A night at the opera

I had never been to an opera before Friday night. \nIt's not that I was against operas or anything; in fact, I always wanted to go to one but never had time until my cable was canceled, and I couldn't watch E! anymore.\nI got myself ready to go. I shaved. I dressed up (a little). I showed up and found that I'm the only young person who seemed to care. The few other young people that showed up weren't dressed up, unless you count tacky polo shirts with horizontal stripes of different colors and sizes as dressing up.\nI was a little sad to see the lack of concern students had regarding a relatively low-priced opera held on our own campus. The student price is $15 in exchange for a well-constructed and well-performed opera. It's a fantastic opportunity to gain some cultural knowledge and see a great performance. \nSo, shall we proceed with the opera? \nAs soon as it began I knew I'd really enjoy it. The first aria, or solo vocal part with orchestral accompaniment, was quite captivating.\nThroughout the opera the singing continued to be flawless and at intermission I talked to people who admired the singing. I even overheard several people praising the performance. Some people I talked to and overheard, however, complained about the staging for the show, though they still agreed on the vocals and orchestra being amazing. The simplicity of the staging and the all-white costumes seemed confusing to some. Even the playful stage antics seemed exaggerated to some members of the audience who probably expected a straightforward opera without any acting whatsoever. \nBut I'd have to say I enjoyed it. The opera is performed by adults pretending to be kids pretending to be adults. So, put simply, it is only fitting to have a playful performance.\nAt the end of the show, I talked to a few people as they walked out. By this time I think everyone accepted the staging and simple white outfits the performers were wearing because I heard much less complaints this time. After lingering around for a while talking to people I noticed the stage being swept and I started to feel as though I should talk to the performers.\nI finally got up the nerve to go backstage to talk to the performers. Not only am I new to this whole "reporting" stuff -- like interviewing people -- I am rather new to opera. So I walked up to David Wood and Brian Arreola, the two male singers, and to my surprise they seemed very at ease and were in good spirits about the performance.\nOne thing they seemed to be shocked by was the overwhelming response from the audience, which they claimed they could feed off of and use for energy to enhance their performance. Brian Arreola claimed that at one point he could hear the energy in the voice of his fellow performer, David Wood, and could see in his eyes that he was "going crazy" letting himself get into the \nmusic.\nEven talking to them backstage it seemed they were still feeding off energy from the show. If this is any indication of how the rest of this year's music festival will go, I highly suggest checking out some of the performances.