Enjoy a romantic opera
By Becky Castle

"I Capuleti e I Montecchi" at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center was my first opera experience. I enjoyed it enough to want to attend more operas in the future. The massive sets carried me to Verona, and the costuming swept me along on that journey.

I was somewhat confused during the show because I had trouble following the plot. Making it obvious that I'm an English major and not a music major, my thought was, "This isn't at all like Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'!" Later, as I read the opera guide, I found out that I was correct. Vincenzo Bellini did not take his story line from Shakespeare. Rather, he followed the version by Matteo Bandello, a writer from 16th century Italy.

The other huge difference-the fact that a woman sang the part of Romeo-also made more sense after I read the opera guide. Bellini wrote the role for a female mezzo-soprano to blend better with Juliet's soprano part. This is a somewhat-common operatic characteristic known as a "trouser role"-a woman singing a young male's part.

I have to admit that the performance lost some of its beauty and romance for me with a woman occupying Romeo's role. However, I did very much enjoy the other aspects of the show and certainly intend to frequent the opera more often.

By Ann Clas

This was the first opera I have ever attended, and aside from Romeo being played by a woman, it was everything I wanted it to be. The sets kept my attention, collectively creative and diverse, and they changed about every 10 minutes. The costumes reflected the Renaissance period. The women (except for Romeo) wore their ruffled dresses and the men their tights and feathered caps with swords at their sides. Of course, the audience gets to participate in this "dressing up" ordeal as well; I had no problem pulling out my sleek formal dress. (Secretly, we'd all love more opportunities to dress up…this was one of those times.)

I can't leave out the most important part: the singing. The opera was sung in Italian and fortunately for those of us who don't know other languages, the subtitles were displayed on a screen above the stage. I was elated. I could take in the cultural experience of hearing the opera in a different language without being lost. Three hours later, I was back on the empty streets of inner city Tulsa, and I smiled to myself with the satisfaction of having a great time and a new set of pleasant memories.

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