I enjoyed the themes of Rent and its representation of the culture in the East Village during the 80s. Each character seemed affected by the AIDS crisis and their own struggle to produce art in different ways. Collins and Angel were brought closer by their shared diagnosis, while Roger felt a need to run away from love and write music since he was running out of time. However, I feel like the movie adaptation of the musical doesn’t do it justice. Some of the scenes and transitions into song were very silly, to the point of breaking the atmosphere that the directors intended to create. I believe that we are able to look past the outlandishness of bursting into song mid-conversation when we see a performance on stage since the stage itself enables us to suspend our belief and understand the sight of people hanging off fire escapes and shredding their eviction notices, but the moment that same performance enters a realistic movie set environment, the same effect just isn’t there.

This stage performance effect also applies to opera. Because opera employs such powerful vocals, I feel that the best way for it to be experienced is live in an auditorium or theatre, where the singer’s voice resonates with the walls and the audience can be immersed in the storyline. It was cool to see the evolution of opera over time — from a single lute player and singer, to an upscaled production featuring orchestra and set pieces. And like with other forms of theater, the stories that opera tells have also changed. It’s impressive how we’ve gone from Greek tragedies to Oppenheimer in a story-telling medium that is purely musical.

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