Visited the MET opera this evening to see La Boheme. The first thing we noticed on our approach to the Lincoln Center is the enormous glass atrium/lobby where there are two huge paintings hanging that look like Chagalls… only it turns out they don’t look like Chagalls, they ARE Chagalls that were specially commissioned for this space. The opera house is an incredibly beautiful building and has quite unique architecture, I loved it, from the sweeping staircases to the modern chandeliers and deep red velvet walls, it had just a lush, traditional and luxurious feel to the place.
La Boheme is one of my favourite operas, not because of the story line; which sees a sickly Mimi falls in love with a jealous Rodolpho and ends somewhat tragically, but because it has some particularly poignant, beautiful and very famous arias in it.
It turns out that this colourful and detailed production was the inventive creation of Franco Zeffirelli – yes, that Zeffirelli who directed Romeo & Juliet in 1968. He’s still working and is well known for his operative productions and after seeing this evenings performance, I can see why opera patrons continue to love his work.
The sets and the costumes were elaborate, and strong performances were evident from Maija Kovaleska as the sickly Mimi, and Joseph Calleja as the poet Rodolfo. The crowd certainly appreciated their efforts. Additionally there was a plethora of chorus members, numbering over two hundred performers, who were very tight in their renditions of the various chorus parts.
I had a brilliant night out though I have to say that there are some people around who seriously should consider not attending this sort of event… seated directly in front of me was a woman in her early 20s who seemed to think it appropriate to turn the brightness right down on her cell phone and text during the performance. She keep this up for several minutes at the beginning of the performance, and just as I was about to tap her on the shoulder and tell her to cease and desist, a woman seated in her row, beat me to it. That same woman then failed to make it back to her seat after both intermissions and I could see her out of the corner of my eye standing around off to our left, while her seat and that of her girlfriend were empty for over half of the performance as they were standing for the entire second and fourth acts! You’d think they would have learned to return to their seats faster after having missed the call the first time. Ladies, if you are not interested in opera, and if your social life is sooo entertaining that you can’t leave your phone alone for two hours together, then don’t fucking go to an opera. I KNOW your tickets were nearly $200 a piece, might I suggest that you let someone who actually wants to be there to enjoy the performance buy them next time? Someone who won’t want to text throughout? Perhaps you should stay home and watch Jersey Shore instead!