After almost nine years of being with my wife, she finally found an opera to drag me to that I actually enjoyed. It took some help and pushing from some friends, but the unthinkable happened. I figured my third live opera would be my last (you know the old "three strikes and you're out rule"), but I really did enjoy it. Before we get to my review, let's take a look at my history with the art form.
Aside from knowing some names of operas and pieces from some operas, my viewing experience as a whole was limited to "The Rabbit of Seville" and "What's Opera, Doc?" The first opera the wife dragged me to (and that's being mean because let's face it...I make my own decisions, she doesn't drag me...if I didn't want to go I could always fake an illness or throw myself down the stairs to fake an injury) was a Mozart piece called "The Abduction from the Seraglio". We went because we had a friend in the show. It was an English version, so it was easy to understand. And while I was impressed with the singing (especially by our friend), the story was boring and the music repetitive. It was repetitive and boring. Boring and repetitive. It bored me and said the same thing over and over and over and over...
Sorry...
My next live opera experience was at The Met. The wife wound up with tickets from a co-worker. Fifth row, center for "Samson and Delilah". Sung in French, set of Seti Alpha Six and performed by the touring company of "Fiddler on the Roof" using leftover backdrops from "Oklahoma" and running over three hours...
Well...I think the above description says it all...bored, confused and uncomfortable (physically and mentally...the wife was pregnant and the seats at the Met were designed the same way they design airplane seats -- only with no actual pitch -- the box we sat in last night was designed for 4 seats, but had 7 crammed into it), "Samson and Delilah" made me never want to go again...
But my wife loves opera and doesn't get to go very much any more...so I knew eventually I'd go again (although I did watch a DVD of Handel's "Julius Caesar" when I was doing research for my own production of Shakespeare's play).
Rossini's "Le Comte Ory" is about a rogue (Count Ory) who instead of going off to fight in the Crusades, stays behind to seduce all the women whose husbands have left by pretending to leave and disguising himself as a hermit/prophet. When he is outed by his own page upon the announcement that the husbands will be returning, he tries one last time to seduce a countess by posing as a nun and infiltrating her castle with his men (also dressed as nuns). Or at least that's what I gathered from listening to the French opera without glancing too often at the text titles (funny enough, I took some High School French and thought the opera was in Italian because Rossini was Italian until I realized that I recognized some of the lyrics).
Anyway...the show was presented as a "show within a show" as we're watching an 18th Century (?) Theater company move all the set pieces around under the direction of their stage manager. This just added some nice comedic touches to an already funny piece. Add in good company, a good meal beforehand and some nice weather (not too cold and clear) and it was a nice night for opera.
I will probably even go again...I've seen the preview for The Met's Ring Cycle and while I don't think I could sit through the whole thing (the second part is 5 and 1/2 hours long), I would love to see the first part (it's only 2 and 1/2 hours long) as it looks amazing. In fact, the preview makes you wonder why so much money was spent on "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" when it looks like The Met is doing something even more complicated. Here's a peak: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/production.aspx?id=11052
Be seeing you.
