Ah, the sweet joy of sitting in the “Family Circle”. In all seriousness though, there are seats worse than those of the “Family Circle”. I’m not sure if you can still refer to them as seats since they’re standing spots in the very last row.
Seeing Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera hasn’t been my first experience at the opera. My parents are both frequenters of the Metropolitan Opera House and drag me along every once in a while. Let’s just say, mom has an entire album on her phone dedicated to pictures of me sleeping at the opera. This time, I promised myself, would be different. I would stay awake the entire time. My problem tends arise after the intermission. It’s the end of the night. It’s so dark. The music is so soothing. But not this time, sleep would not get the best of me; during the intermission I got a cup of coffee.
If one were to call the opera a dying art, I would understand them. Movies made their debut in the 30’s and were able to gain popularity because of their financial availability over live performances. But truthfully I think it goes beyond the fact that operas are expensive. Opera’s require a lot of brainwork. I’m not saying that it’s a not enjoyable form of entertainment; I’m saying that it’s not a mindless form of entertainment. It’s not a romantic comedy you could have on in the background while having a discussion and still be able to catch the all the details of the movie. You really have to invest yourself in the performance. The performance is in a language you aren’t fluent in, but even when it is you have to read the subtitles (I’m a fluent Russian speaker and when I saw Eugene Onegin at the MET, I caught maybe a total of four words). The plot is usually pretty intricate, often containing love polygons, but it’s not all bad; reading the synopsis in the playbill is always helpful. In addition to that, being a personal of limited knowledge on classical music makes it difficult to identify the character by voice, which becomes necessary when you are sitting so high up. I have to admit though, this time when there were two male characters on the stage I tried to pay attention to the distinction between their voices and began to just barely be able to distinguish them. Something I learned from the San Diego Opera Podcast about Don Jose, is that the singing also tells a lot about character development. It continues to intensify when you take the scenery into consideration. The scenery of the Metropolitan Opera House is always so beautiful and when you can’t seem to catch on to the plot you could spend the entirety of the performance admiring the costumes and the set. This specific feature that intrigued me this time was the stage, particularly in the final act. The stage appeared to be intentionally higher on one side, giving the scenery a sense of dimensionality. I wasn’t sure whether the stage was actually lifted or it was an optical illusion made possible by the use of lighting. All in all, I would say operas are demanding. They demand you to be entirely present in the performance. You have to have the plot in the back of your mind, you have to read the subtitles and listen to the singing and the orchestra and manage to see visuals on the stage. All that being said, if you truly submerge yourself in the performance it becomes less overwhelming and more enjoyable. I don’t know if I would have enjoyed the performance as much as I did if this had been my first opera. I’m starting to think that perhaps opera is an acquired taste.
I would go back to the opera, I would even come back to see Carmen. I can’t imagine watching it for a second time and feeling bored; I feel like with each viewing I would notice something I missed previously. I wouldn’t be able to tell you whether or not from a technical stand point the performance was well executed but I could tell you that if there intent was to tell a story with emotion evident in vocal projection, they were successful.
