Opera, etc.

Today I got the itch to write something. It's been awhile since I had the urge to write, so I thought I'd take advantage of it and write something on my blog.

So, I don't really like musicals. I hear the opening cords to 'I am Sixteen going on Seventeen' from 'The Sound of Music' and I actually start to feel physically ill. It's not just 'The Sound of Music' either - I have only one musical I actually enjoy ('Gigi') and I always skip the songs. I think it has to do with how chipper they are ... so upbeat. I'm way too caustic to even watch someone else have 'spirit fingers' - ew!

I don't enjoy the symphony or ballet either. I don't like ballet because I can't get the idea out of my mind that the dancers are in pain. In my brain it doesn't compute that they could put their bodies through that rigamarole without suffering, so I can't stand to watch them prance around in their little slippers. The thing I don't like about the symphony is that I start to imagine a story when the music starts playing, but then we move onto the next movement and the music doesn't go along with the story I started telling in my head, so - I quickly lose interest.

This is why I do enjoy opera - there is already a story progressing. I might not understand the exact words of the songs because they're in French, German, Russian, or whatever, but there's a visual medium to accompany the music. There are also no wannabe gangsters snapping their fingers (I really hate 'West Side Story'), because opera isn't chipper - it's dramatic. In my spare time I've been reading a few of the operas I've always been interested in learning about. So far I've read 'Tristan and Isolde', 'Madam Butterfly', and 'Carmen'. I'm working on 'Faust' right now, which is why I've got a picture from it for my blog today. The scene is the opening one where Faust sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for youth.

I used to be in plays when I was a child and a teenager. I don't think I was ever in a play that I thought was a good play. Basically, I just like hopping up on stage and hamming it up. I never really analyzed what I liked about theater. Now that I'm an adult, I realize that the only thing I liked about it was being the center of attention.

I can't remember the last time I went to go see a show that I didn't want to bug out early from. So, I'm not sure if I would really enjoy actually going to see an opera. I would probably sit there wishing I was somewhere else. Instead, I just like reading the stories and getting the C.D.s at the library. Something about being trapped in a theatrical audience makes me feel unreasonably restless. Maybe it's because the actors can see you leave if you're bored out of your mind, whereas when you go to see a movie you offend no one if you shove off. The screen doesn't care.

Which reminds me of something fun. One time I was flipping through channels and I found an opera. I decided to give it a chance. It was subtitled, so the song being sung was about a woman trying to decide whether she should choose the man she loved, or choose the man who could provide for her materially. At this exact moment my husband walked in. The line displayed at the bottom of the screen was 'Or should I perish in the vortex of sensuality?' His eyes totally bugged out of his head and he's like 'What the crap are you watching?' It was hilarious.