Being a person who already considers opera a beautiful thing, going to see an opera concert was not a huge cultural step for me.
I went with a friend who is also culturally inclined to see a few short acts put on by the School of Music at the University of Miami. I was looking forward to seeing kids roughly my age taking part in an artistic endeavor for snobby old ladies and large women clad in Viking helmets. Because we were late, we sat on the floor on the side of the tiny crowded theater.
To our surprise, people dressed in jeans and T-shirts overflowed into the aisles.
Onstage the three male characters were dressed in long white robes so they could sneak into a colony of women.
The theater filled with laughter as the three succeed in passing themselves off as girls. Cross-dressing!
The voices were incredible and the play hilarious. I felt at ease with college-age singers.
One of the acts was set in modern times. It was the story of an aging prima donna who gets on everyone’s nerves. Everything was so funny, much more enter taining and encompassing than any movie or television show. It was really a fun thing to do. I think opera is a thing anyone can enjoy regardless of age, gender or cultural bent.
The next day I mentioned to a friend I had gone to the opera and she responded with a sarcastic: “Oh, sounds like great fun.”
Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it.
