Now if I thought there was nothing that could possibly win over my experience at the Cosi Fan Tutte opera, I was wrong. Strangely enough I found the tour of the Metropolitan Opera house so much more entertaining, and impactful. Besides the entertainment, I was struck by how enormous the size of the opera house was, and the amount of time, effort, and work put into each and every performance. When we arrived at the Opera house, a Macaulay alumnus introduced us to our tour guides. I wasn’t expecting what I witnessed during the tour.
To be completely honest I was exposed to almost no forms art, museums, and performances before this seminar class. I also did not expect to enjoy the exhibits, and events we went to. To go even further I was not exactly looking forward to the tour, thinking we’d just take glances at the opera house. I must say that the tour guides went into such extensive detail in letting us see just what takes place before each performance. On November 10th, the day after the opera, we made our way back to the Metropolitan Opera house, this time to see what was the preparation for each performance.
During this tour we checked out all the different departments of the opera house such as the construction of the sets department, the props, makeup, and clothing departments. The construction of such detailed and large sets require massive space, and I had this notion that this took place somewhere else and yet it was in the same building. I mean I guess it’s more logical, yet it never occurred to me. There were construction workers working just as hard as the opera singers that get all the fame. These men became artists right before my eyes when the plain pieces of plaster became brick walls of an extravagant scene. The floors and the surrounding area was not as elegant, expensive looking, or luxurious as the first floor of the opera house, and I don’t quite understand why I was expecting that. Our tour guide was also such a sweet, passionate elderly opera-loving woman. She made me feel as though there was no way people could not appreciate opera, and not want to go out and watch as many performances as they could.
Observing how much work went into making only the costumes made me appreciate the performance I had seen just the night before. The clothing department would make the costumes, and when it needed to be touched up, or was torn they were sent to another department to paint or sew it. Sometimes they would redesign a previous outfit and reuse it. Right next to the clothing department was the wig room. I peeked in and saw a man sitting at a table with what looked like a tweezer plucking out individual hairs. He then told us that he puts in each and every strand of hair to make a wig. I couldn’t imagine how long it must take him, and the amount of patience that must be necessary.
The tour guide was patient with us when we wanted to hang out a bit more at one department. My two favorite places in the Metropolitan Opera House was the rehearsal room, and the area right behind the stage. The tour guide let us glance into the window of one of the rehearsal rooms where Don Giovanni was being rehearsed. At that moment the dreamy actor who was playing Don Giovanni came out and with his beautiful accent began to talk to us, asking us if we were enjoying ourselves. After talking with him for a few minutes he went back inside. That’s when our tour guide says, “You know we weren’t supposed to have met the actors. He’s so nice to come out and talk to us.” That made me smile.
After walking for about two hours we made our way back downstairs to the theater at the back of the stage. The stage crew that was setting up for Don Giovanni let us walk one at a time onto the actual stage where they were still putting the sets up. I felt so small, and a bit anxious standing and looking out at where the audience would be. I always wanted to become a singer, and standing there made me fall in love with the art of singing all over again. The red seats seemed so luxurious and classy, the round shape of the theater was said to help the sound be heard, and for me it added to the beauty. I wondered if the opera singers felt the same way standing on the stage. Standing there at that moment I saw all the hard work from each department come together. I saw the stage crew putting up the sceneries, and I envisioned the opera singers performing from the night before. With no intent on sounding dramatic I realized that there is so much about the art of performing that impacts me more than anything that I could ever learn in some of my academics. I realized that I will not always remember the academic things I learn and yet I will never forget my first opera and then standing on that very stage.
Thank you. Nicely written.