Night at the opera
Monday night was a night of pretention with one of the least pretentious people I know, sionainn, she of the bubbly laugh and shining eyes. Thanks to her fiancee, she had two tickets to the opera.
The show was Romeo et Juliette. I will say this now--for the first time I think ever I'm grateful for the two months of hell I went through in Romeo and Juliet, because I was able to follow the entire show without a hint of confusion.
My impressions on the show:
The sets were superb, which is unsurprising, because the most talented people who work in the opera are those who do the set design and construction. The set was rather simple and ingeniously movable, so you could create a large number of designs from a small set of set pieces. It was very cool.
The soloists, on the other hand, were ill equipped. The first act sucked--because none of the soloists were capable of singing happily. You could tell they were technically quite good, but none of them were capable of acting, which makes them second rate performances. Juliette, who had a glorious voice, couldn't act her way out of a wet paper sack--bouncy doesn't equal joy. Everybody else just kind of phoned in her performance, and were quite passable.
But there was one of exception to the last statement. The man who played Mercutio was horrible, and he attempted to compensate from his inablility to perform at the level of the other performers by showing as much skin as possible and making sure the bulge in his tights was as prominent as possible. Well, I wasn't distracted by the crotch stuffing, because his big number was the flop of the evening.
But with all of my criticism, the show was actually rather enjoyable, and I would go see another show by the company--and considering I don't care for opera, that does say something.
The show was Romeo et Juliette. I will say this now--for the first time I think ever I'm grateful for the two months of hell I went through in Romeo and Juliet, because I was able to follow the entire show without a hint of confusion.
My impressions on the show:
The sets were superb, which is unsurprising, because the most talented people who work in the opera are those who do the set design and construction. The set was rather simple and ingeniously movable, so you could create a large number of designs from a small set of set pieces. It was very cool.
The soloists, on the other hand, were ill equipped. The first act sucked--because none of the soloists were capable of singing happily. You could tell they were technically quite good, but none of them were capable of acting, which makes them second rate performances. Juliette, who had a glorious voice, couldn't act her way out of a wet paper sack--bouncy doesn't equal joy. Everybody else just kind of phoned in her performance, and were quite passable.
But there was one of exception to the last statement. The man who played Mercutio was horrible, and he attempted to compensate from his inablility to perform at the level of the other performers by showing as much skin as possible and making sure the bulge in his tights was as prominent as possible. Well, I wasn't distracted by the crotch stuffing, because his big number was the flop of the evening.
But with all of my criticism, the show was actually rather enjoyable, and I would go see another show by the company--and considering I don't care for opera, that does say something.