After I had been longed for watching opera, finally, I and my friend had a chance to see the opening night of the LA BOHEME at the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center on Thursday night.

I am always intrigued by this kind of art. I am always spelled by the power of those voices when I watched the opera on the TV. I think it needs multi-talent to be an opera performer.

Since it would be the first opera for both of us, we were recommended to see this story because it is easy to understand and it’s more like a drama that the newbies like us would not fall to sleep in the opera house.

La Boheme was written by Giacomo Puccini. The first premiere was at Teatro Regio in Turin on February 1, 1896. This story is a based story for a movie like Moulin Rouge and the musical theatre like Rent. The story is about a poor poet- Rodolfo falls in love with a beautiful girl- Mimi. Rodolfo sacrifices his love to let Mimi go to have a better life instead of living with him in the poverty. However, at the end, the devilish disease takes Mimi’s life. But the real love never dies.

I have to admit that I was pretty sleepy in the first act. I think the story went pretty slow. However, when the second act started, everything was changed. The atmosphere lit up. I was totally awake until the last act.

Beside the great performance, the stage was so spectacular. There were at least 50 actors and actresses on the stage on the act II. It was wonderful. The main character- Mimi was a Korean-American named Hei-Kyung Hong has such a great Soprano voice. The orchestra band was amazing. It was like a live concert that the singers and the band were harmoniously performing together.

My first experience with the opera was great. I think the atmosphere was so refreshingly different from the musical theatre.

They sung in Italian. I wonder if the Italian people themselves understand any words in this story at all?

But I sung opera on the way back to my apartment.

I am looking forward to watch other stories. Madam Butterfly should be nice.

Tae Athikomvittaya