A couple weeks ago, Stella, one of my Italian roommates took me to see a lyric opera at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Community Theater of Bologna). The theater was built in 1651, and it was the first to be completely funded by the pubblic community. I forgot my camera when I went to the show, but here are a couple pictures I stole from google.
The theater is absolutely gorgeous, and with the full orchestra and all the seats filled it was a great atmosphere. We went to see the show on opening night (the premier) as well. Apparently the premier is the show that everybody wants to see because all the VIP go to the first showing. It also meant that I had to dress up nicely to fit in. Every guy was wearing a suit and tie, and the women wore very nice clothes if not a dress.The opera that we went to was called Idomeneo by Mozart. According to the Italians I talked to, this opera is not one of the standard operas in Italy. Nobody was familiar with story or the music.
Our seats were in a third floor balcony almost straight in front of the stage. The four of us rotated sitting in the front of the balcony (only 3 people could sit and watch), while the other person stood behind. I was surprised at how small the theater was - it only has 900 seats. When the opera started I was very impressed with the set, which looked something like this (another picture stolen off google). The second picture shows the HUGE screen they had in the middle of the stage. It's somewhat transparent nature allowed them to project images on the screen while still allowing the audience to see the people behind it. They could make it look sunny, like something was on fire, or like people were underwater.
I was not very impressed with the costumes. Considering that Italians are known for their fashion, I though they would be much more elaborate and beautiful, but instead they were fairly plain and didn't help me understand who the characters were supposed to be. There were also some things that absolutely confused the heck out of me. First, the prince was played by a soprano. For the first hour, I was wondering why there were so many 'more than friendly' embraces between the princess and other princesses. Second, the "beautiful" young princess was played by an ugly old fat woman. Therefore I assumed that she was the queen. That is until she started promiscuously touching the prince (that was a girl). Plus, the whole opera was sung in old old Italian from the 1500's. So on top of not being able to understand Italian perfectly, there were tons of words that I could never know. Overall I understood next to nothing until the intermission when everything was explained to me.
Here's how I understood the plot: some king was on his way back from Troy, but on the way back Neptune decided to destroy his ship. In order to save his own life, he told Neptune that if he made it home alive, he would sacrifice the first person that he saw to the Gods. Not surprisingly at all, the first person he saw was the prince. At the same time, the prince is in love with the "beautiful" young princess that doesn't love him back, and the other princess is in love with him, but he doesn't love her. Classic love triangle. After I figured this all out I already knew more or less how it was going to end: everybody dies.
BUT, I was surprised to find out that after a lot of drama (people trying to sacrifice themselves and others, blah blah blah), nothing happens. The prince marries the beautiful young princess, and they become King and Queen. The King retires, and nobody dies. BOOO!
I really really enjoyed the music and the live orchestra. I also liked the scenery and the format of the show, but If I ever go to another opera I will definitely read the story in English before I go. I would also choose a more well known opera and preferably one with a dramatic ending (rather than a melodramatic one). I feel like operas should have a sad ending.
When I say I liked the "format" of the opera I mean I liked that people discussed the opera during the show. The two intermissions were great because they were long enough to leave and get something to eat or have a coffee or a drink 20-30 minutes. My favorite part, though, was that the audience let the performers know exactly what they were thinking. If they thought a performer was bad, there were some very powerful booooos. Boos that would put Yankee Fans at Fenway to shame. On the other hand, after a particularly good aria, the audience showed their appreciation with a thunderous applause.
Another cool thing to read were the reviews the next day. The people that are passionate about Opera are VERY passionate. One newspaper's critic said that she was offended by the rendition, while another said that it made for a surreal night. One critic blogged about the performance, and whatever she said started a heated argument. Learned some new Italian swears from that blog...
Overall, I had a great time at the opera. It's something that I would do again, but definitely not on a regular basis.
Sorry I don't have more pictures!! Hope there aren't too many typos.
Another post real soon.
Ciao, ciao.
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