Ladies and gentlemen of the Metropolitan Opera House, I would like to pitch to you the newest hit that you would not want to pass up: The Metropolitan Bastion of the Heart
This is a story about a woman named after mystery, majesty, and grace: Debbie. She’s always lived her life being safe, doing what was expected and what she’s been doing most of her life. However, one fateful encounter with the Manhattan Palace. There, she vows to turn things around and live life like an adventure. Soon enough… she runs into a man, and they soon set up a date. Through advice from her best friend, she and the man start their whirlwind romance… but it was anything but. Even though he treats her poorly, she is blinded by how interested he is in her. Debbie even starts to change herself to meet his standards. She can’t see that she deserves better… so much so that she agrees to marry him!
This is only the first act, in the second act, she plans to get married in the same place they met, The Manhattan Palace. But what is usually every girl’s dream becomes her nightmare as the boyfriend takes control of making every decision, even her wedding dress! She still feels something is not right, but she can’t put a finger on it. And she doesn’t want to upset him since she feels lucky enough to have him. In the sub-story, the best friend senses something is not right with the “happy couple”, and instead of talking about it with Debbie, goes about trying to ruin the wedding, coming to blows with the wedding planner. Yet it’s not just anger and hate that is there…
In the end, on the night before the wedding, Debbie goes for a walk and somehow ends back up at the Manhattan Palace. She starts to recount all the problems, and starts to curse fate for bringing her to this fate. Yet through this shouting, she realizes that it wasn’t fate… it was all her. She chose to do this. The boyfriend finds her, and when she brings up the idea of postponing the wedding, he starts to yell at her. She finally sees him for who he is, and dumps him right there.
Yet there is still a wedding… between the best friend and the wedding planner! Debbie is happy for them, and is happy with herself. She finally feels like herself again, but a happier, brighter version. And when faced with the prospect of a new relationship, she decides to “focus on what really matters right now: herself”
This opera is mainly about feminism. In today’s culture the fight for female empowerment is growing, and is a viable source for rich storytelling. Not only will this opera capitalize on the rise in support for women’s rights, but also send a strong message to the audience. Debbie is the kind of woman who can be a role model to others who might be in similar problems: You are important, and deserve to be treated as such.
Yet since it is such a hot topic, there will be people who might not support the message. This could be a controversial opera, yet isn’t that what art, and what the Metropolitan Opera House all about?
This opera would be modern, and set in the quintessential city of New York. Not just New York, but one of its landmarks: The Manhattan Palace. Not only will this draw more attention to it and the city of New York, it will pay homage to the place that allowed opera to flourish in America.
Now even though it is a metropolis filled with skyscrapers and cement, the design can still be whimsical and enchanting. It is set in a palace, after all. Yet the design should not be over the top, as the whole modern feel to it is to make people relate more to the story.
The audience, for any show, needs to be engaged. With the choice in setting and the issues, the audience will relate more to the story and its characters. There might be someone in the audience who is going through the same issues Debbie is, or is the best friend who can’t tell the other something if it might hurt them. They could even be like the boyfriend, and realize what a jerk they have been and change. It’s a great story that has a strong message.
Not only does it have a great message, but it will be able to draw a great crowd from the young adults. When you support an issue that the youth of today are in great support of, they will flock to it and support it through their outlets of social media. So in this instance, the more controversial the better. It will increase exposure and draw a bigger crowd to see if it is as great as people said it was.
And even though it is in the structure of an opera, it has a really good plot like a movie. So the younger generation will stay engaged and involved throughout the entire piece. And since the Metropolitan Opera House has been putting more productions on film, this would be a great piece that would cause some favorable confusion. People will be watching from the movie theaters and asking themselves: “Am I seeing an opera, or a movie?”
One of the great draws of opera is the high culture of it all. Yet the subtitles distract from the opera a bit. Having this being written in English is great since the majority of the audience will speak and understand it, yet some may still require the subtitles if they are foreign and do not speak English. And if you want a younger generation, I can tell you that they will stare at their phone screens for hours, but not bother when not given the choice to look at a tiny screen.
This opera would be a good choice for the Metropolitan Opera House. Many old operas do not have good, positive roles for women; some even cast them as the villain as seen in the Magic Flute. The Metropolitan Bastion of the Heart, however, offers a good female role model that many sopranos would be dying to play as much as the Queen of the Night.
Picking and working on this opera is a chance to leave a legacy. The Metropolitan Opera House can start a great trend of having good, females as the leads. You can even make a month of it since there are some old operas with female leads like Cleopatra, and Carmen. I am sure that this opera will be a success in many areas, and is just waiting to be produced!