Sunday 7 February 2016

My First Opera Experience

Hey guys,

This will be something a bit different today. This post, will be about my first ever opera experience. 

Now, I have always been curious on what operas are actually like, people make them out to be old fashioned, or posh. And this maybe, but they are also beautiful and tragic, and not just for the older generations.

I was invited to watch the live showing of La Traviata, which was being shown at the Oden cinema, as it happened at the Royal Opera House in London. My lovely friend Tam, asked me if I'd like to go, as it is her favourite opera. 

The opera is a beautiful and tragic story, about Violetta and Alfredo, and the ups and down of their relationship. It's a whole whirlwind experience. 

So what is the Opera about?

So to start, it is wrietten by Gusseppi Verdi, taken from a play called La Dane Aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, Fils. 

La Traviata simply means the fallen woman in Italian. It is a 3 act opera, based around Violetta, Alfredo and Alfredo's father Georgio. 

Violetta has been very ill for a year, and to celebrate her wellness, she throws a party to show she's well again, or so we think. At the party one of the guests, Gaston, invites Alfredo, a stranger to Violetta. This is because in the year that Violetta has been ill, he has gone to see her every single day. And has fallen in love with her. Knowing this, Gaston tells Violetta, and Alfredo confesses. 

Now, Violetta is a courtesan, which simply is a call girl, and tells Alfredo, she cannot accept his love, because she simply wants to live her life freely. He doesn't want to take this as an answer and tells her how deeply he loves her and what it means to him. She in turn does feel the same, but cannot allow herself to be so ridiculous. But on his way out she promises to meet him, and gives him a flower and tells him to go back tomorrow. 

In the second part, Violetta and Alfredo are living together, and are madly in love, but you learn that Violetta has been selling her belongings in order to be able to afford to live in their countryside home, Alfredo does not no of this, but soon learns and feels terrible. 

He leaves the house, and while he has gone, Violetta has a visitor, Georgio. Who she learns is Alfredo's farther. The reason he has gone to visit, it to tell Violett to leave Alfredo. Alfredo should be with his family, not with her. How it was a terrible thing of Alfredo to abandon his family for her. She tells him how deeply she loves him and begs for him to not make her do it, but in time tells him she's dying, and agrees. He tells her that he understands it's a big sacrifice for her and she will be repaid, that he wants happiness for her. With this she has been invited to a party by her old friend flora. At first she was not wanting to go, as this was her past, her old life, and she did not want that life anymore. But with the news of Alfredo's Farther, she decides to go. 

At the party, Alfredo turns up after learning that she has gone there. He wins at gambolling and throws the money he wins back at Violetta after telling the party that it was Violetta that allowed them to live such a beautiful life in the country. Georgio comes in at this point saying no matter how angry you are, you are not to speak to a woman in such a manner. 

Act three, shows Violetta dying, with only hours to live. She has a letter from Georgio, confessing how sorry he was for making her leave Alfredo, how he hoped one day they could both have her forgiveness. How one day they will return to her, and they will beg her to forgive. 

You learn that she has been waiting sometime, and that if they haven't shown up now, they are far to late. They will never show. And she will die, after all the heartbreak, the happiness, the love, she will die not having any of it, just sadness. That she's too weak to even feel those feelings again. 

Finally, both men show, Georgio offers to embrace her as a daughter as she first wanted, and Alfredo wants her to love him like she loved him before. To be strong and happy, like she was before. How he loves her so, and just needs her to be strong and they can find happiness again. She claims it's too late, she wishes she could be strong, that she does love him, but she is dying. And that even he wasn't enough anymore to save her. And if he wasn't enough, nothing was, so she was just going to die. 

He begs her not to say such words, that she just needs to be strong, in which she finds strength, and advises she's feeling better, she leaps around her room into his arms, and then she's gone. 

It's a heartbreaking story, of love and loss, dealing with happiness and heartbreak. It really is an emotional roller coaster. 

Of course what I have told you is the main story line, but there are also more relationships, more stories involved. 

And, for some of those who are into those girly films, this is the Oprea Vivian is taken to see in Prettt Woman. 

It broke my heart, and brought tears to my eyes. I'm defiantly a fan of this, and I hope to see more Operas. I can understand, it isn't for everyone. It's all singing, of course, and it has sung in a different language, with subtitles. However, you do not need to read the subtitles, in order to follow the storyline. 

It's so tragic, it's beautiful. 

Are you interested in Operas? Would you ever watch one? Any suggestions? 

As always, thank you for reading, and until next time! 

P.S sorry it's such a long post this time around! 

X

No comments:

Post a Comment