Opera. Some hate it, some love it, some don't know what it is and most don't care. What is Opera? It is an artform in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score usually in a theatrical setting. There are elaborate costumes and sets and is part of the Western classical music tradition. Most Operas, though certainly not all, are performed in the Italian, French, German, and Russian languages. Opera was first brought about in Italy at the end of the 16th Century.
Another great performance in Daejeon this past weekend with Joseph and I and 2 good friends. We were fortunate to see the opera, Carmen in all of it's eleborate goodness. The performance was wonderful--the performers doing a splendid job. The entire opera was performed in it's original language, French, and the Korean actors did well. There were suptitles in Korean on either side of the stage for the audience to be able to know more of what was going on.
The performers were accompanied by a full orchestra and they did a very nice job as well except for ONE french horn player who was so flat--he must have been tone deaf not to hear himself and I can't believe no one around him told him about himself--at least he was 3rd or 4th french horn. Lee Ann and I winced each time he played and we were in completle sympathy about Hannibal Lecter eating the flat Flutist in the movie, Red Dragon (great movie). It made us giggle. Our seats were in the second balcony on middle stage right and still had an excellent view and were able to hear everything we needed to hear. Wondeful performance (except you, flat frenchy--you were terrible).
If you are not familiar with Carmen, you may read about it here.
Audience performance etiquite. You know, don't get up while the performance is going on, don't talk, turn your cell phone off, etc. All of us should know these basic fundamential guidelines to performance etiquite. I have to say the Korean's do a great job at these "rules" in the more expensive seats. If you are fortunate enough to sit in the upper balcony you may not have the same set of guidelines to follow. The opera was almost 3 and half hours long. That's a long time to sit still in the dark. I must say that I am impressed that the Korean people do a great job of turning their cell phones to the silent position. No vibrating or ringing--not even once. I wish American's did that. There were several children of all ages above 6 (younger than 6 are not allowed) that did wonderfully during the performance. There is not an announcement before the performance saying to turn off cell phones, but there is a reminder that children 6 and younger need to be in the play area and not in the hall.
A great night at the opera for less than 10 USD. I'm sorry, but that would have never happened at home with the same calibar of performance from both the actors and musicians. After the opera we went to dinner at a resturant not far away where the only item they served (basically) was a "bab" [rice] bowl. You are given about 20 or so side dishes on your table and each person gets a very hot bowl of rice and a raw egg. You choose your sides and put the raw egg on top and mix. The bowl is so hot that it cooks the egg almost instantly. It is delicious.
A great night had by all of us and we are looking forward to more.
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