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Opera with my niece
Nov. 30th, 2013 10:12 pmI had the opportunity to go out and see the Opera (The Barber of Seville) with my eldest niece last night, and it was wonderful. Both she and her parents were very concerned that I wasn't going to like it, but I had a really good time. Better even than when Jon and I saw "Pricilla, Queen of the Desert" at the San Jose Broadway theater a few weeks ago.
The tickets were expensive, and not the kind of splurge I make for myself (often*) but they were totally the kind of thing I like to do when it's available. Usually when I buy tickets for myself I see the San Jose Children's Musical Theater shows, or if I know kids on stage, one of the other local children's theaters. I can't justify the price of the adult shows very often. My sister-in-law paid for the tickets this time. (Thanks!!!)
The musical experience was great at the Opera. When we went to see Pricilla, the sound was painfully too loud. As we were leaving, I measured it at 95dB average, peaking at 110dBs. I wrote a letter to the theater house to complain after the performance.
I was a little concerned that the Opera might be too quiet, because it's a large Opera house and the vocalists and musicians are un-amplified. It actually was very pleasant. The clapping was too loud, but there's not much they can do about that. I played around with having my hearing aids in program 4, my music program, and program 1, the standard program. The voices sounded fine in either program, but the instruments sounded slightly better in program 4. Program 4 allows for more dynamics in what is amplified, but unfortunately that also amplifies the clapping too much, so I stuck with program 1 for most of the show.
I'm really impressed by what they can do with their voices. Some of the faster passages lost clarity to me, but given that they were in Italian, maybe I just didn't understand because I don't know the language. There were super-titles so you know what's going on.
--Beth
* I'm thinking about the Olympic gymnastics trials, which were the same order of magnitude and totally worth it.
The tickets were expensive, and not the kind of splurge I make for myself (often*) but they were totally the kind of thing I like to do when it's available. Usually when I buy tickets for myself I see the San Jose Children's Musical Theater shows, or if I know kids on stage, one of the other local children's theaters. I can't justify the price of the adult shows very often. My sister-in-law paid for the tickets this time. (Thanks!!!)
The musical experience was great at the Opera. When we went to see Pricilla, the sound was painfully too loud. As we were leaving, I measured it at 95dB average, peaking at 110dBs. I wrote a letter to the theater house to complain after the performance.
I was a little concerned that the Opera might be too quiet, because it's a large Opera house and the vocalists and musicians are un-amplified. It actually was very pleasant. The clapping was too loud, but there's not much they can do about that. I played around with having my hearing aids in program 4, my music program, and program 1, the standard program. The voices sounded fine in either program, but the instruments sounded slightly better in program 4. Program 4 allows for more dynamics in what is amplified, but unfortunately that also amplifies the clapping too much, so I stuck with program 1 for most of the show.
I'm really impressed by what they can do with their voices. Some of the faster passages lost clarity to me, but given that they were in Italian, maybe I just didn't understand because I don't know the language. There were super-titles so you know what's going on.
--Beth
* I'm thinking about the Olympic gymnastics trials, which were the same order of magnitude and totally worth it.
