Well, now I know. I’m not a huge opera fan. If you read my previous blog you know that John and I went to Northwestern College tonight to see the “world premiere” of Ruth, the Opera. The story was based on the biblical account of Ruth as told in the Old Testament book of, you guessed it, Ruth. It’s a great story and I’m really glad I was so familiar with it before seeing the opera.
You need to know that the students at Northwestern did a fabulous job. It was easy to hear, on pitch, and for the most part the words were easy to understand. I’m in no way criticizing their performance. They were great! And, for the times when you couldn’t quite understand the words, you could see them projected on the wall above the stage. That was quite helpful.
Here’s what I didn’t like. The music. I love musicals mind you. But, what I like about them is that I can leave singing the tunes. In fact, I can be somewhat annoying when my head fills with show tunes. I just can’t keep it all bottled up inside. I feel the necessity to share the tune floating around in my head. It seems that not everyone enjoys this about me. Go figure.
With operas, or maybe it’s just this opera, I had a hard time even figuring out where the next note might be. You know how when you hear a song you can almost project the upcoming note? Not so with this show. The notes were all over the place, and the tunes were often in minor keys, or sounded like they were. I mean, you could tell when they were trying to be cheery and all, but still, it just didn’t leave me singing a new song. Again, this is just a personal preference and in no way is meant to put down the writer or the performer of the opera. I liken it to not being fond of peas. Other veggies are fine, but not so much peas. Well, in my case, other veggies don’t quite make it for me either, but that’s another story for another day.
With all of that said, John and I were both very moved at the end of the show when all of the people in Bethlehem were rejoicing with Naomi at the birth of her grandchild. The actress who played Naomi was able to convey the incredible joy that Naomi felt when God redeemed what had been a very hard season of her life. If you don’t know the story, you really should read it. It’s short (only four chapters long – Bible chapters that is) and an amazing testimony to the way God takes what looks like a hopeless situation and turns it around. I love it.
Oh, one other fun thing about tonight. At Northwestern College, when students get engaged, someone paints their name on a rock that is easily visable when you drive into the campus. Truly, it must have started out as a stone and became a rock as layer and layers of paint have been added over the years. Tonight as we entered the campus, the names on the rock were Ruth and Boaz. How sweet is that? If you don’t get it, pull out your Bible and look up Ruth. It’ll all make sense.