L'Opera

Last night I went to see "La Damnation de Faust" at the Met with Crescencio. I have never been to the Opera before. It was a lovely experience. I became very intrigued with the story of Dr.Faustus by Christopher Marlowe while taking a theatre history course at Dowling and gave an excellent presentation on the topic. The story is a dramatic portrayal of an academic who wanted all the joys in life, and thus sold his soul to the devil for this world, and the love of his life Marguerite.

I didn't know the play was in French until I got there. But it was really interesting translating some of the lyrics.

Crescencio and I met up at Columbus Circle at 6:30. The lights were all up on the trees surrounding the monuments in the center. The main entrance of the mall was brightly lit with decorations. We entered for a minute and it was snowing foam snow flurries INSIDE! We stood there and marveled at the commercialized Christmas wonderland. And I made him go into Cole Haan with me. Nothing thrills me more than the smell of fresh Cole Haan Leather.

After that we decided to grab a bite and a couple of drinks before the show. Cres recommended a place that was really classy with rich mahogany moldings and that old money feel. It was way expensive, but we didn't want to damage our pride, so we stuck it out and got appetizers.

After an intriguing and exciting conversation about Crescencio's upcoming trip to Taiwan, we headed over to the Met. It was absolutely GORGEOUS! We felt like such classy shits speaking with our put on, smut, high society dialect. I really have a great time hanging out with him.

We go inside and each decide to get a glass of champagne to add to the effect. Then we proceeded to our seats, which were of course; in the nosebleed section. We had an excellent view of the stage, however.

The play was very relaxing and tranquil for the most part. The singing was beautiful, the costumes were superb, but the choreography left something to be desired. The stage was cut vertically into many equal sized boxes. Sometimes each box had the same scene as all the others. It gave us a lot to watch.

The backdrops were digital and forever changing. There were a lot of acrobatics, which I can't even begin to describe in full detail.

One poignant moment which I found interesting was at the end when Satan's servant (Mephistopheles) orders Faust to the underworld, the Chorus chimes in, in the underground section of the stage with flames dancing on their bare chests. (all men of course). I found this symbolic that men played the devil. I mean, we all are our own worst enemies after all.