What did you think of the performance? What struck you the most? What are you taking away with you?
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What did you think of the performance? What struck you the most? What are you taking away with you?
I have to say, I was always a little skeptical about operas. I was looking forward to going because I thought it would be a good thing to experience – an opera is something everyone should try out in their life. Once it started, I knew that I was wrong to doubt that I would like it – because I REALLY did! I enjoyed it soo much. I am so fascinated by singing, and opera singers are really impressive. They kept singing and singing, without any breaks. Imagine how breathless they must feel! It must be extremely hard to train for, performing for that long. The music was beautiful, as was the stage setting. It was an incredible experience and opened up a whole new world of art for me. Thank you Professor Perl!!
I was honestly doubting many things before going to the opera. I was very excited about it, because its an opportunity that I might not get again (at least not with the same seats). I was afraid that I was not going to like it, and would want to leave as soon as I sat down. I didn’t want to fall asleep during the opera either, but I was afraid I was going to. Proud to say that I didn’t, though I almost did at the end. Now I can say that I sat through an opera, and loved it. The opera itself was wonderful. I did not imagine them to have such powerful voices. I wonder how much they must train before the actual performance. The storyline was also great. It was very funny and interesting. The very end (when the curtain was falling) was very funny, after all that happened the title really does fit the opera. Così fan tutte. Like miss Madeline said, it really did open up a while new world. It was amazing, and I would definitely do this again!
Cosi Fan Tutte was the idea of a brilliant man who knows a lot about women. Just kidding, maybe. But attending the opera was fun. Any opportunity we get to spend time with our classmates outside of the class environment is always a treat, and being able to have an intellectual discussion about our activity afterward is fun.
I was impressed by the voices these singers possessed. I wanted to pull out my champagne glass and see what would happen but I couldn’t take my focus off of Despina! …
This was the first time for me at the the opera. I never thought in my life that I would go because it wasn’t something that interested me. I always thought that it was people singing really loudly and I didn’t see why people thought it was so great. Talking about it and actually going to see a opera performance made me see why so many people went to see it. The singers have great talents and to be able to sing like that for such a long time is very impressive. Over all the opera was great but i really didn’t like how the people in the audience were. I know they payed for their tickets and they are expensive and they want to enjoy the performance, but all the people were so rude over very little things that it discouraged me from ever wanting to go again.
Like everyone else, I had never been to the Opera. But I felt like I had a pretty good idea of what it would be like and I actually did. I was happy to have experienced this event, but honestly, I am not a huge fan of operas. I was amazed by the sustainability of the performers and their fabulous ability to sing for sooooo long. Not once did they show a bit of weariness. They performed! But the genre itself does not hold my attention for too long. After 20 minutes I had enough. It was entirely too repetitive for me. I stopped looking at the translation screen after 10 minutes. Then I stopped attentively watching the show after 30 minutes.
Great experience. I am grateful. But I am almost certain it won’t happen again.
For every other event that you have taken us to I was skeptical, however by now I was just like “even though I don’t think I will like it, Professor Perl has proved me wrong every time thus far.” So I was looking foreword to it, and I was not disappointed but I was not blown away. What the singers were able to do with their voices was amazing, and the storyline of the show was also (though unreal) very amusing, and interesting. However I agree with Renisha in that after a while, it became quite repetitive to me. But I really did love the experience of that night.
I always thought I had an idea of what opera was: loud, theatrical, and boring. However, when we watched some videos from Cosi Fan Tutte during class, I took more interest in the performance. I found that there was actually a storyline behind the sometimes-incomprehensible lyrics. By the time the night of the performance came around, I was pretty excited. First of all, I got to dress up. Second, I was going to experience something for the first time. During the performance, I was able to keep up with the story through the subtitles in front of me. I was so impressed at the power and strength all the opera singers had to be able to continuously sing for so long! I also had a few laughs- I didn’t know opera had comedy in it as well. I enjoyed my experience except for the audience members around us, who gave us a hard time for every little noise we made. Most of the time it was not even us! It was unfair for them to ruin my good time, and it was a bad first impression of frequent opera goers. Overall, I liked the opera and would like to go see another one soon!
The opera was overall a wonderful first experience, but overall lethargic. I particularly enjoyed the orchestra and Mozart’s musical score, and I had no idea what the critic of the NY Times was critiquing on the conductor’s directing. The syncopation of the orchestra with the lead singers was near perfect, and I had little qualms with the play. My only regret was actually leaving early to study for my biology test.
Step, step, step. My feet are wandering back and forth as I’m rushing to the MET. “Oh no, I’m going to be late once again”, are the words echoing in my mind. Clack, clack, clack. The sounds of my heels become more apparent as my pace suddenly begins to quicken up. I’m past the water fountain now, “yes…. I might make it on time”. “Bing, bing, bing”. Sound of bells are ringing against my ears, as the final notices are being given to start going to your seats. Two faint smiles, two different people telling me where to go. The smooth red carpet serves as a backdrop to the fancy clothes, the smell of wine and drinks, and shining jewelry. I walk to my seat and give a smile to Renisha, and a quick introduction to Maddie’s mom. Minutes past- and lights off. A sense of serenity and calmness embraces the audience. Meanwhile, I can hear the clamorous voices of the ederly couple behind me. I give a quick laugh, hearing the husband speak so loud and his wife repeatedly saying – “shhhhhhh”. Silence. The orchestra leader enters the stage- applauds follow. And so it begins. The soft beautiful melodies of music can be heard throughout the audience. I feel like I did when watching James Cameron’s movie- Avatar. The music was saying a story- soft, funny, entertaining story. This is my favorite part of the opera- the orchestra. I smile as I see the conductor’s body move in a rhythmic pattern- hands moving in a fluid motion, up and down – left to right. It was like listening to the soundtrack of a movie. Minutes pass by and so the opera begins. Telemundo. This is the word that pops into my head while watching the entire Opera. It was like the Telemundo novela’s my mom use to constantly watch on the living room couch. Pure drama between man and women. This was like its exact replication, with the addition of music. My eyes were constantly shifting from the chair to the stage. “Are they really singing live”? Is what I asked myself. In that moment it is easy to forget that the voices we hear, the soft playing music, and the consistency apparent throughout the scenes is very real. It is this sense of reality that makes the moment so beautiful and close to perfection. Now I said close to perfection. As I was sitting down, I went through a series of reactions. It went like this “awesome orchestra…wow loving the first 40 minutes of the opera…. this is now getting repetitive…. losing a bit of interest…. zzzzz I zoned out. “ Like Renisha, I found the opera to be repetitive. If an opera was perhaps and hour long, I truly believe it could be perfection. But after 40 minutes, that same magic that was there in the beginning was lost. The impeccable talent was still there, but the little fire that kept me glued to the staged was wandering off. Intermission came, and the floors were crowded. As I left the MET, I left overall with a good impression, but a bitter aftertaste. Would I ever go again? I cannot give you a direct answer. It would have to depend on the opera, and how long it is. One thing is for sure- I greatly appreciated this experience and the first half of the show was magical.
My first experience with opera…was a lot better than expected. I expected to fall asleep in the first 10 minutes. But I didn’t, I managed to stay awake. I wouldn’t go back though. The actors were really into their characters. My personal favorite was Despina. At intermission I thought the show was over! It dragged at times, and it lingered on certain scenes for too long.
I must admit, when I first heard we would be going to an Opera this semester I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy. I figured it would be loud and quite boring. However, after watching the youtube videos in class and learning the plot, my interest grew and I was actually excited. Then, to hear that we would be going to the MET and knowing that we had expensive seats, I couldn’t wait to go. When arriving at the MET, I did feel a bit out of place. I looked around and I was the youngest one there and my grandpa, being a full Puerto Rican, was the darkest one there. Yet, as the lights dim down and the orchestra’s conductor raises his hand, none of this can be seen for I was immersed in the activities on stage. The first part of the show did sort of drag on a bit. I know I dozed off for a few minutes in a scene that Despina was absent in, she was the one who really caught my attention. She was funny and while being a women, she was still kind of offensive to the gender by agreeing with the men that women cannot stick to one man. After the much needed intermission, I felt the Opera picked up pace and it was much easier to stay awake. All of their voices were outstanding and powerful. In the end, I came out with a new appreciation for Opera. I cannot say that I am ready to rush out and by a CD of it, nor do I look up other Operas online. However, I can say, if the opportunity rises to go to the MET again, I would be very willing to jump on it. Even if I happen to come across one while flipping the channels on the Television, I will take the time to watch some of it this time.
I always heard that going to the opera was an experience everyone should have, but I did not think I would really like it. A week night, the day before a calc midterm, sitting for over 3 hours to watch an opera did not really sound like a great idea… My mom even told me to take my iPod so I could listen to music in case the opera got boring. But I think that part of the reason why I liked the opera was that I left my house willing to stay for the whole opera and to have an open mind about it.
I loved the experience! It was way better than anything I could had expected. The combination of acting, singing and an orchestra came out to be amazing. But what struck me the most was the stage. It wasn’t anything so complex, in fact the mechanisms were simple but really added to the story. The way they would change the setting by sliding the house to the side (while Despina interacted with it) was really interesting. I honestly thought that the boat in the beginning of the opera was just a projection in a screen, until the actors actually went inside it. The lighting also set the mood of the story along with the music.
This experience introduced me to a new type of art that I found to be very interesting. It proved to me that we can’t really say we don’t like a type of music, or a style of art until we have seen it with clear eyes. I would definitely go to the opera another time.
I was very glad that we actually read the scenario in class otherwise I would have very little idea of what was going on even with the captioning provided. I thought I was going to fall asleep right away and that it’d be very boring but surprisingly I didn’t. The opera itself was very lively and entertaining and although I admit to dozing off, its more because I was tired than cause of boredom. I loved the scenery- I thought the stage looked amazing and it really added to the whole opera itself. From watching this opera, I know now that they are not as boring as people claim and they are not impossible to understand because I laughed at many of the scenes.
Even though I caught a short nap towards the beginning, when I was awake, my attention was on the opera. The voices were fun, not so lively that I wanted to jump out of my seat (like the Jazz) but still captivating. Despina stole the show. The subtitles were sort of hard to keep up with the whole time, due to trying to keep your eyes on the screen, but inflection in the voices and the actions of the singers told the story just as well.
I liked it, but mostly because of the story and the comedy. For the most part, opera’s not for me, but this one was fun.
I genuinely enjoyed this performance. It wasn’t the first opera I’ve ever been to, but it was the first one I’ve seen in the USA.
I think that the actors were amazing, and they used a lot of different stage props from chairs, all the way to houses on wheels. Their voices were simply fantastic as well, I have absolutely no complaints about their singing.
The piece itself was interesting, it had its funny moments. But what stood out for me the most was the orchestra. The music was perfect for the play, and I loved how the orchestra would support the actor’s singing, they blended together perfectly.
My only real complain was about the opera house itself. While the chairs were comfortable, and the view of the stage was perfect, I couldn’t help but notice the designs on the walls, and what was hanging down from the ceiling. Honestly when I looked up, I was hoping for something like an amazing ceiling, either due to paintings or a cool design, instead what I saw was a gigantic, and in my opinion, ugly christmas tree decoration. They tried making an Opera house feeling to the place, but with modern designs and that terrible chandelier.
Thankfully thats the only thing that bothered me. Overall it was a great experience, and the fact that I had a free excuse to put on a Tuxedo definitely helped!
This was the first time I had gone to the opera but my dad would always tell me about going to see Madama Butterfly when it was on and stuff so I was really interested in this one. The fact that it was a comedy made it so much better, along with the fact we went over the story a bit in class. It was silly of course but, like we said in class, the point of operas are to have fantastic music, not plot. Despina was amazing, ditzy but headstrong and trying hard to empower herself the best way she can. Loved her the minute she dragged the house on stage all by herself. The couples were…they were special. Each sister falling in love with the other’s fiance? Paired off wrongly from the start, of course. But the singing was gorgeous and I was able to see their facial expressions pretty well from where I was sitting, which made the lyrics more meaningful to me. And looking at the lyrics and the stage wasn’t too hard for me after a few minutes. And the set changes in themselves were really cool. I would so watch another one.