Opera myths in Dallas-Fort Worth debunked

Maybe it's time you tried going to the opera.

Dallas Opera

Cast from Dallas Opera's Lucia di Lammermoor

With the Dallas Opera finishing Lucia di Lammermoor, the opera season has begun. Below are the top five myths surrounding the opera, and why you should get to the box office ASAP.

Opera is boring.

I'll be honest, going into my first opera I thought the same thing. "It's going to be nothing but a bunch of people singing in Italian until I fall asleep." Wrong. Dead wrong. Opera is one of the most passionate, exciting, and thrillingly violent art forms out there. Take Lucia for example, the story of a woman who falls madly in love with her brother's mortal enemy. Lucia's brother forges letters to make Lucia believe he doesn't love her, and she is understandably heartbroken.

Only, Lucia doesn't take to ice cream and self-pity like most of us would; she takes to stabbing. In one of the most chilling moments I've experienced in a theater stage or film, Lucia, in a blood-soaked wedding dress, twitches and glides around her own wedding party with a knife, completely out of her mind, inches away from reenacting The Shining.

It's too long, I'll fall asleep.

Operas fly by a lot quicker than one would expect. While most operas are upwards of three hours long, those three hours are broken up into 40-minute acts with 15-minute intermissions. I've never been to an opera with someone who didn't turn to me at the end of the first act and say, "Wait, that's it? The first act is already over?" You don't have time to fall asleep with the brevity of the acts and the madness onstage.

It's too expensive.

With tickets as low as $23, there is no reason not to experience the thrill that is an opera. Opera houses are mathematically designed to maximize sound and visual quality for the entire opera house, so bad seats are very hard to come by in an opera.

It's in a foreign language. I'll have no idea what's going on.

Operas are performed with supertitles, large projected translations of the dialogue, so everyone can understand the performance. The supertitles only provide you with what's necessary, so you're not forced to read a novel just to understand what's going on. Summaries of each scene are also provided in your program.

It's for old, rich people. I wouldn't be able to relate to it.

Opera tends to be catered to an older audience because that is who attends the opera, and younger people usually have pre-conceived notions like the ones above. But not only are the stories relatable, but the music was written by some of the most brilliant composers in history. The music utilizes instruments and patterns to create sound universally pleasing to any human who hears it. It's not just beautiful music, but there's science proving it's beautiful music. Maybe it's time you see what all the fuss is about.

The Dallas Opera continues its season with Tristan & Isolde on February 16, The Lighthouse on March 16, La Traviata on April 13, and The Magic Flute on April 20.