Aida

There are so many great things about studying in London. Not only do we get to talk about a famous piece of art in class and then go see it in the gallery, we are also able to experience all different kinds of art forms and usually from some of the best artists and performers in the world. On Tuesday night we were able to see Aida as a group . . . not the musical mind you, the opera. Now, from what little I knew and had heard of the opera, I wasn't all that excited. Who wants to go listen to opera for 3 hours? But I was interested to just try it out . . . maybe I would end up loving it?

We saw the performance at the English National Opera which means, luckily for us, that the opera was performed in English . . . if you were lucky enough to understand what they were trilling. For the inexperienced opera viewers, like myself, they also included supertitles above the stage so we could actually understand what was going on and once I read the lines I was able to make out what the singers were trying to say.

Although I discovered that opera is not my favorite form of entertainment, it was an amazing spectacle. To be able to see so many people on stage and the amazing set and costume design was a lot of fun.

And the opera singers look quite as I always imagined them to look . . . robust women and barrel chested men.

One of my favorite parts, actually, one of the only parts without singing . . . imagine that . . . was a dance scene where they had acrobats and more modern dancers come out on the stage to celebrate the Egyptians' victory over the Ethiopians. This elephant was part of that scene, it was really amazing. And yes, they did drop gold confetti all over the stage. Like I said, the opera is a spectacle and I am so glad I was able to experience it at least once in my life.