Carmen...

There are times when I feel like a total phony. Much as I fancy myself to be a sophisticated urban dweller, there are many cultural pursuits that I just can't bring myself to appreciate. A trip to the Art Institute to admire an exhibit of Post-Impressionist works? Yes, please. A trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art to see an exhibit of lights and mirrors? Um... no thanks. A night at the theater catching the latest touring Broadway show? Of course! A night at the opera? Uh, I think I have other plans...

That is, unless the person inviting me just happens to be the guy I'm seeing. Although my previous attempts at learning to enjoy the opera had ranged from disastrous (Dr. Atomic) to mediocre at best (The Merry Widow), since Justin enjoys it, I thought I'd give it another go. This time around the production on the agenda would be Carmen, which is one of the few operas I've actually heard of (and if it's that famous, it couldn't be completely awful, right?), and the only opera from which I have music on my iPod. If ever the odds were in my favor for enjoying the opera, this would be the time.

I will say that the music was great -- it was good to hear the pieces I knew, and surprising to discover other songs I'd heard before turned out to originally came from Carmen. The mezzo-soprano portraying Carmen was a substitute (the woman originally cast in the role had to bow out due to pregnancy complications), but she had an excellent voice and did a good job of capturing Carmen's capricious flirtations. However, the quality of the music aside, I just was not particularly entertained by the performance. It is clear to me that opera hails from a time in which people had much longer attention spans, because I found Carmen to be about two acts too long. I was definitely borrowing Justin's shoulder for a catnap by the third act.

For me, the appeal of our night at the opera was more about spending time with my date than the actual performance itself. It was certainly enjoyable enough, at least for the first couple acts, but it's fairly evident that opera just isn't for me. I would go again under the right circumstances, but I wouldn't want a steady diet of opera attendance, not without a nice shoulder to rest my head on for a snooze at least...