The Crowd Still Cheers-- Opera!

Last night I attended my first ever opera. The professor of my Baroque class took our seminar (five of us) to see Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice at the Seattle Opera. Having never seen an opera, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. Would it be very different from seeing a musical? How long would it be? How exactly would the supertitles work? (To my great joy, supertitles worked very well and I could easily watch both the opera and the lyrics.)

The Seattle Opera House is very modern looking. In fact, the lobby bears a striking resemblance (in my mind) to the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. I had expected hoped that everyone would be in fancy gowns and tuxes, but-- though everyone looked very nice (much nicer than at a Broadway musical these days)-- it wasn't quite the fantastical display of Oscar-style gowns I had hoped to see. However, an aura of luxury pervaded the multi-storied lobbies, and Kris and I even pre-ordered glasses of Chardonnay for intermission.

Apparently Orphée et Eurydice is one of Gluck's shorter operas: the first act lasted a little over an hour with a half-hour intermission, and a twenty-seven minute second act. To their credit, the opera didn't even feel that long. When the lights came up for intermission I felt surprised! The first act started with Eurydice's funeral. Orpheus, desperately grieved, begs the gods to give Eurydice back to him. Love (Amour) comes riding in on a golden bicycle, tells Orpheus that Jupiter has relented and if he takes his lyre, calms the Furies of hell, and gets to the land of blessed spirits he can have Eurydice back-- on the condition that he never look at her again. They can talk and touch, but Orpheus must not look at her.

The act continues as he enters hell-- a crazy capillary world of reds, blacks, and yellows-- and calms the Furies, followed by a ballet in the springtime land of blessed spirits with the first introduction of Eurydice singing. Orpheus appears and begins to lead her out of death as the curtain closes. The second act takes place just outside of the underworld, with a beautiful set piece of twisting branches like fingers, as Eurydice and Orpheus argue about his inability to look at her. He finally gives in and faces her, and she immediately dies again. As Orpheus considers suicide, Amour re-appears, tells Orpheus that he can have Eurydice back alive because of the depth of his passion, and it all ends in a beautiful reunion of Orpheus, Eurydice, and their friends while the chorus sings "Love Triumphs" and hoists Amour onto their shoulders. Lovely.

Overall, I thought it was a superb night at the opera. The three named singers were quite good, the chorus was amazing (!), the sets were gorgeous in their evocative simplicity. I loved the leisurely style of a night at the opera: a long intermission to enjoy a glass of wine and good conversation, one to two minute breaks between scenes (in order to change the huge sets) that you just don't get in a musical anymore. I felt that the audience was there to enjoy what the performers could do. Rather than the audience in control of the performance, I felt that the performance was in control of the audience. We sat with rapt attention, rather than impatiently checking cell phones, wondering what we would do after the show. It was nice.

With nothing to compare it against, I suppose I can't really make a claim for the relative superiority of this opera, but I enjoyed it enough to want to return to Seattle Opera again and again. It wasn't shocking or life-changing, not really daring or even particularly innovative, but the performance was beautiful, relaxing, and a very well constructed piece of theater.

For some beautiful photos of the opera, check out the photos on the Seattle Opera website!