I have never been to a ballet in my life nor stepped into an opera house. BAM Opera House hit me with unexpected feelings of confusion and with a new outlook on art. BAM was an esthetically pleasing architectural structure which lacked an efficient entry way to the theater on the third floor. On the first floor, there was only two elevators which lacked organized lines leading up to them. The theater itself was stunning and my fellow classmates and I sat towards the left side of the balcony facing the stage. After watching the ballets, I felt the shows lacked a plot, repeated the same motions and were confusing. Overwhelmed by the first show, I asked the person next to me what they made of the show and the young lady answered, “the show was amazing it is what you make of it”. Her response, further confused me and made me wonder what she actually made out of it and what I missed. Exemplified by the response of the young lady sitting next to me, the audience did not feel the same way as I did. When each of the two shows ended everyone started clapping and many stood up to give an ovation. It was the longest and loudest ovation I was ever a part of. The audience loved it and I was still taking it all in. A day and a half after the performance, I am now blogging for this assignment and reminiscing how I left the performance with a “what”? Thus, I am very interested in hearing the discussion we have as a class about the ballets.
Andrew Langer
Andrew, I was also stunned by the voraciousness of the applause that followed the performance. I think I applauded based on the principle of the hard work and time and pure talent that these performers must have put into this ballet, but I know many people were applauding for the pure brilliance of the performance itself. This is the second blog post I’ve read where other audience members commented that the ballet “is what you make of it” so I’m also interested to see what our other classmates have to say about the performance.
Thank you for your insight!
Jayne