"What is Time?"

I was on Skype with one of my friends when I asked what he though of opera. He seemed to be caught off guard, granted this is an unusual question to ask someone, which I understood. He didn’t understand what I meant by the question and he thought it is was some sort of joke. I think this reaction would be similar to the reaction of many teens of our generation. Opera is not something we think about daily, nor is it a type of music that we listen to frequently. When I told my friend that it was for school, he finally gave me an answer. He told me the basic stereotypes of what many people think operas are and also said that “it is a type of play and music that regular college age teens don’t typically listen to or get much exposure to.” Again, I feel like this is right on spot with most college kids beliefs about this genre. Opera seems to be much more popular in other countries than it is in America and I feel like if you asked someone from another country what opera is, their reaction would be much different.

When I asked my mother what opera meant to her, she responded: “Frances.” By that she meant that her perception of opera had been shaped largely by her mother, Frances, who was an avid fan of opera. My mother recounted her experiences listening to operas on Saturdays, broadcast from the Met, on a staticky radio channel. I wonder how only hearing and not seeing the shows affected my mother’s interpretation of what she was experiencing and how she felt about it. While my grandmother’s taste for classical music did not solely consist of opera, both my parents told me about how on multiple occasions the four of us had gone to operettas. I recalled not the operettas themselves but playing in the fountain outside the building. I think it’s interesting how both of my parents’ and my understandings of opera have been shaped by my grandmother’s passion for it but how there are great differences in what we remember specifically of her passion.

When I talked opera with a group of my friends, several of their faces appeared to be complexed. Shaking their heads and shrugging, they said opera seems to be the most difficult and profound part among the classic musical work. They did not like the opera very much because comparing with contemporary musical theater，the context and the way to sing in opera are more complicated and hard to apprehend and be prevalent. For example. the style of singing in opera is bel canto, but the style of singing in musical theater is natural.

However, one of my friend, Sisi, who is studying music when she was very young, gave an opposite viewpoint. She agreed to the point that opera is harsher to understand and learn than musical theater, but this is glamour of opera. Opera is an elegant art which was a kind of entertainment for gentry, and musical theater is a more basic and ordinary one for common people. And actually, opera is not so hard to apprehend as we imagine. On the contrary, it should be the most simple one to be understood among the classic musical work because it has plots and lyrics; it is actually an expression of a gorgeous story in musical way. Unlike dance drama without dialogue and symphony even without plots, opera is a musical style expressing its thoughts, theme, and emotion directly.

When I got home for break, I had a brief conversation with my mom about opera.  Being more mature and knowledgeable than me, I hoped she would have some further incite on the topic.  She said that she thinks Opera is very beautiful and she really enjoyed the lavish sets and costumes involved in the productions.  This was an answer that I expected from her, and I feel the same way.  But then she went on to say that she enjoys them more when they are in English or have subtitles.  She then reminded me of a time when we saw a mini opera when I was younger and that she enjoyed that greatly.

I was a little surprised she commented about the language because the languages and voices are so beautiful regardless of how well they are understood.  I thought that it was just younger generations that were bothered by the language burrier, but I guess many others, like my mom, think that way too.  No matter the art, it seems to always be better appreciated when it can be fully understood by the audience.

When I confronted my friend and asked him what his thoughts were concerning opera, he gave me sort of a blank stare. “Seriously?” he replied. This response alone actually reveals a lot about many peoples’ standpoints on the age-old concept of opera. Immediately, we can infer that opera is something not generally talked about amongst typical college students. Usually, the conversations about music and performances amongst students revolve around popular music artists (Chris Brown, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Mac Miller), concerts, and instruments. Very rarely does opera spark a conversation.

I asked my friend what his true opinion of opera was. He basically replied expressing his disinterest in it, stating that he is into more beat-pumping rock and metal music. He doesn’t enjoy what is usually just a singer on stage; he just needs a bit more to make him really enjoy the music. Fortunately, he did admit that opera was a beautifully difficult genre to master and that the level of skill required to be successful in the area was monumental. Though he doesn’t exactly prefer to listen to opera, I appreciated that he still understood the true beauty of the type of music.

I think comedy is like beauty.  Its a common topic or field that all humans have in common with another and no matter what language a person speaks, or what background they come from, they are able to laugh at the same thing.  I believe this is what defines comedy and makes it so amazing. Comedy is human nature, and just like any two people can look at a mountain side scene or the sunset and feel that it’s beautiful, people are able to do the same in terms of comedy.  Though people enjoy different forms of comedy, comedy at its basis is innate.  No matter what background a person is from, when comedy is at its basis, it allows people to laugh with one another, forming an instant connection between two people.

Comedy, to me, can be a kind of satiric play reflecting the grief and misfortune in cruel reality. Because of the stress from life, we always place our spirits on the comedy with happy endings that bring us relieves temporarily. For example, we will forget the vexation about a quarrel with classmate temporarily if we hear something funny from others. Although the content in comedy seems unreal or even superficial sometimes, it reflects the our pursuit to pure happiness and sincerity in today’s cynical and realistic society. Hence, when I watch a comedy, I do not care about what it talks about, what I really care is how can it influence my mood. I do not want to learn something useful or educational from it, I just want to make myself happy and relaxed.

I think comedy is something that makes you laugh, and comedy is something that makes you feel better after you experience it. Personally, I find shows like How I Met Your Mother and Arrested Development. I also find comedians like Bo Burnham hilarious.  Comedy extends beyond TV shows and comedians. It is definitely possible to find humor when you are hanging out with friends, and in moments you share with other people. My AP Lit teacher in high school taught us that all of comedy is based on puns and irony. However, I think comedy is more than puns and irony. Comedy is something that evokes laughter, and in turn, happiness.

Comedy has always been one of my favorite things.  Whether it is rolling on the floor with several friends while watching Zoolander or Anchorman or simply an abrupt, uncalled-for comment around the Thanksgiving dinner table with grandma, comedy has always played a huge role in my life.  In fact, whenever my family gets together there seems to be a lot of comedy floating around in the air.  We always try to lighten the mood.  There is never a moment too serious or too dense to be broken up by the lightheartedness of comedy.

Naturally, when my 12th grade AP English teacher told me that, by the Ancient Greek definition, a tragedy was simply when the hero of the story died and a comedy was simply when the hero of the story lived, I was dumbfounded.  For me, a comedy is much more.  A comedy is effective if and only if the reader/listener/viewer gets a kick out of the story and emerges more lighthearted than when he or she started.  I judge a comedy strictly on the way it makes me smile or laugh.  When I am in a bad mood, I throw on a funny movie or read a chipper book and by the end of it, I inevitably feel better and more optimistic about the world around me.

My definition of a comedy is very simple and straight forward–a story is a comedy if and only if the consumer feels better at the end than they felt at the beginning.