall didn’t enjoy it. I’m sure there are a handful of my peers who would disagree with me. Still, I heard more complaints than praise that night.

With regard to New York being a fantasy or nightmare, I feel that the opera definitely fits in more with the fantasy side of New York. Up until Don Giovanni, I had always pictured viewing opera as something I’d never do unless I had a lot of money to spend. A LOT of money. I always wondered about how an actual opera was, piecing together my exposure of opera through movies and other indirect outlets. Yet, it was never quite like my experience with Don Giovanni. I always held opera in high regard as an elite art form, and it was perhaps that standard I set that had made me disappointed that night.

Don Giovanni is a well developed opera, with its interesting plot, extremely talented singers/actors, great set, and amazing orchestra. Such factors when put together create an amazingly crafted piece, however such a piece isn’t fit for my taste as well as a good amount of the younger audience. Today’s teens just aren’t entertained by the slow paced action of opera among other things. Such a claim stated, will opera be able to survive in the future when its main audience is gone? Such is an important question to be answered in time. Until then, those who enjoy opera, keep on keeping on. You have my utmost respect.

I like to begin my reviews on performances by letting readers in on the opinions and preconceived notions that I take in with me. These notions obviously are not self-constructed epiphanies that I simply make up and believe. In fact, they’re opinions and reviews of my fellow peers, professors and even professionals, who have seen the show. To prevent the evils of bias, I consider the views of a group of people, and then let myself be the deciding figure. In this way, I compare my views from before and after a performance, and show how my opinion was either refuted or strengthened with the delivery of the performance as well.

Hence, let me start with letting everyone in on the impression I had of The Metropolitan Opera and Don Giovanni, before my actual experience. Taking my Professor’s experience into consideration, I expected the audience to be filled with wealthy, old snobs who carry the most belittling attitude possible. I really looked forward to the people “dripping in jewels” with glamorous outfits, however. It would be an interesting experience and sight since not only would I be a watching the opera, I’d get a glimpse of the privileged wealthy ones as well. The opera Don Giovanni itself, would be strong a sleeping pill. Students stressed how hard it was to keep their eyes open, let alone the fact that their eyes had to work extra hard by reading the subtitles and watching the opera. It would be a torture to sit through hours of a boring performance, I thought. However, there must be something to the performance that kept it ongoing and popular at the theatre, I thought. In the end, I had to go watch the opera. There was no argument on that.

To my surprise and pleasure, I really enjoyed the opera. Granted that reading the subtitles and having to watch the performance was a little difficult at times, but it was completely manageable. I knew exactly what the characters were singing about, and I looked forward to the unfolding events of the story. At times, the unnecessarily long songs and expression of emotions worked to my benefit because it gave me time to understand exactly how the character was feeling. Of course, a closer seat and look at the character’s expressions would’ve have enhanced my experience. I would’ve been able to see the pain in Donna Anna eyes, the anger in Elvira’s eyes, and the mischief in Don Giovanni’s eyes. Despite the fact, the dialogue and lyrics captured a decent amount of sentiments of the play. It was enough for the audience to understand how each character was feeling. Perhaps watching the opera from afar allowed us to focus more on the auditory aspect rather than the visual aspect of the play. It is an opera, after all. Professor Healey mentioned how operas would have fat old women singing the parts of beautiful young maidens, back in the day. At least this opera didn’t distort the image of the story. In our case, it only helped us focus on the dialogue and singing more.

The weak points of the opera were definitely the stage sets and the costume design. Although the moving buildings were cool, they didn’t fit in to the story all the time. For scenes that included a street view or the cemetery, the dark and old-fashioned architecture worked well. However, I just couldn’t process that same set being used for a village celebration or Don Giovanni’s house. Most importantly, I do not think the outside of a Commentadore’s house would look the way that it was shown. He is indeed, a wealthy high ranked official. The costumes of the characters misplaced societal statuses as well. Elvira and other girls looked equally wealthy as Donna Anna. Leporello’s costume wasn’t too different from Don Giovanni’s costume either. Maybe my distance from the stage blurred the distinction in the costume of the master and the servant, or perhaps, the costumes weren’t designed well enough to truly represent the status of each character.

At times, I found myself weird for even thinking the performance was a great experience. During the intermission, students were either complaining about how lost they were or how sleepy the performance made them. Part of these complains were rooted in the fact that we were sitting so far away from the stage. The distance took away the life of the opera, and the stage seemed more unrealistic (and even boring) than television itself.  All young opera viewers will probably be presented with such a situation because The Metropolitan Opera does not make the upfront seats affordable.  How will the young generation appreciate the art form, if its brought to them in the most diluted and uncomfortable way? The storyline, singing, and acting might be marvelous on its own, but if the audience can’t see the performance well, there is only so much that they can take from it.  Another aspect that might be unappealing to young viewers is the language barrier. Sure, the story takes place in Italy and the Italian language would be a more realistic depiction. However, this turns off young viewers. The jokes become annoying and the laughs come late, because the dialogue is read on a little screen, rather than heard with a tone. The performance can no longer be watched with relaxation, for the viewers must now read along with the performance to actually figure out what’s going on. It’s entertainment that requires effort. Young viewers are not willing to put in the effort, or won’t invest in watching the opera again because it requires effort. The best contrasting example that comes to my mind is that of Asuncion. Not only was everyone seated up close, jokes and dialogues conveyed in English made sense to youngster brains and this allowed for the story to flow as well. Hence, a young viewer will most likely be put off by different elements of the opera. I might actually be weird then, because I liked the opera regardless.

If anything, my opera experience added on to the fantasy of New York City. The Metropolitan Opera itself gave a taste of opulence, exemplified by the chandeliers and red velvet walls and floors. To add on to the atmosphere, the audience was heavily made up of wealthy people who wore their wealth on themselves (clothing and jewelry). An outsider would only take this image and mistakenly constitute it to represent all of New York City. The nightmares of the city are nowhere to be seen.