If you often take your children to see the professional productions of opera’s famous works, you will most likely get them to love the opera eventually. This is what happens with my children. They have been exposed to the opera songs even from their infancy. I was learning theater and musicals and operas were the ones I have to deal with on daily basis. I spent hours to practice the complex runs, trills, and cadenzas of the songs from every works.
Growing up with the songs from all of the famous works in the opera world, my kids never find strange what most kids will find to be embarrassing. They can happily take their friends home while I am practicing “Think of Me” from the famous Phantom of the Opera. It is quite often that their friends would ask “What in the world is that?” and my kids would answer in their indifference that it was their mom trying to burst her lungs again.
They also come and see all my performance in excitement. When most children avoid such shows which they find weird and embarrassing, my children applause in the end of the show with big smiles. That includes the times when I am wearing a really weird costume and make up.
I was in a production of a dramatic opera composed by Richard Wagner. It was one of his opera which based on the Norse mythology. In this production, I had to put myself into a conical helmet made from what used to be an aluminum pie tin. A pair toilet paper tubes which bent artfully and covered in a massive amount of paper mache represented the Viking horns placed gloriously on my head. My ears got the parts as the holder of long braids of variegated orange which were woven to a plait. Madonna’s breast cones were the last part of the costume that I wore that night.
How were my children’s reactions? They were so pleased about it.
Up to this day, they can enjoy the opera genuinely from their heart. They do not consider it as a boring performance with some crazy disoriented people who screams at each other, mostly in foreign languages. They can appreciate the music, songs, and the stories emerge in it. Watching their mother practicing all their life make them understand the hard work and commitment it takes to produce a high quality opera performance.