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Scenes of a Latin Quarter, Rent and the Opera Lecture

I thought reading Scenes from a Latin Quarter was alright. My favorite chapter was chapter 1. This chapter showed how easy it is to make connections and friends. In chapter 1, Schaunard was basically evicted from his home. He went to a place to eat where he met Colline and Rodolphe, and they basically instantly became friends. Later, Schaunard and his new friends went back to his room, which was already occupied by a new tenant, Marcel. Schaunard and his friends basically invited Marcel to the group, and they quickly became friends.

Rent was alright. I could connect it to Scenes of a Latin Quarter, as they were both talking about artists who struggle with money. The artists in Rent were living through the AIDS epidemic.

I did not like the opera. I personally do not listen to music, nor do I have opinions on it, but I personally do not like classical music. My mom used to play classical music in the car, so that’s why I do not enjoy it. Since I do not like classical music or music of that sort, it made the opera not very enjoyable.

Scenes of a Latin Quarter, Rent, and Opera

I believe that the musical Rent and the reading Scenes of the Latin quarter both display an artist who embraces his own struggles and surroundings. The apartment that was shown was very basic and run down, housing only the necessities to live. Alongside Mark and Roger’s apartment, the other character’s are in the same boat as them; this being poor finances and health concerns. The HIV and AIDS crisis were touched upon here, but it did not seem to be as prominent in the physical reading. During this time, being openly gay was often looked down upon.

Alongside this, Maureen’s performance seemed rather confusing. The part were she had the crowd moo when she talked about milk did not really make sense. With the reading, I personally found the different plots hard to follow and understand. Despite this, I think that the chapter Mademoiselle Mimi was easier to understand and follow. I found it more enjoyable to read and the emotion throughout the chapter was clear to see.

The Opera was even harder to understand for me. I do believe it is a unique way of presenting something, but I found it difficult to appreciate its uniqueness. However, I think the musical did a very good job showing the emotions of grief and despair, which allowed the audience to connect more deeply with the characters. Overall, I think the musical was the best of the three, because of the way it engaged the audience.