An Evening at the Opera

Last night Sarah and I went to see the Moby Dick opera at the Civic Theatre in downtown San Diego. Through a very generous donation to SDSU, Sarah was able to get us seats in the Mezzanine for just $5 a ticket. We also attended a short talk before the play about how the opera was created and some of the nuances of the music and the arias.

The speaker mentioned that, since Moby Dick takes place on a ship, all of the songs and accompaniment crest and trough like waves. I feel like this wave metaphor translates nicely to how the evening went.

When Sarah told me that she bought us tickets to the opera, my first thought was “Why me!?” I have to admit that most of my preconceived notions of opera were based on television shows – images of rotund women belting out songs in a foreign language come to mind. As the evening drew closer, I warmed up to the idea of, at the very least, getting dressed up nice and taking my wife out for some culture. I’ll admit, when we were in our fancy clothes, standing in the theatre lobby, I was excited.

The lecture before the show was an added bonus. I know very little about music and even less about opera, so it was nice to have somebody knowledgeable explain the subtleties. I now know that Moby Dick, the opera, is very Puccini-esque. It was also a new experience to see San Diego’s opera going sub-culture (to be a member, you must have white-hair). At this point, I was very excited about the opera, and I distinctly remember telling Sarah that we should go to the opera again sometime.

After the lecture, the same generous donation that paid for the majority of our tickets, hosted a small reception of gourmet appetizers and desserts for the SDSU students and their dates. There were meatballs, cream-cheese filled filo-pastry, peanut chicken, caprese skewers, a lettuce leaf with goat cheese, brownies, and appropriately whale cookies. I was completely sold on the opera – style, culture, and delicious finger food!

The first 15-minutes of the opera were incredible. I was very impressed that these performers were filling this enormous concert hall with no amplification. Then I realized that they were singing when they could have just been talking; saying something as simple as “Raise the sails!” takes 40 seconds.

As it turns out, I can only appreciate great singing for 15-minutes at a time, which is why I like musicals, but not opera. I am sure the rest of the graph is self-explanatory.