Thank you so much again @opera-my-beloved AND to everyone who has been answering all the asks - reading and getting to share all these memories meant so much to me and I know I’m not alone in saying that! <3
What’s your favorite new opera you discovered because of the streams?
Eugene Onegin, of course! Life altering, and you could say my life became absorbed in it (including Pushkin’s original text… well I haven’t read it in Russian yet but we’re getting there). Very powerful.
Are there any stream you wish you had watched but didn’t?
So, so many! I only watched the operas almost every night for about two weeks, and then from there I would watch about one or two a month unless a certain themed week jumped out or I saw Operablr going wild over a particular upcoming production. Even so, I ended up seeing about 55 operas (Met exclusive) and more than that including non-Met streams, which I think is pretty impressive (I mean… without the streams I would have seen fewer than one opera a year for the foreseeable future, so that’s incredible, even though they weren’t actually live) :)
Finally, what have the Met Nightly Streams meant to you?
I took a while to get to this last post because I actually wrote quite a bit on paper about it, as soon as I found out the streams were ending :’( warning: this might get long!
At first, the streams were something both exciting (novel! and not like “novel coronavirus” novel like we were getting slammed with in the news those first few weeks) and regular to look forward to and rely on, when our schedules and “normal” lives were being turned upside down. It was an anchor in that way, as well as providing much-needed escape and breaks from the news and reality of the outside world. It was something to look forward to every day during a time where many things could no longer be looked forward to (except maybe thinking very long term).
However, it wasn’t an escape from the “outside” world so much as deepening my connection with the world itself, because opera after opera, I was reminded of all aspects of our humanity - our humor, our lightness, our ingenuity (especially with all that orchestral angst and bliss :D I have such an incredible respect for the composers, singers, musicians, behind-the-scenes artists), our preciousness and our grace - and also our cruelty, rage, passions, jealousy, and pettiness (and all the consequences thereof. therein? anyways, I think you understand). At first I kept getting fed up with the plots, especially since so many feature Women Who DieTM or harmful messages about Roma people, but once I looked deeper, I better understood that anything beyond a surface-level glance at those types of plots illuminates important truths and messages that in fact (in most cases :D) don’t condone the tragedy and wrongs that occur onstage, but just as importantly, don’t shy away from portraying them when often in modern society we like to fool ourselves that we are fully rational humans that are just “better” or “smarter” or “more self-controlled than that.”
Furthermore, the music and art that was made available truly did help heal and offer solace; for me it was an active way to address, acknowledge, and allow myself to feel All the Emotions - and remember that there are far more emotions to feel and experience than my usual repertoire of anxiety, ennui, fear, and excitement. And on top of that, I started to realize that many of these works of art have been enjoyed and beloved by SO many people, all over the world, across time (in some cases, almost 400 years!!!). That really got to me, and also gave me hope: if art that can be so transforming, meaningful, and beautiful to so many people can survive wars, other pandemics, the rise and fall of nations, and other potentially destructive events in the course of humanity—well, that gives me a lot of hope.
Not to mention, I felt so much alone, thinking of how many people across centuries have turned to the same music I am now enjoying. And THEN I wandered back onto Tumblr last fall, curious to see if there was any opera content, and started a pleasantly surprising search through opera tags… and here we are today. I have experienced so much joy and love being part of this community; there’s a special type of solidarity to it… in a way it is certainly one of the places I call “home” in my life.
And it’s not like we’re going away! We’ll continue to appreciate (and of course shitpost :D) opera. And perhaps one of these days we’ll be able to see some operas live (my heart hurts for the lack of democratization and funding for art, at least where I live - let’s also keep demanding and supporting this!).
