At the Opera

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Over my two weeks in Italy I have had the privilege to see some pretty cool things. Two nights ago we actually went to see an Opera. I had been to see plays and musicals in the past, but this was my first time seeing an opera. I was curious as to how I would feel about it, but also a little worried that I would not like it especially because of how operas are usually portrayed on tv as being loud and kind of annoying pitched. Also, I have seen a movie that are supposed to be opera, more of a loss version as it had dialogue, but that doesn't have the same effect as seeing one right in front of you. We were expected to get all nice and dressed up for the event. Unfortunately, my friend did not pack a dress because she was not expecting to dress up so we had to go in search of one, but we eventually found a nice dress at a reasonable price. The Opera we saw was called The Flying Dutchmen which was performed completely in German. I was particularly excited that it was performed in German because I have taken German language courses and I was interested to see if I could understand some of what they were saying. It was also great to just sit and listen to the language as it is such a great language. Although, I did not understand much of the first act and I found it hard to hear because the men didn't really enunciate, I did understand bits and pieces of the second and third acts. They actually had English and Italian subtitles on a screen above the stage so that, even if you don't speak German, you could still completely understand what was going on. I honestly didn't care for first act just because like I mentioned before it was hard to even hear the words the men were singing because they really didn't enunciate all that well. The first act was also kind of draw out and slow which I didn't really care for because it seemed to take longer than it should have to actually get to what the story is about. I did enjoy the second act as that's when the opera actually starts to get going and is paced better than the first act. The actors in the second act were much better at enunciating so it was easier to tell what was being said. The third act was also good, but also sad as there is a death near the end. The opera was made in the 1840s and it shows the differences between then and now. Part of the story included one of the characters basically selling his daughter to the flying Dutchman for gold and jewels. It's crazy to think that close to 200 years ago that this was considered completely normal to just give ones child to someone in exchange for money or something else of value. It's also crazy to think about how it hasn't even been that long since women were basically just treated as objects that could basically be traded off to whoever came around and had the most of offer the parent. I also wish they had shown more about how the daughter, Senta, heard the story about the flying Dutchmen and how she became so enthralled by it.

I am a huge fan of musicals and theatre in general, but from Opera movies I have seen, I never cared for the genre. I went into this expected that I wouldn't really enjoy the opera all that much, but I was actually pleasantly surprised. I will say that I do still prefer Musicals because I enjoy music woven into a story, but I just find it easier to understand when there is dialogue in between. That doesn't mean I wouldn't consider seeing another Opera in the future, but I do still have my own hold ups about them. I think I would like to see an opera that has a bit of a lighter tone to it, but most operas seem to be quite dark or at least sad in some compacity. It was still a great experience and one I wouldn't mind to experience again. While I did enjoy it, I still can't imagine watching an opera frequently like they did in the past to keep themselves entertained. But, at the same time, they didn't have much else to do which is likely why the stories are usually more drawn out and take longer to get started.

Step count: 14,580

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