A Night at the Opera!

This past Tuesday evening, I went to Teatro dell’Opera di Roma to see Elektra with eight other girls from my program.  We all got dolled up and headed across town to Piazza della Republica on the bus. 

{Outside the opera house before the show}

{The outside of Teatro dell’Opera}

Teatro dell’Opera is an absolutely stunning and historic opera house, and because our seats were (to be perfectly honest) in the nosebleeds, I had a full view of all of the seating in the house.  With the gorgeous chandeliers, the box seats decorating both sides of the house, the rich color scheme of red and gold, and the orchestra playing beneath the stage, it was more beautiful than I anticipated it to be.  I decided next time that I would love to sit in one of the little boxes!  They just look so fun, and it probably would have been a better angle to view the performance from.

 

{View from my seat}

{The box seats!}

Seeing an Italian opera was on my to-do list for my time in Rome, but I kind of forgot one minor detail.  My knowledge of Italian is rather limited—which made understanding what was going on during the opera a tad difficult.  And to top it off, it turned out Elektra was not even performed in Italian but in German with Italian subtitles.  Way to throw me for a loop, Elektra.  Luckily, the acting, emotions of the performers, and the few Italian words I understood helped me piece together what was going on.  From my understanding, the opera was a family drama filled with revenge, murder, and drama.  Turns out, I was pretty spot on!

 

{Inside the opera house}

{Holding my opera ticket}

If you are curious about the plot of Elektra, a synopsis of the opera is as follows:

The plot of Elektra is based upon the great Greek tragedy of the same name by the tragedian Sophocles.  The unrelenting gloom and horror that permeate the original play produce, in the hands of Hofmannsthal and Strauss, a drama whose sole theme is revenge. Klytaemnestra (Clytemnestra), helped by her paramour Aegisth (Aegisthus), has secured the murder of her husband, Agamemnon, and now is afraid that her guilt will be discovered by her children, Elektra (Electra), Chrysothemis, and their banished brother Orest (Orestes).  Elektra, who is the personification of the passionate lust for vengeance, tries to persuade her timid sister to kill Klytaemnestra and Aegisth.  Before the plan is carried out, Orest, who had been reported as dead, arrives and, upon being told the truth by Elektra, determines upon revenge for his father´s death. He kills Klytaemnestra and Aegisth; Elektra, in an ecstatic dance of triumph, falls dead in front of her horror-stricken attendants. 

I found the performance to be rather dark, dramatic, and actually somewhat creepy.  In the picture below, you can see the cast of the opera, and in the very back, there are a number of performers dressed completely in black.  Those black creatures (not really sure what they were supposed to be so I am sticking with creatures) randomly popped onto the stage a few too many times, and I jumped out of my seat each and every time they appeared.  They totally freaked me out.  The ending murder scene was also a bit creepy to say the least.

 

Despite the fact that the performance was dark, going to the opera truly made for a lovely evening, and I am so glad I got the chance to see an opera in such a beautiful Italian opera house.