Comments on: OPERA invitation to contribute your blog entry

By: naseeba

naseeba — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 02:15:48 +0000

Now that I have seen a live and full performance, I understand how you can refer to opera as a “universal language”. Even though we had subtitles, sometimes it was more important to pay attention to the stage, in order to notice the changes in facial expression, music, scene, lighting, and performers. You don’t need to understand all of the dialogue because you can get an impression of what the words mean or what the plot is about from observing the aforementioned things that all make up “opera”.
I was really impressed by the Marriage of Figaro. I thought I would have been bored, and operas are usually thought to be boring and repetitive. Instead, the singing really impressed me, from the range of the singers to their ability project in such a huge theater. I was also impressed by the stage, because the sets were intricate and the lighting seemed so real. In different scenes, there was different lighting that sometimes appeared to be like just like sunlight and created realistic shadows. Overall, seeing the opera was quite an experience and I wouldn’t mind seeing another.

By: cameron

cameron — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:17:53 +0000

I was blown away by THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO before even a note was sung. Never, in any performance of any kind I have attended, have I ever seen such a realistic and elaborate set design. What caught me the most about the set was how realistic the sunlight appeared and evolved from scene to scene. In the first act, the sun was full and vibrant and unapologetic, much like the beginning of the opera. Towards the end of the play, as the sun set, we as an audience felt/took advantage of the need/opportunity to reflect and contemplate and react to the masterpiece that had been presented before us.
Because the performers seemed so distant from us (role specifically), it might have been hard for us as students to come to terms with the fact that the performers are actual human beings like we. I know this was difficult for me at first just because of how talented they were: they could sing (and roll the r’s like the dickens), act, dance, and transmit emotion so clearly and (seemingly) effortlessly, even to us up in the nosebleed section. I was doing as much admiring and adulating as I was viewing and thinking throughout the course of the four-hour opera, which was not a second too long. How many opportunities am I going to get to see such an acclaimed opera like THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO for no charge?
As to whether the opera can survive the gadgetry and incessantly decreasing attention spans of future generation, I believe that question to be quite silly. The answer is of course yes. As painting survived even with the advent of cameras/photographs, opera has and will continue to survive in spite of the popularity of other forms of entertainment like film and theatre (realism). Why? How many film actors can sing like the performers in FIGARO? Probably not many. How many opera stars can act like those same movie stars? Almost all; it’s part of their job, remember?

Luke

By: stephanie

stephanie — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 18:14:28 +0000

I enjoyed the opera La Nozze de Figaro much more than I expected to. I thought the costumes were elegant and beautiful, the singers’ voices very loud, clear and impressive, and the sets powerful yet not overwhelming. I enjoyed the story, and the audience seemed to be as into the story as I was. I liked the fact that everyone laughed, cheered and gasped together, as corny as that sounds; it’s something that happens rarely on Broadway and even less frequently in movies.

I thought it was interesting to notice how, because most of the audience doesn’t understand what is being said, the singers have to act out their parts even more; if I couldn’t read what the characters were saying, to each other and aloud, I would have been quite confused. I think that had I seen an opera before this addition to the Met I would not have enjoyed it, and it wouldn’t have even been able to keep my attention. There were parts in the first act when I had to struggle to stay awake as it was. Between the synopsis (conveniently broken down by act) in the Playbill, “subtitles,” the singers acting and emoting while they sang, and my knowledge of Spanish, I was able to make out enough of the story to keep me interested.

Overall, I’m glad I had the opportunity to see such a famous opera with our class, because it’s probably not something I would have decided to go see on my own, and I would have missed out on a great experience.

~Stephanie