Teju Cole wrote a very interesting article about Raghubir Singh’s photography of a realistic view of India. He made some points that I found myself thinking about a lot, especially in connecting his ideas to my “previous prejudice” of the opera compared to my opinions after the experience. Personally, I have always been interested in being able to attend an opera and get that experience. My “previous prejudice” towards opera was that I did have the idea that it was an activity aimed more towards the upper class. You often see media portray operas with those in attendance looking very well dressed in elegant gowns and suits and often older and usually white people. Operas also seemed to be events attended by highly educated people since so many originate from different countries in different languages. For a lot of people, especially young generations, operas have this reputation of being boring and old-fashioned and I honestly don’t really see where the strong idea that they’re boring came from because I was always intrigued by them. I feel that this might be because of my background with singing and love for theatre so operas are a point of interest for me. People go through extensive training to sing operas and these singers can really create magic on the stage. So, although I had these ideas of how exclusive and particular operas could be, I also had an idea of how entertaining and a cultural experience it could be so I always leaned more toward aiming to attend them throughout my life.
I wasn’t able to take photos at the opera but walking into Lincoln Center I saw my previous prejudices had some things that seemed correct and others that were off. The people, for the most part, were more Caucasian but attire varied. There was a wide variety of outfits that ranged from quite formal to casual jeans but I noticed that it seemed to vary based on seats. Those in the orchestra seats closer to the stage seemed more formally dressed than the people in the mezzanines. As the opera got underway, my idea that it would be magical didn’t pan out very much. I understood virtually none of the words because all the enunciation got mushed up in the singing. When my friend, who is also an opera singer, performs her pieces the words are usually more distinct and easy to make out but this could also have to do with the language being sung in. For some reason, English always sounds the most jumbled up. Regardless, I found myself to be a little bored though I tried to stay with the story the most I could while I noticed that some around me had just checked out. This brings me back to whether my previous notion that the opera was magical and gripped the viewer may not be entirely true and I would like to see more operas to figure it out. There’s a possibility that it may be easier to get enthralled into more popular operas like The Magic Flute or Carmen which already have a certain magnetism to them because they’ve been around for a while.
So, as I reflect on my experience with the opera and my thoughts on the reading, I think about whether Cusco is being too strict about having photos represent life in its most realistic way and not in a “previous prejudice” that is rarely seen. Although some of those instances of the festivals and dramatic landscapes being captured are rare to experience in real life, that doesn’t mean they can’t occur at all. Even though I couldn’t understand all that was being sung in the opera, there were moments where the line did land or the singer went for their big notes and those moments gave me the chills I had entered the opera expecting to get. There should certainly be a balance of what is represented but being able to weed out those breathtaking instances, whether from a photo of a place/culture or during an opera performances are what give the experiences their authenticity
