Walking into the Metropolitan Opera House, my expectations were high. Upon initially arriving, I was mesmerized by the beauty of the room, the high ceilings with grand chandeliers, and the outfits that people had put together. I climbed what seemed like hundreds of stairs and finally pushed through the crowd to find my seats in the family circle, otherwise known as the poor people section. “Alright so this isn’t so bad, maybe we’ll still have a clear shot of the performers,” I thought. Boy, was I wrong. The performance began and there I was squinting away. I’d like to give a big shout out to my binoculars. Thank you for giving me the gift of sight. Those tiny ants running around surely came to life. The only problem was that I couldn’t read the subtitles while using the binoculars, so I had to choose whether to see who was speaking or to understand what they were saying. Either way, I wasn’t really into the plot. The whole cliché love story isn’t really my thing. He loves her and she loves him then she doesn’t love him and so on…Who cares?! I definitely didn’t.
I must say though when my eyelids began to droop from the boring plot, there were many other elements that kept me interested. My particular favorite was the music. All of the instruments came together to create a beautiful array of sounds. Bizet’s Carmen consists of some of the greatest operatic works of all time including the Habanera, and the Toreador. It even inspired other composers to compose several fantasies later on for violin. It was also really cool how everything depended on the conductor. To me, he was the star of the show. With a flick of his wrist, the music would sound and this would cue the actors and the lights to get into position. I also really enjoyed the singing. The performers’ voices were so powerful and they truly moved me. The costumes that people wore were also really fitting with their characters. In particular, at the end of the opera when all of the actors and actresses came out, there were really creative costumes. When Carmen went to Escamillo’s bull fighting, her black gown with the red straight trailed behind her as she walked across the stage keeping her head held high, taking her last breaths of air. She kept her poise and character wanting to die as a free woman rather than giving in to Don Jose.
Overall, I’m glad I had the chance to attend an opera. Although I probably wouldn’t go see it again because of the high price of the tickets, the difficulty to see the performers, and my lack of understanding about what was going on, it was a one-time experience that I won’t forget. I personally wasn’t a big fan of the opera, but that doesn’t mean that everyone my age has the same feelings as me. For instance, my roommate is obsessed with Carmen and when I told her that I had gone to see it she booked her tickets to go see it again, for her third time. Yeah, most of the audience was older, but opera really varies from person to person and that doesn’t go to say that it is exclusively for the older crowd. Opera has been around since the 16th century, and it definitely isn’t going to die anytime soon.
