Initially, I saw the opera as a cultural experience outside of my grasp, mainly due to how I do not generally find importance of the arts within my own life. With a preconceived notion of an older gentry based audience members based on cartoons I watched when I was younger, I had little to no idea of what to fully expect from the experience. Easy to say I dragged my feet thinking it would be boring, but I attempted to have an open mind when initially entering the building. Though my parents feel performances like the such are beautiful and immersive, there was no change in the fact that I was fearful of the worst. With a short attention span, could I find it interesting?
When stepping foot into the building, the decorations seemed overtly fancy and that allowed me to give into my pre-judgements subconsciously. Of course, I did not let that spoil the experience before it had occurred, so I held my thoughts. When sitting, sheep were brought onto the stage and held for some reason. Facing some irritation, I did realize that one of the sheep was erratic and seemed stressed by the experience, but I held my thoughts…for the most part. Overall, the performance took some getting used to. I did not fully understand what each person was saying (thankfully there were subtitles) as well as not understanding where the plot started or ended. That is just my being nit picky, but I was kind of lost through the whole show. To my guess, it may have just been me rather than the show with the issue, but can never be too sure. I do believe, however, that if an individual has a passion for the arts or cultural institutions of the city, the opera would be an excellent place to start. There are so many questions to ask and the show seemed to give the audience freedom of interpretation. The opera was different than my initial prejudice, but it was still not to my complete liking, especially since I have yet to obtain a proper understanding of how to properly appreciate the art form to its fullest.
