For someone who has never visited an Opera before, I was genuinely intrigued as to what I was about to get myself into. Immediately, from the walk off the 4 train towards the Opera House, I could see the commotion around the city. Everyone on Atlantic Ave. had somewhere to go, and many of them were headed in our same direction. I didn’t expect the crowds that were present that night, and was excited for the night to start.
Upon arrival to our seats in the theatre, I could see why this place was named BAM! The architecture and aesthetics of the entire theatre really opened up your eyes and created an atmosphere of awe and wonder. As the theatre went dark and silent, and calm hush went through the crowd, and everyone was curious as to what was about to happen.
Personally, the first play was very confusing although the overall repetition of the actions of the main characters began to help with the process of understanding what was going on. The way how some characters had the same movements the entire play were very interesting and showed me that everyone plays their role, no matter how minimal, to create a beautiful story. The second play was however much more interesting to me because of all the different movements and synchronized dance that gave emphasis and importance to the story. The dull dirty colors of the entire play were offset by the red piece of cloth that begin to transform throughout the play to serve different roles for the characters it pleased. Overall, the 2nd play was very engaging and interesting to watch.
The conclusion I came away with on this night was that Art is always subjective, like we discussed in the beginning of the class year. During intermission, we asked peers, security guards, ushers, and other viewers to describe their meaning of the play to us. The most common answer from all these sources was that, “Art is what you make of it, just like this play is what you make of it.” After seeing tears from the lady sitting in front of us, I truly understood the meaning of this answer and profound statement.
Abishek (AJ) Johnson
