Opera's most excited audience

While everyone (or mostly everyone) gets excited before going to see a live performance- whether it be a play, a concert or sure, even a live sporting event – I think it would be hard to reach the excitement level of a child. Children usually get excited about the smallest stuff, but giving a child the opportunity to see a performance kicks the anticipation level up even higher. If the child has never been to a performance before they aren’t sure what to expect; while for the old pros, they know the “proper theatre etiquette”.  Kids think it is just the coolest to see the story come to life right before your eyes and I think that excitement, to some extent, never leaves us.

What I’m trying to get at is that after seeing the audiences at BLO’s Opera for Young Audiences “Hansel & Gretel” these past few weekends, I realized how thrilling it really is to be able to experience an opera live. Seeing little kids unsure of what to expect walking into the show with their parents and grandparents to reassure them what exactly is going to happen made it clear to me that opera really can be enjoyed by everyone. Whether you are 7 years old seeing a show for the first time, or 70 years old and seeing your favorite show for the 5^th time, the emotions you feel in the time between walking into the theatre before the curtain rises and leaving the theatre after curtain call don’t change or fade with age. 

- Katie McNamara, Saint Anselm College