Dan and I attended the opera La Boheme last Friday night. My good friend is in the opera orchestra, so we decided to give it a try. We love most things that involve music, and especially love musicals, but had never been to an opera. Quite honestly, the prospect of attending a show completely in an unfamiliar language has always worried me. I wasn't sure if I could follow the story line. This opera (maybe all operas, for all I know) had a screen above the stage with a translation of the Italian words being sung. We were happy to see this, as we knew this would help us follow the story better.
Here's the thing - there really wasn't a story. The plot was immensely thin. What we know now is that opera is ALL about the music. The music was beautiful. The orchestra did a fantastic job, as did the opera performers. However, Dan and I agree that opera moves VERY slowly, as the main characters sing beautiful arias about EVERYTHING. No sentence is too mundane that it can't be dragged out for several minutes of singing. So, needless to say, not much happens.
Afterward Dan summed up the plot like this: "Starving artist meets girl, kisses her. Girl is sick, girl is dying, starving artist and friends fulfill her dying wish and buy her a muff."
We were far too cheap to spring for the expensive seats on the main floor, so we were in the second balcony. We had worried that this would make it difficult to see all the action on the stage. As it turns out, it was easy, as there really wasn't much action.
It was an adventure, and we're always up for adventure. We have to admit that we liked the musical "Wicked" (which we saw in the same auditorium last spring) much, much more. And, of course, nothing comes close to the inspirational, complex, and beautiful musical, Les Miserables!
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