No Surprises
An evening at the opera is rife with emotions: love, hate, jealousy, despair, anger, joy and wonder. It should not, however, be an evening of white-knuckle suspense. Let’s face it, the endings of the great warhorses are known. I’m not giving away secrets when I tell you Mimi dies, Lucia goes insane (and dies) and Don Giovanni ends up in Hell. After all, the opening chords of Mozart’s Don Giovanni make it pretty clear that there is a sorry ending in it for someone. An evening at the opera is no time for surprises. Opera is complicated! You have a story and sets and costumes and acting and sometimes dancing and, yes, words and music. It’s a lot to absorb. Without a little preparation you can experience sensory overload, confusion and even fatigue (to...
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