Written by Andrew Duran,
Last night, I had the pleasure of being at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts to witness my experience my first opera. If I were to be honest with myself, what I walked in expecting was a single singer that was center stage and for it to be a pretty dry time. However, the second that curtain rose any worries I had disappeared the moment the first act begun. Instead what I experienced was pure emotion, love, laughter, and togetherness.'
What initially caught me off guard about La Boheme was its use of the orchestra. All throughout the Opera, I couldn’t help myself but enter the world the music opened up for me. With each sound of the flute fluttering or the percussion beats, I felt that I was able to obtain a greater understanding of the characters and the world they lived in. During the time the male and female lead were on their knees searching for a lost object in his cabin,' you can feel a tinge of anticipation for when they were going to run into one another as the orchestra created with the rising volume and sudden silence as they finally touched hands.
One thing that troubled me throughout the performance was trying to keep up with the actions on stage while still reading the English translations. I remember vivid moments where I felt my eyes racing up and down trying to keep up with all the different movement on the stage while simultaneously shooting my eyes back up to have some sort of idea to what they were saying. At some point through the performance, I gave up on trying to read the translation and dedicated my time to being immersed in world that my eyes were allowing me to create. With this, I felt that I obtained a greater impact as the music and actions created all the translating I needed.
As the curtain initially rose, we were presented with several men wearing rags all trying to remain warm in a shack that, clearly, provided little luxury. From the first five seconds, I was provided all these characteristic traits from their wardrobe and a single word hasn’t been spoken. I imagined these people as survivors; they didn’t have much but what they did they cherished. Romantically or friendships, the relationships they had with one another were the most important thing they could have. Their costumes and the set were distinct in what they wanted to convey and allowed the audience to live in that world with them.