A German Opera on an Italian Sunday

So, I have to be honest: Opera is not for me; German operas, at least.

On Sunday, a group of us UNH in Italy students and a few of our professors took an hour and a half ride to Jesi, Italy to see a performance of The Magic Flute, an opera composed by Mozart.

The music and dialouge of the play are all in German. There were Italian subtitles on a screen on top of the stage curtain. I do no speak German and my understanding of the Italian language is limited. It was hard to understand and had it not been for some background information Diana handed out on Thursday, I would have been completely in the dark.


We all sat in a few boxes on the second floor of the theatre. The seats were not comfortable. My neck hurt for three hours while I cranned to see what was happening on the right side of the stage.

Enough of my complaining, though. There were a lot of good things about the opera and I am glad I went. It was a cultural oppurtunity that is not presented back home and is very much a part of Italian culture. I feel like I have been part of a true and honest Italian experiance. Or, a German experiance, which is still pretty neat.

As for any future ventures into a theatre to watch an opera: Well, I'll face that bridge when the time comes.

It wasn't so bad.

As for the rest of the week, once again it flew by. Mostly, I studied for my Italian midterm and tied up the loose ends on my movie for my cinema class.

Today, I took the Italian test and am feeling okay about the result.

This afternoon, Jessica and Adam hosted a screening of the movies we made in our cinema class. Everyone from the school and a few of the actors from the movies showed up. It was fun to see our finished products on a big screen in one of the classrooms. Afterwards, we all wished Adam and Jessica goodbye as they return back to NYC this weekend. It was a lot of fun working with them. They added a great aspect to this experiance and I am happy that I took their class.

My parents and my grandma fly into Rome tomorrow afternoon. I'm taking the 6 a.m. bus from Ascoli Piceno to Rome and will meet them at the hotel. In a couple weeks, I'll write about that adventure and will try and figure out how to upload my movie here.

Best,

Alex