Quite an Experience

Last night my family, Mrs. Burrage, and I sat still for two and a half hours, listening to a foreign language and looking at people who never spoke. (By the way, this is a riddle.) What were we doing??? (DON'T LOOK BELOW UNTIL YOU GUESS!)


















We were listening to Opera! (the artists never spoke, they only SANG!)

At Bronow (sp?) University in Gainesville, they put on an opera once a year and it's quite a big deal. This year my mom heard of the event and before I knew it, we were all dressed up and heading to an Opera. On the way there I was thinking to myself, "What are we DOING? Opera is boring and the artists sing in a different language anyway." But I went along with Mom's little idea because, I reasoned, Who knows? Maybe, just maybe, it'll be worth watching (and listening to). Okay, that wasn't the only reason I went along quietly; there was a catered mini-meal after the opera and I didn't want to miss out on that *laugh*.

I was pleasantly surprised: I enjoyed the Opera! Of course, they sang about quite, um, sorted things; but it wasn't like you knew what they were saying! The maestro would get on a microphone before every piece and tell the audience what the artists would be singing about and none of it was pretty. A lot of love stories where everyone dies in the end (don't get me started). But if I just forgot about what they were supposed to be singing about and just listened to their voices--oh my, that was beautiful. I don't know if you've ever heard the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack, but on that soundtrack Enya sings a couple of songs in Elvish and I really enjoy those scores because her voice is so beautiful... Same thing last night. This one Asian lady had one of the most beautiful voices I'd ever heard--it was heavenly. And she made it look so EASY! I liked when the guys and girls sang together. This one thin guy came out and when he began to sing I was totally surprised: his voice was SOOOO deep! I was like, Wow! He just didn't LOOK like the type of fellow who'd have a deep voice, you know? They sang in Italian mostly, throwing some French and German songs in there as well. The German sounded the most interesting. And some of the artists were really good actors. Their facial expressions were quite moving...

So all in all I enjoyed it very much. However, I must say that when the first artist (a lady) sang her piece, I was trying really hard not to laugh. It was just new, seeing a person on a stage, staring at the ceiling, and singing in a funny-sounding language (I soon began to think the language pretty, but it took a couple of minutes). Robert was even worse. I was dreadfully afraid that somebody behind us would hear all his comments. He didn't say anything rude, it just took him a little while to get used to it :)

So go to an opera sometime--it'll be a really neat experience; and who knows, you may even like it! I'll give you a little advice: if' it goes late, either bring a snack to munch on at midnight, or make sure you're going to an opera that has sandwiches, cake, and punch afterward!