L'Ormindo

I'm not so sure that I have declared to you all what I intend to major in now that I have made my decision. Well, I'm leaning toward vocal performance: but whatever I wind up doing will be most definitely music related. The following story has to do with my scouting out music programs, so I just wanted to clarify before I majorly confused you all.

...And now, on to the story!

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On Friday night I had the priveledge of doing something I have NEVER done before: I went to the opera. I didn't quite get to enjoy a "professional opera", as I went to a local university here in town with my music teacher to scope out the music program there. In the midst of all of our "scoping", we were wildly entertained by thier adaptation of "L'Ormindo".

I truly never thought that an opera would engage me in the least bit, just considering where my passion lies (gospel), but surprisingly, it did! (I do, however, enjoy the theatre immensly, so I suppose this should come as no surprise. But opera? Well... let's just say it's a lot more exciting than I would have thought.) The story line was very cute (very not Christian, but cute no less): it's set back in the 17th century, and the queen is...well... three timing her husband with two of his "guards" who happen to be best friends with one another. So, once they find out that they are both dating the same woman, they both begin to court her, and she entertains both of thier advances, until they come face to face with her and she is forced to make a decision. She chooses Ormindo (hence the name of the opera), and the king finds out. So he orders the head guard to poison them (Ormindo and the queen), the consequence for decieving him. Shortly thereafter, the king recieves a letter stating that he is Ormindo's father: so now he is remorseful and distraught for having killed his own flesh and blood. As it turns out, he didn't really kill them, because the guard who was ordered to give them the poison, was a friend of Ormindo's and didn't have the heart to do it: so he disobeyed the king and gave Ormindo and the queen sleep syrum - with the intent of transporting thier "bodies" and setting them free in a distant land. The king finds THIS out, praises the guard for disobeying him, gives his blessing to his son and his wife to be married, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Yeah. That's opera. Hahahahaha Well, the confusing story line aside, the acting was great, it was actually very funny, but the vocals were... well... okay. There were two people that just blew me away (And I of course made sure I knew who they were studying with). Overall, I would say that I definitely enjoyed myself, but I will be checking out other schools yet... and my voice teacher and I plan on seeing a professional opera so I can hear what true opera sounds like. From what I hear, the voices are "like butta'". I can't wait.

Afterward, we headed to Pizza Man afterward for appetizers (the name is decieving: it's actually a really nice place on the "fashionable lower east side" by campus, with amazing food), and we discussed in detail what we experienced that night. My voice teacher, we'll call her Becky, sang opera professionally for many years, as well as auditioned for the MET (Metropolitan Opera), a number of times. She's VERY talented: so it was a lot of fun picking her brain regarding what she thought of everything. I'm actually surprised that most of our opinions were right in line with each other, considering I know nothing about opera: however, I do know quite a bit about singing: and a voice is a voice I guess. Either you can sing, or you can't: no matter what genre of music we're talking about.

Well, after this experience, I'm looking forward to scouting out other schools, hitting the professional opera circuit, and venturing into a new little slice of life that I've never considered exploring before.