Last March, I went back to Bonn to watch an opera. Yes, Bonn is quite a distance away from Berlin. It's more than 4 hours away by train. But if there's a modern opera, rarely performed (at least in Berlin), then I would definitely trek all the way to Bonn to watch it. This time, I did exactly that to see Flight by Jonathan Dove. Yes, I took a train to see a flight, so to speak.
I knew nothing about this piece, not to mention I never heard of Jonathan Dove before. So everything in this piece is new for me. Yet, the material is not. First of all, it is based on the life story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, the man who lived for several years in Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. I knew about this person, after all, I watched the movie The Terminal a while back. And yes, I also travel quite a bit, so I know what airports are like. I definitely can relate to the scenes that the opera portrayed.
For most of the people, airports are transitory. These are places not meant for long-term stays. People just come and go, and for the most part, one wants to go away as fast as possible. Most of the time, travelers are going somewhere better, e.g. a holiday. But then, a storm paralyses the airport, and all flights are cancelled. These people are now forced to spend one night with each other. And then the story unfolds. People start building relationships with their accidental neighbours. Somehow, strangers aren't so strange anymore.
How these unfold is essentially the story of the opera. And I must say, it's such a funny story! There are tragic moments, of course, but there are also others where I was just laughing quite a bit.
Story aside, the music was definitely interesting. It's not music that was academic, so I would even say that sometimes, the music sounded more like a musical than an opera. But the singing definitely was operatic. There's plenty of musical genres that this opera was exploring, and so it might not be the most "serious-sounding" music there is, but then again, this is also because the story to some extent is comedic. In any case, I enjoyed it.
So yes, I definitely thought it was worth going all the way to Bonn to see this opera. If it is playing near you, by all means, try to catch it!
